Southwest Sider

Look, I am as excited as the next guy that we appear to be major players in the Harper sweepstakes. I definitely get swept up in emotion and admittedly get "silly"... ...Which is exactly what we are doing. Now I just want to preface this by saying being us being silly by thinking we will land Harper doesn't necessarily mean it's not going to happen. Indeed, sillier things have happened. It's easy to get caught up in Soxtalk groupthink. And while I agree that Jack Parkmans constant back and forth with people who disagree with him ruins threads, I do agree with him to an extent here and commend him for challenging the groupthink that I admit that I have participated in. We really do need to face the facts and really temper expectations here. I'm not going to say that there's a 0% chance the Sox sign Harper, but the reality is that it is highly unlikely that he actually wants to sign with the Sox. He may think the farm is kind of nice, and that Chicago is cool, but this is a franchise that has basically lost the battle for Chicago to the Cubs. They are without a doubt, a completely irrelevant franchise to MLB fans in general, and of course, the national media that we love to hate. The tides can always change, they have before, but as we sit here right now and look at body of work JR has done as Sox owner.. it is generally not good. The Big Hurt and some ok teams kept the Sox relevant in the 90s, and obviously 05 was a big deal, but somewhere in between there it became "cool" to be a Cubs fan. Winning the World Series probably staved off some of that irrelevancy, but they did not sustain success and basically started becoming a joke of a franchise. It can be best summarized by saying: "They 'tried to compete' for 10 years since 05, made the playoffs once and got smoked, tried to fill holes with marginal free agents. Big splash trades rarely worked (Samardzija, Frazier to name some), most prospects busted and in general, the Sox version of trying to compete was a total joke as the Tigers, Indians and Royals made painfully clear to us, year after year". Now, if you're Bryce Harper, do you really want to sign here? We'd have to be hoping that Harper is some kind of person who is willing to bring a franchise out of irrelevancy, which isn't even a guarantee would happen. Given no other options, Harper probably would demand an opt out after year 3 and if the rebuild hasn't taken major steps forward at that point, he is gone. Harper would go a long way towards making the Sox relevant again ONLY if the rebuild works. Trying my best to put myself in Harpers shoes here, but if I am him I am waiting until the Dodgers or the Cubs or some other team that wants me but can't logistically make it work yet figures it out. Then I am signing there as soon as they offer the same or a better contract than the White Sox. There are numerous arguments as to why neither team will be able to work, and they are indeed good arguments, but I think there will eventually be a moment where one of the owners of these teams realizes that a young stud is literally standing outside my door waiting for me to let him in, and they will find a way to make it happen. I would absolutely love to be proven wrong, but while my heart says Harper signs here, the brain disagrees strongly. In short, yes, we are being silly. But stranger things have happened.

/thread

Well this conflicts everything I thought I knew regarding JR's relationship with Scott Boras. Or maybe it was KW I was thinking of...

Gotta hope Harper likes the outlook of our talent then. But it wouldn't be surprising if he preferred a more established contender.

Will Boras be on MLB Network?

He's making concessions so that he can sign with a team other than the Sox. Sucks to suck. ?

To me that says that it definitely will be a drawn out process, well past the Winter Meetings. Or it means those guys are shut out from info and instead info is getting leaked to "friends of friends" when it probably shouldn't be.

I love that "Luke" guy flexing his confidence in his sources. Liam doing the same thing... "don't sleep on my sources". These guys are crazy.

Well, at least one of them is a liar. Probably both of them. This is just nuts.

I was going to say something very similar. He's still very young and has a ton of potential.. maybe not defensively.. but I don't think anyone would be shocked if he turned into the top bat in whatever league he ends up signing in.

If I were more of a gambler, and looked at the scenario as it is, I might. Especially if I was given nice odds. But I wouldn't bet a lot.

Man, Kluber is 32 years old. That's not horrible, but this seems like a great time to just sell high on a guy because he could be starting the downswing of his career. Good for Cleveland if they extract a lot of talent from LA.

I have a quick argument as to why the Sox should probably bid against themselves if they truly want Harper. The Dodgers are lurking, they are attempting to shed their excess OFs. One can only imagine that if the Dodgers offer a similar contract to the Sox, he will go to the Dodgers. But first, they have some work to do. Maybe the Sox should just ask Boras/Harper... "what contract do you want?", then try to put it together to give them the highest possible chance that he signs now instead of in January. There's not much beating around the bush you can do if a team basically meets your demands. Sadly, I don't even think Boras would be happy with a 400m contract... he'd try to find someone to bid 410. The longer it drags on, the more opportunities other teams will find to make a Harper signing work. On the flip side, the Dodgers could also sign Harper now and worry about their other OF later, though it does hurt their position in trade negotiations.

That'd be some premium entertainment right there. PPV prices I'd probably jump at.

That last quote from Hahn is awfully cryptic. Not going to try and get mine or anyone elses hopes up, but it seems to me he wouldn't really say that unless he was told by another party that that was the case.

Nationals? Didn't see that coming.

Could be a bit of a buyers market for SPs considering how many good ones are available via trade.

?

Wow, I literally just read this on the Athletic before seeing that. It’s not clear when Bowman will negotiate a new contract with Nick Schmaltz, but it’ll be on his list of things to do before next season. Schmaltz has so far underperformed this season with two goals and eight assists in 22 games. “He’s playing better lately,” Bowman said. “Obviously he hasn’t scored a lot of goals. He’s not really a goal-scorer per se, but he did have 22 last year. We’re looking for that. We’re looking for him to score some goals. … Haven’t really used him at center much. I think we’ll try him at some point here because he’s probably more natural there. “But as far as his contract goes, I’m not that worried about that whether it’s going to be a shorter term or a longer term. We’ll figure that out as time comes. But I think the most important thing is for Nick to get his confidence. I’ve seen signs of it lately where he’s had the puck more, he’s making some plays. Like to see him shoot the puck and he’s heard that a million times. That’s a work in progress. His contract isn’t like a top-of-mind issue right now. We’re not up against the cap, so it’s not really like a problem point.”

It's laughable that this guy thinks Boras would let his client sign somewhere for $50 million less dollars. Boras is in it for his big payday too, not just Harper's.

If the Sox sign Bryce Harper and Bryce Harper doesn't live up to expectations (assuming good health), it will be Bryce Harper's fault, not Rick Hahn's. This isn't really a case where bad free agent scouting can be your downfall. These guys are elite MLB free agents, potential Hall of Famers.

Now that is something I forgot about. At least it seems he will still be giving the Sox the time of day to discuss a deal.

I am an optimist but at this early juncture I can't help but look at the Sox from 11-20% given how many other potential suitors there still are.

If Duensing chose a 7M contract over an 8M contract, that is a LOT of money for him to forfeit given his earning power is less than a guy like Harper. Harper likely won't, but he could choose a contract with say 10 million less dollars and not even worry about batting an eye at it because it's still 300+ million dollars. 1 extra million means a lot more to a guy making 7 million than 10 million to a guy making 350 million. I hope that made sense. EDIT: To remove 10 million "per year" error.

Yeah I honestly don't see the appeal of a pitch that includes putting his jersey on the Jordan statue and his name on the digital banners. I mean, I guess it would be kind of cool if I was Bryce, but a little over the top. Sox looking for that wow factor? Or are they filming an introduction video? A fan can dream.. ?