soxfan49

He offered $250M for Machado, so yeah, maybe.

Is the Sox pitching really that bad if Kopech and Cease are decent or good + Lopez takes a step?

85-80 I figure Mazara, Robert, Grandal and Madrigal being added combined with a better staff (Kopech, another year of Cease, Lopez ideally being better) will be worth about 13 wins.

Who have the Indians or Rays traded that are under 25 and this good?

But those exact fans should know they offered Wheeler more but his wife wanted to be close to New Jersey. If the Phillies weren't interested and say it was the Sox vs the Rangers, he'd probably be playing for the Sox, but he's not. If the Sox had offered $150M, he would've come here but those same fans would say "what an overpay! next time let him go to Philly!" Again, it's a lose lose.

And even if he doesn't imrpove at all from last year, it's cool to know that his .790 overall OPS and .835 OPS vs RHP's will still be useful. I'm not sure why everyone is acting like they traded Mickey Mantle for Rob Mackowiak here.

This is exactly it. Kopech, Cease, Giolito, Jimenez, Moncada, Anderson, Robert. That's the core. Those are the guys that have to produce and continue to get better. If they don't, none of this shit matters. They could've gotten Machado, Harper and Rendon and it wouldn't make a difference. I'm still iffy on developing talent. So far, not so good (clearly) but the growth of the above 7 players is what matters most. If they're unable to lure or pony up cash for the Rendon's of the world, then they're going to have to use the players outside of the core- Vaughn, Madrigal, Stiever, etc- to trade for established players with some controlled years. This will obviously result in a tough late 2020's after most of the core leaves and then the farm is shit, but if there's a championship or two, it'll be worth it, imo.

You don't get it. I, for one, would be happy with any of those guys I listed, but not this stupid fan base. Nope. You will all find faults in all of them and it'll all go back to "DUMB RICK HAHN!!!!" They could've signed Machado and we'd be pissed, because you know, the vast majority were already discussing how thankful they were 3 weeks ago that Machado didn't sign here. See how that works?

Sox sign Bumgarner: gives up a ton of flyballs, kind of a red ass, may clash with Anderson and the theatrics, getting old Sox sign Ryu: may not be as good in the AL, injury prone Sox sign Castellanos: can't play defense, getting old, RHH Sox trade for Price: getting old, supposedly lazy, some questionable playoff performances in the past, owed a lot Sox trade for Benintendi: he was worse than Mazara! Can't wait to hear one of the above responses. Actually no, I prefer none of them happened so I don't have to see it

Attendance already sucks. How much worse could it be?

Please tell me the water has a rough current

Yeah, Tatis when he was a nobody vs Robert now is definitely a fair comparison.

That doesn't mean Mazara has a 0% chance of succeeding, does it? If he plays adequate defense and has another .785 OPS year, isn't that ok? The obvious answer is the latter. The question, though, is are they going to win the WS next year? The obvious answer is no. So then the question is, who's the better player in 2021? And suddenly the answer isn't so crystal clear. The Sox could definitely win 85 games next year.Does that get them into the playoffs? I have no clue. Just because they're underperforming the Astros doesn't necessarily mean this thing is failing. They are the measuring stick for every rebuild from now and eternity.

You actually think Mazara has a 0% chance of success? Because bitcoin has a 0% chance of success and that's the comparison you just made.

But that's my issue. No matter who the Sox get, people will complain. Look at a few pages back. People were saying Mazara might be better than Benintendi, so why would Benintendi excite the fan base? Why would Price? Even if Boston ate a lot of money, he would still be owed a lot by the Sox and he's getting worse by the year. If they signed Bumgarner, we'd complain about the high volume of flyballs he gives up. If they sign Ryu, a bunch of smartasses will complain about injuries. How can they win? If anyone came into the offseason expecting Cole or Strasburg, that was the issue from the beginning. They had no shot. They gave Wheeler more than Philadelphia. He wanted to go play in that dump; so be it. Marcell Ozuna isn't great. Castellanos is worse defensively than Mazara. Let's allow this to play out. The Sox are going to hit. We'll see if they can get some starting pitching. If they don't, that's when I'll get frustrated.

The Sox had a camera at his home when the call came in and tweeted 90 seconds of his reaction.

The same people who hate this trade will probably hate when they trade for Price too, despite clamoring for a SP, in particular Price. I think I'd rather have Mazara for Walker than Price for Walker.

Marco Gonzales

drrr Kenny always gets his guy drrrrrrrrrr

I was going to say Marte/Taillon, but Pittsburgh would probably want too much for that combo.

But it's unclear to everyone if the Sox had a chance to match that. What it sounds like is they thought they had the best offer(which they probably did), Machado's agent asked the Padres to top it, and they did without ever giving the Sox an opportunity to up their offer. But he wouldn't have if the moon never had a chance to offer more guaranteed money.

All my references? All two of them? It's quite clear Machado wanted to go to the Padres. He did. It's quite clear Wheeler wanted to go to the east coast. He did. What else are you referring to? When they overpay for guys, "these guys are idiots." But guess what, giving Machado $300M is already somewhat regrettable by the Padres and in 5 years it'll be a horrible deal, plus the guy who's playing third for the Sox now is better.

It's almost like Wheeler was going to a team out east no matter what or something So nowhere in there did he say or discuss opportunities to match SD's offer. Back to square one for you. Make another meme. Those are cool.

Riiight. A month ago when that news broke we were all thrilled, and a month later despite missing out on one pitcher and offering him more, we're already dialing up memes. Good talk. I literally just acknowledged that they fell short, but you're acting like $250M is nothing. You're also assuming that the Sox had a chance to match. Kenny said they thought they had the highest deal on the table. Perhaps Machado's agent told the Padres to top it and they did and they didn't give the Sox a chance to match. But again, you knew that.

They gave out their biggest deal ever about a month ago. They offered Wheeler more than the team he signed with. They offered Machado A SHIT LOAD OF MONEY (just not enough). If anything they overpaid Abreu, so say what you will about that, but they "over" PAID him. But hey they didn't give Strasburg $250M and the report of them signing Marcell Ozuna has been refuted so yeah perfect time for the Reinsdorf-is-cheap meme. Keep up the good work.