caulfield12

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.

They already have a 3B who is decent in Franco and signing Harper would directly have the impact of taking away from a divisional rival, the Phillies also have a clear lack of outfield talent (McCutcheon is fading, youngsters are not difference makers) and he's already familiar with the division and its pitchers.

How about we get Jeff Bezos to send "sweet nothings" texts extolling the Yankees...that would make virtually anyone turn tail and run in the opposite direction.

Just makes way too much sense for Harper to end up there...whatever the number is between $300~330 million, he will likely only play there 2 or 3 seasons with the opt out.

If he voluntarily started sending money, that would set a precedent in terms of support and be difficult to escape. Seems that is one of the overriding concerns here. I know what the "old school" response would be from my dad, were he still around, but that era of personal responsibility and duty died off somewhere in the 80s or 90s.

But it's more short term veterans other than Hoskins that's carrying it...unless they can extend Nola. They have Realmuto for just two years. How much longer will Arrieta be effective...essentially as their #2? It feels more like the White Sox retooling the last decade, just with a much bigger payroll. Maybe the next 2~3 years with Philly makes more sense, but not necessarily long-term.

Somehow I have a feeling direct deposit would be the likelier case.

Wouldn't a real family member actually spell the name correctly?

The Mars lander was supposed to survive just 90 days but made it for over 14 years...this won't go on nearly that long.

C'mon JR, $300 million is actually nothing in the grand scheme of things! Here is something to think about, with $1.5 BILLION added to the national debt every single day… $62 million per hour… $1 million per minute… and more than $17,000 per SECOND. So for the 3-4 seconds you took to read this they spent $51,000+ that we don't have.

http://tv5.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/allstarweekend25973286/got-next-nba-case-giannis-luka-more 5 picks for the next "face of the NBA" after LBJ.

He averaged around 300 per season. http://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr/_/sort/cwepaRuns

But same type of offensive system that depends on getting outside the pocket, making rapidfire decisions, uptempo, utilizing all the offensive weapons, especially TE. Drew Tate at Iowa was another QB of similar height a decade ago who was highly successful in college. Manziel, Mayfield and Murray are all from Texas and came out of spread or 8 man football...Tate, too...of course, we can also look at Texas Tech and Houston "system" QBs flopping.

They didn't impress against Iowa either...other than that dude with the foreign name, Brazdeikis. Also, no Duke/Coach K hype after last night?

Did anyone call? Thanks for the 2001 entertainment, Jose.

Yelich might not repeat, but Cain's defense should stand up and Arcia looks like he could really progress coming off his fine postseason play. They also go 8~9 deep in their starting pitching depth, and that's going to be quite meaningful over a long season.

Retirees are really getting hammered, not exactly a SoxTalk well-represented group. Let me add, recognize that your taxes may also be much lower in retirement if you make an intelligent choice to relocate from a high tax state to a low tax state. State, and sometimes local, income taxes can take a huge chunk out of your retirement income if it is taxable. The end of state and local income tax deductions on Federal returns means the retired taxpayer bears the full brunt of those taxes. Also, many states with income taxes also tax Social Security. Another factor to bear in mind when relocating for tax purposes is that not all low tax states are created equal in terms of the future tax outlook due to the overhang of unfunded and underfunded liabilities.

Are they having another independent camp this spring for all the unsigned players? Guess it's unlikely either whale would go, but late starts over the last five years have really hurt a number of players and their signing teams. Luckily, Sox don't have to care much about that, at least..

Didn't one of the projection models have them in 3rd or 4th place with a sub .500 record? Probably Pecota. At any rate, the White Sox still might not be competitive with Harpchado combined until 2021. They would roll out of the gate as NL East favorites if they both signed, although obviously Atlanta and Washington will be both be tough tasks for anyone.

With Realmuto now in place, those three year opt out deals for getting both Harper and Machado to sign with the Phillies make even more sense. Stupid money, remember. $650~700, as opposed to $800 million worth. Better chance at a World Series together (paired w Segura, McCutcheon, Robertson) and with only the Dodgers looming as realistic NL threats unless the Cubs get a huge resurgence from their starting pitching.