Black_Jack29

Since they're not necessarily competing this season, I don't have a problem with Palka in the outfield every day. My guess is that Abreu gets traded around the ASB, Alonso moves to 1B, and Palka spends most of his time at DH at that point.

Yeah, that and signing Alonso and Jay to coax him to take less money. I guess you could make an argument that Alonso helps the lineup somewhat and might be a decent short-term stopgap, especially if the Sox part ways with Abreu soon. But there's no reason for Jay to be on our roster. Signing those two reeks of gimmicky desperation and a lack of professionality.

When did KW ever convince JR to fork over $300M to a single player? Or $200M? When has any Sox GM in the past 35+ years convinced JR to fork over even $100M to a single player? Preller may be a better GM than Hahn, but not because he's more persuasive. JR has demonstrated over and over again that he's cheap-ass and no GM on the planet would've convinced him to give Machado that contract.

And if the Sox surprise (unlikely, but it's happened... 1990 and 2000, for example), you can always go back to paying more attention to them.

This is excellent advice. Nobody on this board can control how much money JR is willing to fork over on a free agent, what shenanigans the front office will pull, the qualify of the organization's scouting, or what in-game decisions Renteria will make. So why get super-upset about it, to the point when you're wasting time by whining about it over and over again and making yourself miserable in the process? If your significant other treated you the way that the Sox front office treats its fans, would you stay with him/her? I'm not saying that people need to kick the Sox to the curb, but "just being casual friends" isn't a bad option at this point. I don't think that I posted here once last season, because that craphole of a team wasn't worth my energy. I don't think that I even watched 10 games on TV. Time that I could've spent watching the Sox suck was spent with my wife and kids instead, and I was a lot happier because of it. If you don't have a significant other or kids, go adopt a dog, start going to the gym more, or learn to play a musical instrument or something. Focus on the things that make you happy. Nobody is forcing you to be a Sox fan and nobody wants you to be miserable.

No, Machado has a smart agent who told him to hold out for what he wanted (at least $300M guaranteed). And given that JR wasn't prepared to spend anywhere near that, we were never really prepared to snag him in the first place.

It probably didn't help that San Diego County is arguably the nicest place in the country to live if you're wealthy.

I don't know how contract negotiations work in MLB, but if there isn't an official document (like when you're putting an offer down on a house), there's ample room for misinformation. As I said earlier, I just don't believe that a notoriously cheap owner like JR would approve spending $250M on a contract when his highest contract up to that point was $68M. My theory is that the lowball $175M offer was real and the $250M offer was a PR stunt orchestrated to try to convince us that the Sox really, really tried to sign Machado. I don't believe that JR ever intended to pay him $200M+.

So do we know for sure that there was actually a $250M guaranteed offer from the Sox? Is it possible that the Sox front office simply leaked this, and that their actual offer was the lowball 7/175 offer leaked last month?

My guess is that it's generally accepted that Harper is going to be more expensive than Machado. And if the Sox were out-bid on Machado, they basically have no prayer of landing Harper. I want to see evidence of this $250M offer to Machado. Because it makes no sense to me that known-cheapskate owner JR, who has never spent more than $68M on a player, was suddenly willing to offer Machado almost four times that.

That sounds more like a realistic Reinsdorf-approved offer than $250M. It makes more sense to me that JR would throw out a lowball $175M offer than a more competitive $250M offer because I don't think that he actually wanted to sign Machado. This whole thing seems like a hey-fans-we-tried PR stunt that, given how bad the Sox front office is at PR, went bad.

Forgive me if this question has already been asked/answered, but is there any documented proof that the Sox actually offered Machado a deal worth $250M guaranteed? I'm not privy to the contract negotiations process in MLB, but if the "offers" being reported consist of GMs and agents talking over the phone (the contents of which are then leaked to the media), what's to stop a front office from releasing false information? I've been following this organization for a long time, and I have a difficult time believing that Reinsdorf would commit $200M to any player, much less $250M. Furthermore, Reinsdorf is what, 82 now? If he's likely to sell the team at some point in the next 2-3 years, why would he want an extra $200M+ of liabilities on the books during that sale? That doesn't make sense.

I wish Danks the best of luck, but I think it's obvious that his ML career is over.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 05:30 PM) Just looking at how the Sale trade went, teams don't appear to be willing to part with close to majors dynamic talent. I'd rather take the big lottery tickets with Tucker/Rodgers than downgrading for less impact talent. Moncada is probably a half to one season away from being ML-ready and is about as dynamic as it gets.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 06:22 PM) Well you kind of hit on it already, but Moncada will almost assuredly be arriving by Opening Day 2018, so 2b will be covered. As for 3rd it wasn't until this year the Sox really found someone who wasn't a trainwreck. Saladino is a good enough defender to hold down the fort another season if need be as well. If the Sox want to let Frazier walk (if they can't get value in a trade return), go with Saladino at 3B for the next couple of years, and sign an aging DH or something to hit behind Abreu in 2018/2019, that's fine with me. If they're not too mad at Hahn for him using them as negotiating leverage in the Sale deal, a deal for Robertson could definitely happen this month, rather than July.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 04:55 PM) Tyler Saladino at 3rd, Brett Lawrie at 2nd. I dont think those two will carry the team to any division titles but they both competent and it wont be a disgrace to the game having them man those spots full time. Carlos Sanchez would spell Lawrie periodically too. I'm looking past next season, where Lawrie is a FA and is almost certainly gone. I like Saladino well enough at 3B for now, and I guess that they could use Sanchez at 2B until Moncada is ready. But I think that the Sox really need somebody in the lineup other than Abreu who can drive in runs, even during a rebuild. You need to field enough of a team to get at least a million warm bodies through the turnstiles in 2018. If JR doesn't want to pay $50M for Frazier, that's understandable. But they'll need somebody besides Abreu to hit the occasional homer in 2018.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 04:38 PM) More downside Last year was the worst full season of his career; it came after a dreadful 2nd half of 2015. He's okay defensively - but I Don't see how his defense improves. On other notes - Yes, Jones should have good value; to max it, let him close; of course, it you may get more marginal value letting Robertson close and hope he has a better year than last year, whose mediocrity stares trading partners in the face. But Jones should absolutely be on the block. Here's another one - Burdi. He was drafted for quick ascendancy to the major league bullpen; well that isn't the priority any more. Put him out there, and trade him if he pitches like they think. Hahn has done a good job tearing down and trading for minor leaguers. But he and Williams have got to do a better job in their own house: drafting, development and international signings. Further, they have to improve their major league scouting. But most of all, the same Hahn and Williams who abysmally failed at building a team around a Q, Sale, et al core will soon be in charge of building a team around the new prospects. I hope Hahn has learned something. If the Sox can't acquire a young 3B via trade before the trade deadline, it may make some sense to sign Frazier to a four-year deal as a "bridge" player, provided that he doesn't cost that much. They need to field a team and they need players that fans know and like. If Frazier is OK with spending the next two years on a rebuilding team (which I doubt) and will settle for 4/50 (I think he could get 4/60 as a FA), signing him to an extension would be OK with me. That said, I don't think that he'll want to stick around.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 10:31 AM) Basabe is a player we should be gambling on, because if he can improve his hit tool all of the other tools are above average It sounds like he's Trayce Thompson with more upside. That's not a bad for being the third-best player in a deal.

I like Hahn, but he was in full politician mode in this interview (as usual) and his responses are designed more to maximize his organization's leverage and image than to tell the truth (as usual). And don't get me wrong - that's exactly what he should be doing. But there's almost no point in listening to what he says.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 10, 2016 -> 08:40 AM) http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/12/2018...ree-agents.html That is the list. It isn't a bad list but I do think except for Harper, Machado, and probably Kershaw, it is a bit overrated. I don't think the Sox have even a slight shot at Harper or Kershaw. JR saving his money until then might be able to shock the world and get Machado, but the odds have to be huge against it. Donaldson will be 33 in 2019, which is almost considered a fossil these days. The vast majority of those guys will be dinosaurs in 2018, but I could see us spending on somebody like Yasmany Tomás and a catcher.

Hahn doesn't need to do everything this month, but guys like Q, Robertson, Melky, and Frazier (if they don't re-sign him) need to be moved by the end of July. What he doesn't want to do is wait until next winter to move Q and risk Q injuring his arm later this season.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 10, 2016 -> 09:27 AM) As deep as that class is, there are going to be quite a few teams left out in the cold. We'll likely be one of them. I hope not. That's right around the time when the Sox will need to add one or two pieces to round out a roster that should be semi-decent by 2019. Plus, fan interest will be at a low by then.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 12:37 AM) That said, at times he rubbed me the wrong way. I thank him for his time here though and wish him well. I'll never forget the amazing defensive show he put on last year. Ditto

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 12:07 PM) Gotta keep someone to have a few fans show up to the park every night. Yep, and Abreu is under team control for three more years, but he's year-to-year now that he opted out of his contract and into arbitration. That's about as low-risk as you're going to get for somebody with Abreu's offensive output. So it totally makes sense to keep Abreu around until his skills diminish or the Sox stumble upon a better long-term option for 1B.