caulfield12

Shouldn’t the odds of a lefty having a lefty son be something like 1-3 out of 100? 1/10 x 1/10=1/100 I guess there’s a way to train a switch hitter or make a kid close to ambidextrous, but doubt it’s easy to override the naturally dominant hand. (Yes, I realize the comment was more sarcastic than anything...)

If Lindor misses the entire year, Ramirez starts hitting like the Sox version of Manny and two starting pitchers go down to season ending injuries, AND their bullpen is a similar train wreck to last year. The Braves and Nats should both be right there, but Harper to Philly and away from Wash should make them co-favorites along with Atlanta. And if Cespedes wasn’t bigger than CJ Anderson and not likely to miss the entire season, the Mets might have a somewhat plausible case to compete.

For example, Harper's poor defensive rating last year essentially came down to four plays the modeling system decided that he "should have made." From his track record prior to that to a guy who's now doomed for 1B/DH due to four plays, one or two of which are probably balls that were lost in the light stands for all we know.

That might ALSO have something to do with many not posting much THIS year...especially in the second half of the season after Kopech went down. Or having the time recently to post on the day to day status of Machado and Harper. If you could break it down to posts since the system started divided by likes rewarded to get a comparative ratio, you might have a legit VORP number.

They're spending more time defending Kepler for trying to set up a 17 year old girl who was assaulted by a Phillies' minor leaguer with the same guy who victimized her in order to "make things right."

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sd-sp-padres-anderson-espinoza-fernando-tatis-0215-story.html Padres set against moving Tatis, Jr. to 3B

Machado and Harper at $300+ million, sure. The original plan was to hit the 2019-20 free agent class to supplement our internal prospect development. The 2018 season changed that...whether it turns out to be a blessing or curse in the long term remains to be seen. And the "we never thought we'd even be a legit player for these two generational talents" spin is not going to fly at this point. The worst case scenario (other than SD getting either) remains the Nats reconsidering Harper and Philly having no choice but to blow away our offer to at least secure Machado.

Who could ever have predicted 2 1/2 years ago that the Padres of all teams would be the biggest threat to the White Sox rebuild?

Ben, just curious...how old are you? Your texting style reminds me of some of the high schoolers I teach. Or you're related to Andrew Dice Clay?

Exhibit 1 would be $39 million paid to Adam in his mid 30's for past accomplishments with the Cardinals.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/adam-wainwight-possible-strike-im-worried-people-will-walk-midseason-013511013.html Adam Wainright already speculating about a midseason player's strike THIS year.

Unless the Nats, who have a roster of nearly 10 Boras clients already, were to jump back in on Harper. He also probably has the best working relationship with Lerner.

A certain someone is really teeing it up for subsequent presidents to declare the proliferation of guns, mental health care or even the environment to be deemed as emergencies or crises.

But it's not Preller, it's 100% about their ownership group. He already had a terrible series of FA moves that hampered the franchise in the 2014-15 cycle and Hosmer hasn't exactly been the best signing as well if you look at what Machado is staring at contractually right now. And Myers is going to be way overpaid if he can only play 1B.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/yet-another-indication-bryce-harper-153302462.html Is Harper back to the Nats a real thing again?

So basically no "new" news, Harper to Philly and Machado to the White Sox again...sigh. Saw the thread count rocketed up and believed there might actually be something there, but alas.

We really need Arenado to extend, just so we can see an exact price point for Machado. What teams realistically would suddenly jump back into this if Nolan was removed from the board? The Yankees would suddenly be willing to allocate $250~300 million? It would also put some additional pressure on Hahn and JR to weigh the magnitude of missing on Manny and then having to fight tooth and nail over Rendon or Bogaerts.

Or 8 figure... Also the ownership stakes for NBC Universal weren't announced, but hard to believe it would be anything but 25% across the board to all four entities. 50% White Sox/Bulls, but not controlling interest to make decisions that aren't beneficial to the Hawks or corporate parent.

Pirates Tigers (post free spending Ilitch) Jays are arguable...depends on vlad jr. and bichette

I'm extremely confident in Jimenez, Madrigal and Robert...but the pitching is going to be by far the biggest question.

That was before Kopech's TJ, Moncada going sideways and Giolito pitching like Jerry Kutzler. Without Jimenez, Cease and Robert, we'd be in a world of hurt right now. We still might have to rely more on the Indians losing a war of financial attrition to the baseball gods that cursed Cleveland.

As we always say, there are no standings for "conducting negotiations in the most prudent and cost-effective manner." Fans only care about results. With all the teases the team and its media reps have put out there, it would be the worst blow since whiffing on Miggy due to a lack of top line minor league talent to incentivize a deal. And that's in hindsight, as this will seem much worse because of how protracted the process has been, and how bad the recent performance on the field and general apathy outside of die hards and minor league prospect addicts.

They have Hosmer, Myers' deal blowing up next year, $25 million to pay riff raff who are on other teams, all the money they spent over the caps on Lat Am talent, 10% of their money going to paying down debt and stadium renovations (something we most assuredly don't have to deal with.) If they somehow beat the White Sox offer, we might as well just fold up the franchise, because clearly being last in t.v. ratings for the product they've produced the last six years is not bad enough. Even if they were to make the playoffs, they're not going to get the fans 100% behind them without at least one superstar on the team.

Based on what can we say they could even offer $250 million? They have a long history of running lesser payrolls than ours.

Kepler would be their equivalent of Anderson in terms of promise vs. performance. Berrios and Romero the much tougher signs at this point. Polanco is a head scratcher.