The Sir

Sorry, but some of you are terrible negotiators. Or you're just nonchalant because it's not your money. Silence is golden. If we have the best offer, we have the best offer. Unless someone beats it, he will take it eventually! Don't get fidgety and drive it up if the market's not there. I offered 20K less than listing price on my last house. Did they like it? Don't know, don't care. Did they accept eventually? Yep, because I was the top dog.

Why? We'd be bidding against ourselves. The Yanks aren't in interested in even hitting 250, and what mystery team? If we know for sure that someone out there is beating us, then beat them. But if we have the top offer at 250, and nobody else is driving that up, we would be foolish to do it ourselves. Manny might want 300, but if 300 ain't there, he ain't getting it. He might not like it, but he's not gonna turn down 250 if it's the best offer.

Awesome. Glad to see him go.

This is so solid. Buy $20 dress shoes, and you'll buy them twice a year. Buy $200 dress shoes, and you're set for a while.

If you think about it, this will certainly be over by the beginning of March. By the time I'm in Ireland for spring break, we'll know who both Harper and Machado are going to play for this year. So...45 days to go, TOPS!

What's the word on this John Waijio guy? Bio says he's a reporter?

Nicky's gone at this point anyway. LF will soon go to Eloy, Jay in CF, and Palka in RF. Palka's the guy who's nervously waiting to see what we do with the rest of our offseason. Right?

To be fair, my unprofessional impression is that most commercial air travel these days is handled by autopilot. The humans are there for takeoff, landing, radio comms, disasters, and small adjustments in between. Don't know how I'd feel about boarding a plane completely dependent on computers though. I'd say that's a looooong way off, but who knows- I'm still in a bit of awe when I go into Chili's and pay via a tablet stationed on my own table.

Awesome! Congrats to him (prematurely). I'd love to do that. If money weren't an issue, I'd totally switch to professional aviation.

I think (can't be totally sure about travels when I was a kid) my one time flying on a 747 was en route to Afghaniland. So, that sucked. Although, coming back on one was a bit better. ?

I don't care if we're totally contention ready in 2019, but if we get Machado, I will totally buy MLBTV and make a point to watch every day (haven't lived in Chicago since I was a kid, so buying a jersey and attending games really isn't a thing for me).

I get ya. I don't know if I would say social interactions are hard or tiring, but I definitely find myself reviewing them later on as to whether I handled them all right. I certainly don't long for social activity- in my current job situation, I'm basically away from home and living super long term in a hotel. I like to FaceTime the wife and kids, and if the only other person I see on a weekend is the housekeeper, I'm perfectly OK with that.

I'd love a situation like that. Of course, my wife would hate it, so I'd probably hate it soon enough. My old house used to be somewhat like that, but it was far enough off the runway that the planes were still a few thousand feet up. I used to enjoy sitting on my back deck and using my FlightTracker app to figure out where the planes I could see were coming from.

That would definitely be a solid conversation starter. Better than asking someone if they have a green card. No joke, I did that once. I lived in a southern border town, and at a bar one night, my friend introduced me to these girls and mentioned they were from the Mexican city on the other side of the river. I wasn't trying to be rude, racist, or drive some political agenda; I just thought it was an interesting topic and I was curious how long-term movement between the two cities worked. So I asked if they had green cards or what. Apparently, that's super offensive. I'm probably on some sort of spectrum. Doesn't ruin my social life; just makes basic etiquette and social norms totally invisible to me.

I'm with you on that one (not joining the Chair Force, but plane spotting). I'm taking the fam to Ireland in a few months, and while that's awesome, I'm also insanely excited that the trans-Atlantic portion of the flight will be on a 747. It will probably be way less cool when my one year old spends a good portion of that eight hour flight screaming and smacking me in the face. Another goal of mine is to go Down Under, which will almost certainly mean flying on an A380. I've seen them but never flown on one.

I'm an amateur pilot. I haven't gone flying in years (unfortunately) and my license is therefore out-of-date (although that's a relatively easy fix when I finally get around to it), but it's an easy thing to spit out in those situations, and it tops "I've been with my girlfriend for three and a half months tomorrow".

Nightengale said something about the Phils being favored for Harper. For future reference, I try to be pretty faithful about putting the serious stuff in the White Sox Whaling Superthread, which is pinned.

I'm putting this here because I assume it's the starting point for the latest Manny thread title change. And WSD has keened in on it, talking about dominos falling or something. FWIW.

Man, I wish I was capable of not checking this thread for about two weeks. I'd love the ability to log in on 28 January, and see two massive threads, starting to fade from the top, one announcing that Bryce Harper signs with the Pirates for $700 million AAV, and another announcing that Manny is going to play basketball in a professional league based in Sri Lanka. And I'll have entirely missed the roller coaster and mockery that starts when KathyGriffinsPenis breaks these rumors on Tumblr. My sanity will be somewhat in tact, because the truth will just...be.

He'll hit .240 with 30 homeruns and still not reach 1 fWAR.

I won’t be over dramatic and say that kills all of Manny’s value for us, but it def kills some of it. TA is young and has solid offensive production for short, and Manny’s D is best at 3rd and TA’s at SS. Plus third is a giant hole and has been for years. If Machado insists on playing short, forcing us to dump a 26 y/o 20-20 SS, leaving the likes of Yolmer as a full time 3bagger (instead of as a super utility where he is best), he’s not nearly as much of an addition as he would be otherwise.

Deadspin's not a website that should be talking about anyone else's shittiness. But the fact that they are isn't surprising, since they were originally launched by a company that got sued into oblivion for peddling Hulk Hogan porn.

Oh geez. Manny Machado and Bryce Harper are negotiating for so much money that their kids won't ever have to work, and you're talking about how if it doesn't go your way, they will have wasted your time. Pretty sure that counts as a strange thought process. Perspective, dude.

We didn't get swept.