caulfield12

That's where the Cardinals and Braves also become huge threats on the Machado and Harper fronts as well. You add Donaldson AND Harper, you have the makings of "super teams" for either of those franchises, especially the Braves, who would still be holding onto a formidable minor league system's boatload of prospect for finishing touches. Those two additions would be "reasonable," compared to the combination of Machado AND Harper and the possibility of being stuck with either one of those guys like the Angels with Pujols (unlikely, sure...but just look at Belle with Baltimore). Or either one adds Machado, the other option. The Cards desperately need to make a big move (or moves) to counter the Brewers and Cubs. While StL isn't a big-spending team, they've been right there for guys like Price, Heyward and Luis Robert. And the Braves have all that revenue coming in from a new stadium, a potential superstar in Acuna and Harper's familiarity with the NL East. Some would theorize he'd rather be close to his West Coast/LV roots, but either one of those options would be much more attractive unless the White Sox are willing to pay a 5-10% "surcharge" for not being in position to contend.

Would be willing to wager a contender gives Donaldson 3 years, knowing the final one is probably going to end up in less than stellar results but still worth the risk for Years 1 and 2. What playoff-caliber teams are desperately in need of a 3B, though?

Then they’re not signing Harper or Machado, or even AJ Pollock. They’re in the even more unlikely Arenado/Rendon 2019-20 boat...and bailing water as quickly as possible. You can’t hold onto Harper for at least four years, it’s pretty much pointless. There are too many teams like the Phillies, Cardinals and Braves that could use him right away for playoff contention.

Except Cleveland isn’t THAT handcuffed. They still have an open window for the next 2-3 years if they make the right moves with Kluber/Carrasco/Bauer...and they can manage to shore up their bullpen. Let’s not forget two young starters and Salazar as well. They still have two franchise position players, not to mention Encarnacion, Gomes, Alonso, Chisenhall, Zimmer and Kipnis. On paper, they still have a much better pen than us even without Allen and Miller. For now, what was a shaky pen even with Allen and Miller, will return Hand and Dan Otero on guaranteed contracts. Tyler Olson and Adam Cimber are still pre-arbitration, while Nick Goody and Jon Edwards enter their first year of arbitration. Neil Ramirez will enter arbitration for his final year. Cimber, acquired alongside Hand, was seen as a major contributor going forward for the Indians, and had been pursued by Chris Antonetti and company in Spring Training. After allowing 17 earned over 48 1/3 in San Diego prior to the deadline, the submariner was shaky in his time in Cleveland, allowing 9 earned in just 20 innings. The righty posted a .610 OPS against when facing righties, but a gaudy 1.062 mark against lefties. When he was dealt to Cleveland, Cimber no long was afforded the opportunities to clear his own jams, being used as a matchup righty. Even with those struggles, Manager Terry Francona made it clear that Cimber will have an important role going forward. “I don’t think we saw the best of Adam yet,” the skipper said. “He’s going to help us a ton. I think when he first came, he tried to do a little too much, which young guys can do sometimes. I don’t think that’s the worst trait in somebody. But when it starts next year, he’ll be one of our mainstays.” Edwards, a September call-up, performed admirably in his return from a worn UCL, allowing three earned over 8 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old boasted career-high velocities with all three of his pitches. The team thought so highly of the right-hander that they thought about carrying him on the post-season roster, presumably over Otero. Ultimately, he was left off the 25-man to be fair to his future. “That was a long, convoluted way of saying we really like this kid, and I think, with a normal offseason, he’s going to come back next year and play a huge part in our bullpen,” Francona added. Righty Cody Anderson began to break out as a bullpen arm in 2016, allowing an .814 OPS out of the bullpen before also falling victim to Tommy John. The 28-year-old began pitching in games again in August and September and is expected to enter Spring Training with no restrictions. Anderson will also enter his first year of arbitration in 2019. Then there is Danny Salazar. The 28-year-old has faced a constantly uphill battle against his right arm, dealing with elbow inflammation and rotator cuff tendonitis before undergoing season-ending arm surgery in early July. The jury, per usual, is still out on the talented righty going forward.

Not if they add another solid veteran starter, two relievers, a 3B, OF and potentially a DH depending on what they do with Abreu and Avi. Of course, that’s spending another $45-60 million on top of what they’re paying Harper or Machado to push the timeframe to compete up to 2019 and 2020. Signing Harper just doesn’t make sense if they can’t realistically compete even in 2020. And you’re asking those two guys too much to expect them to be patient for that long. It has to be presented in the same way the 2014 offseason of LaRoche/Robertson/Cabrera and trading for Samardzija was laid out like dominoes....a series of moves that would add a similar level of veteran talent to those four guys has to be part of the comprehensive plan to start competing as quickly as possible, even this season if everything breaks right. Odds of all that happening? 10%? 15%? The odds are certainly greater of ending up with a Tier B starter, a couple of veteran relievers and maybe one “bridge guy” like Donaldson, Moustakas, Brantley, McCutcheon, Adam Jones or Nelson Cruz. Of course, after all the build up...most fans are going to be seriously disappointed if that’s what we end up actually doing.

https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Mariners-deny-fired-exec-s-claims-of-racism-13386026.php

Don't see why Verlander wouldn't 1) go to a contender or 2) end his career with the Tigers. I guess it depends a bit on Kate Upton and where she wants to set up their base of operations in terms of her career, best place to raise a family, etc. Someone like Charlie Morton seems more likely, but, then again, he also seems more likely to retire if he doesn't go exactly where he wants to go. Doesn't seem like he's interested in hanging on just to cash a paycheck, unless the right opportunity presents itself.

Hard to imagine Sale coming back unless we have a completely different front office. Bumgarner seems to be the better fit, and also has the smoother delivery, but he's also returning from injury and you just never know when pitchers hit their 30's these days.

Hard to imagine either one of those guys not getting an opt-out after Year 4 unless the incentives to forgo it are immense.

You should have stopped while you were (temporarily) ahead...in the end, instructing others how to be a better fan, or even what constitutes “proper” fandom, is going to be a losing battle, on EITHER side. That said, most fans these days are not typically going to sympathize with or even feel a common bond with billionaires in ownership.

If you make them much more easily identifiable to the police...they’re going to be even more appealing targets for shooters.

What player, other than Carlos Rodon, could the White Sox have even considered (rationally) extending into their FA years...after Anderson? And Rodon was never going to agree to do that, we knew it the minute he was drafted with Boras as his agent. Hard to say that decision has worked well, unless you compare it to drafting Aiken or Kolek. Eloy Jimenez might be the only other choice for Hahn at the moment...and the odds of an agreement are slim and none at this point.

Uh-oh.

Is he the alter-ego from Westeros?

So we would trade for Paxton, HOPE he doesn't get injured over the course of 2019 or 2020, then TRY to get two better prospects than Dunning/Collins back in return at one of the next two trade deadlines (or next off-season) if he can get on a run where he's one of the five best pitchers in the AL? Sounds like a plan where absolutely nothing could go awry. I guess if they know for a fact that Collins can't catch and Dunning won't stay healthy...that's about the only way it makes sense, and all of Paxton's medicals actually show no red flags.

Paxton makes no sense because of the prospects he’d cost...only a move for fully “all in” teams. Unless we are also signing Harper or Machado, which is unknowable.

I shouldn’t have specified Marines and just used the term “service members.” Rates of probable PTSD among current and former serving military personnel reached six percent in 2014/16, up from four percent in 2004/2006, the King's College London study said. The results of a major cohort study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, showed frontline soldiers were most affected, but so too were those who have since left the military. Some 17 percent of ex-military personnel who had combat roles in Iraq or Afghanistan reported symptoms suggesting probable PTSD, compared to six percent of those who were deployed in support roles, such as logistics. The overall rate of probable PTSD for veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars was nine percent, compared to five percent of those who did not deploy to those conflicts. Meanwhile the rate of probable PTSD among currently serving personnel was five percent, close to the rate among the general population. "For the first time we have identified that the risk of PTSD for veterans deployed in conflicts was substantially higher than the risk for those still serving," said Dr Sharon Stevelink from King's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). https://www.yahoo.com/news/british-troops-suffer-higher-rates-ptsd-study-093316675.html

For those playing in the games, especially at the amateur and youth level...sure. Winning is (usually) more important for parents/fans/coaches.

Unless we sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado with an opt out after 3 years...there’s no reason that Robert should even sniff Chicago before September.

Our pitching coaches in A ball are almost universally-lauded. Same with Vizquel and Jirschele. Nobody knows what we have in Robert at this point. Off the chart tools correspond with his signing bonus, just like Moncada or Eloy. That said, we’ve also seen huge amounts of money dumped on guys like Rusney Castillo, Hector Oliver’s and Jorge Soler. There are no guarantees. Ask the Twins. That said, would have absolutely no problem changing up the entire staff at the big league level.

Just the idea that with so many mental health issues related to military service that Trump’s suggestion of putting them on duty on security/guard duty has a good chance of backfiring...what is the percentage who have to be treated for psychological issues after returning? 10%? 15%?

Fair enough. The only way to move the meter with the majority of “pragmatic/realistic” Sox fans is to actually go out and genuinely shock the baseball world. And they’re boxed in at this point to even Machado or Kershaw coming over not being enough to break the apathy. It’s either Harper or bust.

Which is why there’s a pretty close parallel to the Bulls. You have Hoiberg/Renteria, and the fact that they’ve never really been able to land a big fish from outside the organization, either. Ever since I can remember, and this is the late 70s/early 80’s, we’ve always been baseball’s version of the Land of Misfit Toys in terms of attracting premier free agents...the ONLY exceptions being Belle for one year and signing Adam Dunn before the 2011 season.

It’s a perfectly logical question. What has changed over the last 5-6 years, where they would suddenly be willing to hand out a contract FOUR or FIVE times the largest in team history...when we would never even give a $100+ million dollar deal to our OWN franchise players at any point over the last two decades? We definitely had a “core” of competitive players at various points (after 2012, then again with Sale/Eaton/Q/Anderson/Rodon) recently, the problem of course being that we were “tapped out” at $125-135 million and there was no remaining payroll flexibility. That makes it easy to imagine them spending $100 million in additional payroll for 2019 alone? Seems like a lot of wishful thinking, let’s see, suddenly JR is old/desperate...the division is there for the taking...Luis Robert’s an All-World CFer again, when this seems more like a classic case of “eyes are bigger than the stomach” and we all end up being terribly disappointed again.

Well, in that case...they wait until they can go bargain hunting in March or try to hold on until the trade deadline. Trying to compete in 2020 and especially 2019 only makes sense if you (first) start building around a superstar. Otherwise, you’re just improving at the margins. Not to mention that signing Harper first makes it infinitely easier to add those other veteran pieces. Without him, you’re just offering playing time and hopefully the opportunity to be traded to a playoff team OR simply to re-establish value for another run at free agency at the end of next year.