caulfield12

He was a precursor to Peter Bourjos (he was technically on our roster for days)...or Juan Pierre, not sure which.

He put up the lightest high batting average in the history of modern baseball in 2007.

Eduardo Escobar, and most assuredly NOT Andy Gonzalez, lol

Bob Nightengale "Phillies' stupid money is going to be more than enough to overcome White Sox homefield advantage of Alonso, Jay and only 7 guaranteed years. Phils currently offering 8, willing to to 9 or even 10 before moving on to Harper negotiations."

Or better yet, the old KW bromide. "Even without Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, we feel extremely confident that the rest of the league is just putting themselves in a better position to compete with the Chicago White Sox, especially after all of playoff-experienced veteran leaders were added to the best young core in the game today."

I think everyone needs to watch GREEN BOOK, lol...we are in a different world, theoretically.

When we have just as many fans for Sox game threads in August and September as the last month (who are interested in Machado and Harper on a daily basis)...then the White Sox front office will actually be succeeding.

The list of players we've finished 2nd or 3rd on over the last two decades would be longer than I have time to write in a day (even when we're having semester finals in China).

Well, obviously if you're going to 10 or 20 games or more from Rockford, that's impressive dedication. You actually go to 81 games per year and drive 1 1/2 hours each way?

That's pretty much the MAIN reason to have hope...it just sounds so ludicrous and embarrassing if it doesn't work out.

Well, it really doesn't matter because JR is NEVER in a million years going to say that. Do you think if we miss on both Machado and Harper that he's going to make a similar statement as the Phillies' owner heading into next offseason? Then I've got some of Greg's Lawrence/Topeka/Johnson County (KS) houses to sell you at a discounted rate you won't be able to turn down.

All the fans who show up at times like these...I almost never see them on a daily basis in the game threads. If the signing doesn't work out, they simply disappear back into the woodwork. Heck, if the front office could see they have as many page views as 1/4th of their season attendance, they would recognize the appetite and need for the fanbase to have SOMETHING to believe in.

If the White Sox owner promised fans they would spent "stupid money," then we wouldn't be having this same conversation. Not only that, but it's pretty clear the first White Sox official offer was well below expected market value. So we certainly know they will be beating that, so it's back to them to respond in a way where Machado is convinced not to keep going back and forth for weeks.

If they know that they can't sign Nola long-term and are also freeing up money by trading their 3B to the Padres...it at least makes some degree of sense.

It's very very SIMPLE. If the Sox want to shut up all their fans and provide no excuses...then they have to SHOW THE MONEY. Otherwise, we can be glass half full or half empty all we want. When you go over 20+ years without making a move like this...something that happens once a generation, what can realistically be expected?

It's better to be realistic/pragmatic as a White Sox fan than to be hopelessly optimistic and have your heart torn out again and again. If you were a Sox fan in the 1970's and 1980's, this feeling would be quite easy to identify with.

But at least we have "smart" money, lol. Of course, the odds are probably 2 out of 3 that the Phillies will EVENTUALLY regret such a move, but for the first 2-3 years, their fans will be walking around on Cloud 9.

If the Phillies get BOTH Harper and Machado...that's going to be nearly impossible to explain to Sox fans. It would make sense to both players, though, as long as they maximized their total contract dollars. The Phillies would suddenly go from 3rd place to favorites for 1st. Harper would still be THE man. Not sure how happy Manny would be to play second fiddle. It is a bit strange that they're not first making an offer to Harper...maybe they already have? That was also supposed to happen this week, sometime.

But by this same argument, we should have traded good prospects to bring Machado or Arenado onto the roster the year before they hit free agency? (More of Hahn's "outside the box" thinking, I guess...) Other than Freddy Garcia (due to Ozzie's family connection), when has such an acquisition ever resulted in a player passing up FA before going out onto the open market? You can't argue the odds aren't at least a bit HIGHER of keeping/extending him had he actually been on the 2019 roster?

And Davidson...

Actually, I don't think that will happen...not right away. A lot will tune out until the last couple of weeks of spring training. It's just going to seep into conversations once the season starts. For example, if someone starts speculating we can STILL successfully sign TWO whales next off-season, and everyone will roll their eyes or say we'll be lucky to get just one. Then there will another thread about all the potential connections to said player, and who we can bring on board to influence the negotiations. More eye rolling, and not the WSD trademark kind. Maybe some comments about how the Reinsdorf's preserved their wealth, that's easy to get behind for fans.

Whatever the final terms on Machado or Harper, few will argue it was prohibitively expensive for the Sox. (Maybe it's easier to cheer for the Cardinals, their fans are conditioned to not spending but also winning baseball more often than not.) It would of course be so Sox for the rebuild to actually work but 50% are still holding a grudge over the fact that they won't or wouldn't add a player to get them over the top.

If you could get Harper for $350 million or Machado for $300 million...taking Harper would be the best choice for this particular franchise at this point in time.

Still think the 4 year opt out is the magic number. Are there any similar contracts that are at 5 and not either 3 or 4...? Can’t think of any, but from the position we find ourselves in as a franchise, five is probably expecting too much of a risk to the player unless we remove all doubts with boatloads of money.

The longer this goes on, the more it seems that giving a record-breaking deal to Harper would have been the better play. Probably just buyer’s remorse. And we’re so conditioned to not getting the big name...last night, it felt like it was close to getting done, that’s already been the case at least twice in the last 2-3 weeks. It’s fairly easy to start talking yourself into “what could go wrong?” Just wonder if we put ourselves too much in the Machado camp, rather than equally going with Harper (Phillies), and whether that “favoritism” and arranging the roster on his behalf will make any difference if they’re still unwilling to go to $300 million? Of course, if the entire approach was to win a lowball battle under the impossible to predict (two months ago) field of limited suitors, the front office might be better off in Las Vegas...because failing with that type approach is going to be a PR disaster. Which is kind of why it doesn’t make much sense to think it wouldn’t eventually come down to the highest bidder all along.