Chicago White Sox

I really think we all need to wait and see where the whales land before we start shredding Hahn to pieces. Rick & KW have had several years to plan these pursuits and in the next 30 days or so we’ll know if they were successful in their efforts. Also, reading through the Yankees Reddit site is making me much more optimistic about our chances with Machado. This post in particular about Leyritz really made me feel better: All this “smoke”, with the possible exception of Dan Clark, seems like complete BS and/or rumor riding. Even some Yankees fans are speculating these are blatant plants by Machado’s agent to cause us or the Phillies to bid against themselves. I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic until a legit insider tells me I should feel otherwise.

The problem is Harper doesn’t really impact their attendance or TV ratings that much, so the Cubs would be paying for on-field production. Harper as a five win player may be worth $40M/year, but if it costs them Schwarber & Almora (or Contreras & Happ) does that really make them better? I would consider any gain there to be marginal at best and now they’ve lost significant depth & financial flexibility. I just don’t see how Harper makes any sense for them when they have far more obvious holes like in the bullpen. To me, the Cubs are nothing more than a Boogyman Scott Boras has created for us to up our offer.

If he’s planning to opt-out after so many years, he’ll likely want a front-loaded contract. And like Shack said, back-loading doesn’t help the Cubs from a luxury tax perspective. They really need to move a bad contract or two to make the financials work.

Well that I can agree with, but that also applies the “win now” aspect those teams provide as well. Regardless, we can’t allow the money to be similar if we want to land these guys.

You can not compare the NBA & MLB when it comes to endorsement opportunities & potential as they are completely different monsters. NBA stars make significantly more money from endorsements than MLB stars. Additionally, Lebron wanted to be in L.A. for reasons beyond just wearing a Lakers jersey. And I’m not suggesting there would no impact from being in New York or LA, I’m just saying it wouldn’t be material for baseball players. Kris Bryant makes roughly $1M/year from his Adidas deal. How much more would he realistically make playing for the Dodgers or Yankees or less playing for the Sox? Again, it’s just not a ton of money we’re talking bout here.

I think I’ve asked you this before, but are you Theo Epstein? Why in the world would the Sox want to “capitulate” Harper to the Cubs? Like you keep pushing this angle and it’s just an absolutely terrible idea and then you support it with horrible trade proposals for the Sox. If you’re not Theo then you must be Jed, because I can’t for life of me figure out why you want to help the Cubs so badly while at the same time making us an even bigger joke.

The question is how does that make them better? Trading their depth to unload Heyward to then pay Harper $40M per year seems like a net decrease in the grand scheme of things, especially when they have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball.

Agree to disagree on this. Why in the world would someone in New York care that Kris Bryant plays for the Cubs when purchasing a pair of shoes? And if you’re theory is true, why did Bryce Harper sign one of the largest deals in baseball with Under Amour when he plays for the Nationals? They aren’t exactly a storied franchise.

Ok, but he’s also the 2016 NL MVP. I think his Adidas contract has more to do with his superstar abilities & than playing for the Cubs. Local endorsements are different story obviously.

That is entirely due to us not having a star and nothing to do with the underlying uniform. And maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t see a ton of national marketing campaigns involving Cubs players.

For national endorsements? Will the team he’s on really make that much of a difference? Bryce Harper is Bryce Harper and already a proven commodity in terms of marketability. I guess I wouldn’t think the difference in earning power would be that significant between the Cubs & Sox.

I don’t follow the marketing angle.

We’re roughly 45 days away from spring training and there are still a ton of free agents available. Baseball’s system is definitely broken.

? The Sox haven’t played a single playoff game in the last 10 years and have shown little to no accountability for that poor performance. That’s why our fanbase is “perpetually miserable”, not because of a World Series or bust mentality.

The difference is the Yankees are below the luxury tax right now and can easily afford Machado. The Cubs can not add Harper right now (even at a discount) without moving substantial money. And given that he turned down 10/$300M from his former team, I don’t see him taking anything less from the Cubs even if that’s where he’d like to end up.

They would have moved him last year in July or August if anyone offered anything of value. As for the mentoring role, that’s what Nova was brought in for. There is no logical reason to give Shields another 150 to 200 innings IMO.

There really aren’t a lot of rumors connecting the Cubs to Harper though. You’ve got some Twitter cat and then apparently the Cubs beat reporter on NBCsports has complete knowledge of the Cubs’ offseason plans and is openly sharing them at dinners. To me, it all seems far-fetched that they’d be able to move enough salary to pull off this type of move and I questing how it actually makes them better.

Shields is unflipplable, last year proves as much IMO. I do have a small fear they bring him back, but I’m praying our front office is smarter than that.

I agree that Nova already fills that role and does so with at least a little bit of upside. I’d really hate wasting two rotation spots on two “innings eaters”. Hard to find diamonds in the rough if you refuse to swing for the fences.

At this point in the rebuild, we can at least lose with a little class. Throwing Shields out there every fifth is an insult to our paying customers. Like I said, at least give the spot to someone with a sliver of upside.

Because roster spots are valuable and shouldn’t be wasted on guy with zero short-term or long-term upside. Either sign a flip candidate for the fifth spot (like Pomeranz) or give it to a young guy like Stephens or even a wild card like Banuelos.

Capitals are your friend, not the enemy! But otherwise very good points all around!

Sat - Me canceling my cable because I refuse to watch a team that plans on giving Big Game James 30 starts next year.

Lol...I’d be all for it, but didn’t want to get too greedy. But add those four guys and this team has an outside shot at the division in 2019.

Alright, for some reason I feel like there could be a ton of pent up moves that get announced shortly after the holiday. Here’s my dream week for the White Sox: Wednesday: Kikuchi - 4/$38M (plus ~20% posting fee) Thursday: Ottavino - 2/$21M (w/ vesting 3rd year option) Friday: Machado - 10/$350M (opt-outs after years 4 & 6) Flame away!