caulfield12

If you’re getting the second half versions of Alonso and Jay, there’s still not that much to be excited about...that said, obviously Jimenez and Machado together are huge, but then we have to turn around and replace Abreu/Alonso anyway. There will certainly be a lot of Goldschmidt “win now/all in” discussions for 2020, as we will see him a lot more frequently playing for the Cardinals and all those games being played in EST or Central Time.

LaRoche, Robertson and Melky were supposed to bring a “winning culture” with them as well...didn’t Melky have some kind of crazy streak of being on playoff teams? While he’s probably better than Peter Bourjos, we would basically win the same amount of games if you ran 1000 simulations of the 2019 season with Engel or Jay as the starter. He’s not really a true CFer anymore, but we can get away with it at GRF. That said, without Machado around, his leash on the position is probably 6-8 weeks at best.

But then we were leading the AL Central on May 6th and because we hadn’t added a better option before the season, we spent $30-35 million more on Shields and traded away Tatis, Jr. (who’s worth how much surplus value?) $3 million led to a potential $100 million hole. All self induced. Heck, if we had Tatis, there’s a possibility we could get away with not spending $300 million on Machado. So make that $400 million.

Or refusing to give those deals to Pujols, Heyward and Price is what has kept them so competitive in one of the smallest media markets. I guess we’ll see if the charm works on Goldschmidt. And, despite all his various complaints about the front office, the StL fan support definitely made a positive impression on Tommie Pham.

What’s to prevent all the young impressionable members of the White Sox from wanting their own “Machado Treatment” when it comes to dealing with the ballclub in the future? Is Renteria going to bust everyone’s ass about hustling and let the veterans who are employed mostly to keep Manny contented on a losing team get a free pass? Something about this seems so anti-White Sox that it’s possible they’re the only team that could come up with such a cockamamie scheme like this. I know a team like St. Louis with their “Cardinals’ Way” would never elevate Heyward or David Price over the rest of the roster to sign them. Maybe we simply have no other choice.

If they can convince Machado to only play for the bargain price of $200 million to play with his buddies...then, Boom!, $100-200 million in savings, oops, minus $13 million for Alonso and Jay. Then we can go to Rodon, Moncada, Jimenez and Lopez...and ask them what similar things we can do to get them to sign extensions, ala Eaton/Sale/Q, into their first couple of years of free agency? Btw, isn’t anyone the least bit concerned that Renteria and Hahn will have no way of controlling the monster of all cliques they’re going to be creating in the clubhouse, by giving Machado this special kind of treatment that almost no free agent has ever received? Sure, it will be fine if they’re winning and happy...but what if they struggle to win 70 games despite all the new additions? What will they have to do in the future to attract free agents if this whole thing blows up?

This just in, White Sox sign the Fiji Water Girl to a three year contract for $150,000...after all, it’s Manny’s favorite bottled water, and the official beverage of the Dominican Republic WBC Team, as well as Mrs. Machado.

Why would you give Jay that many at-bats, compared to Jimenez, Palka or Anderson?

Jay signed with KC last year. They sucked. Alonso might have a better case of being jilted, leaving the playoff-bound Indians. That said, Chicago is a better city at least. Is Darin Erstad not available?

I’d rather throw that money into building a state of the art training center and baseball academy in Cuba. Or I’d build one in eastern Colombia for all the young Venezuelan players who have been abandoned when most of the big league clubs pulled out. The fact of the matter is that we remain stymied in the Dominican and Asia. Then again, if we keep adding Machado connections, at this rate, the DR reps will outnumber Cubans. And we’ll have the most MLB representatives for the World Baseball Classic, so there’s that.

All I know is there might be a restraining order issued against Rick Hahn for stalking Machado if all these moves were not part of an elaborate charade where we already knew he was in the bag the week of the Alonso deal...

Maybe $13 million could be invested into figuring why we can’t evaluate talent very well? That’s just as well as throwing it at the Emilio Bonifacios of the world. Jay is basically another Peter Bourjos, except he has a better brand name due to playing with playoff-contending Cardinals teams and fit in quite well there as a complementary part.

The excuse will be they were never meant to actually perform well...they were merely “seed funding” to bring Machado into the fold.

??? I have an I-Pad. The same one that turns LUIS Robert automatically into CAPS every time.

1) Keeping his client happy 2) Setting another record for biggest contract in baseball, which puts a huge target on that player...which undoubtedly Harper would probably claim to enjoy.

Sounds more like a plumbing company, ala Roto Rooter.

Here’s yet another compelling argument for signing players so late hurting MLB...season tickets or souvenir Harper/Machado jerseys can’t be given away as gifts at Christmastime...and corporations looking to invest in season tickets would have been much likelier to do that this past November than now waiting into Q1 2019. https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/gabe-lacques/2019/01/07/mlb-offseasons-hindering-baseball-bryce-harper-manny-machado/2502916002/ The biggest win, however, may be in convincing a large segment of fans that winning “efficiently” is almost as important as winning at all. And it’s created something akin to Stockholm syndrome: Unless that fan roots for the Yankees or Dodgers, he or she is accustomed to their team eschewing big-bucks expenditures and fears that one suboptimal contract will poison the entire operation. "Little old us, making a play for Bryce Harper? That’s just crazy!" Even the Yankees can pull this off; GM Brian Cashman's semi-annual "Bubba Crosby will be our center fielder" gambit used to be greeted with almost universal eyerolls. Now, he can say with a straight face Troy Tulowitzki will be his opening-day shortstop and largely avoid scorn. It's one thing for Cashman to bluff his way through winter, and time will reveal the Yankees' ultimate intent. But it's quite another that fans are willing to buy what he's initially peddling. Meanwhile, what, exactly, are teams supposed to promote? There was a time not long ago when the bulk of free agency was wrapped up a couple weeks before the New Year. And what timing! Clubs could sell holiday ticket packages generated by the excitement of the forthcoming new star. A few weeks later, said player might make his first appearance at a winter fan-fest event, slap some hands, generate some friendly Internet content and, theoretically, sell a few more tickets. So what happens two weeks from now, when Wrigley loyalists gather for their annual three-day Cubs Convention, and a team still in its prime yet in need of reinforcements offers up Daniel Descalso as its major addition? A franchise, mind you, that is about to launch its own TV network, is wringing every possible penny out of re-developing Wrigleyville and manages to sell naming rights to two ballpark entrances and even a bullpen gate. Pity poor Theo Epstein and Co. if Lou from Naperville demands such answers during a Q & A session. Baseball is still plenty healthy, even as death knells sound from within and without the industry. As more massive local TV contracts kick in, revenues should continue to rise. It’s awfully hard to ignore that 4% drop in attendance last year, though. Manfred blamed the brutal weather in April and May for that dip, and it certainly was a factor. Yet if a more cooperative polar vortex in 2019 ushers in a more pleasant April, the weather excuse won’t fly. And should this off-season wrap with a good 50% of teams still suffering from what Boras calls “non-competitive cancer,” it will be far easier to correlate that with soft box-office returns. In the meantime, gentle baseball consumer, get out your credit cards. Florida and Phoenix beckon, just weeks away now, followed by the regular season. It’s baseball, after all, and it’s hard not to have a good time. Especially if you’re merely rooting for the laundry.

https://nypost.com/2019/01/05/boras-client-may-show-creative-way-to-reach-harper-machado-deals/ This is old news, but the Sherman post makes just as much sense (that the Yankees are coming up with a really creative contract) makes as much sense as Hahn asking Machado if bringing Alonso and Jay on board would sway his decision. The only thing that makes you believe Machado to the Sox is that all these desperation (so crazy, they’re brilliant!) moves would look almost as laughable as the Stewart/LaRussa days in Arizona. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ranking-the-five-worst-moves-of-the-dave-stewart-era-with-the-diamondbacks/ Of course, that worst GM in modern MLB history saw his former team advance to the playoffs in 2017, regardless.

Or Yolmer...assuming Machado has to be signed for this offseason to make any sense...and Yolmer would have a lot more trade value at this point in time. How well can Leury play 3B? He’s almost exclusively played SS on the infield, right?

I can’t recall at least two players ever being added to an MLB roster to specifically entice a big-time free agent to sign. That doesn’t even count Castillo, Colome, Nova and Herrera, and their connections to Machado. One thing’s for sure, if we don’t manage to sign Machado, every Hahn trade from that point forward will be a punchline to a joke about putting the gang together to connect a new group of Sox acquisitions to a potential 2019-20 Free Agent target.

What’s the additional payroll coming onto this year’s roster, $39 million now? We must be paying about $10-12 million/1 fWAR. Where are we now in terms of added versus subtracted WAR with all the players we pushed out the door to make room for Machado’s friends? We kept Castillo (and McCann) over Narvaez/Smith, added Alonso over Davidson, Jay instead of Engel/Leury...Nova replacing Shields essentially, plus Colome and Herrera.

Ronnie Bass...a little bit, 50% is the blonde flowing locks. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2090702/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t24 https://goo.gl/images/qYTYyZ If you combined the two (this guy was on Shameless and The 100), you’d be onto something.

Well, we might be able to succeed marketing this team in Miami a lot better than Chicago. So there’s that. And at least we now lead baseball in Spanish speaking team members, plus one manager and another manager in training.

I don’t recall writing anything about who he identifies with (it was about how fans would perceive him...but whatever. All season long whenever Herrera blows a save, everyone will mention his two months in Washington and never once the rest of his career in the majors or what team he played for 95% of the time. Got it! He will go into the HoF as a National, for sure.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/25676643/mlb-stock-watch-midwinter-winners-losers Nationals the most improved MLB team this offseason, even with the possible loss of Harper...