SonofaRoache

It's because the Sox have never spent the money necessary to sign those guys. They were optimistic about us landing Machado because his market consisted of two teams, none of which were top teams. They were optimistic about us signing JDM this year if he opted out because we were his only chance at a big deal. Thus, we are the favorites for guys who no one important is also chasing. Which means players that will be sought after by top teams will not be on our radar in the eyes of the experts.

I don't see Grandal and Wheeler unless we blow the market away. If we end up with lower tier guys, I can see Hahn talking about how the market didn't produce many realistic opportunities. And how there will be more opportunities down the line, but the money will be spent.

Or maybe the Sox are being fair with their franchise icon and letting him test his own market to aid negotiations.

I don't think we trade for JDM when there is a 90 percent chance he opts out after the season.

I wouldn't do that to you.

There is one small downside to Didi..... he sucks as the hitter we need.

Odd how the advanced stats weren't mentioned for Lowe and Eloy. No mention of OPS or OPS+ or WAR or defensive ratings. Simply batting average, RBIs, and home runs lol.

Cole. He can go a month being unhittable.

Abreu is getting a 2 year deal from us, maybe even 3. The QO is just a dog and pony show between the 2 sides.

I feel bad for saying this because many of you are excited, but we aren't getting Grandal. There will be 6 teams fighting for him and we probably won't be one of them. The reason many of us wanted JDM is because he is a great hitter who had essentially zero options but us. I think we go from JDM to Edwin. Nick Castellanos is just too bad defensively.

Rick Hahn and Jerry would need to go into witness protection in boys town.

People dont get this. What are the odds we outbid these other teams and are viewed as a positive destination?

Will this thing get announced at 11PM?

Cole vs Strasburg???- Whoever signs first.

Yolmer is okay, but I'm not sure if he is 6 million okay.

Thank you. Makes sense now, but defeats the purpose of the deadline.

But what is being said is that Boston has until 5pm to offer him the QO. In turn, JDM doesn't have to decide until midnight if he will opt out. I'm not certain of the accuracy of this info, but it is confusing but answered.

Baseball is better at getting away with cheating. I'm pretty sure agents are involved with the tampering as players would certainly keep their agent in the loop. Obviously, none of us can prove things one way or the other.

JDM is not a free agent until he opts out. Can Boston even offer him the QO if he is still technically on the roster? This is weird.

But the Miami Heat cleared the exact space necessary to sign three Max contracts. No other team did that because no other team believed they had a shot in hell at signing 3 Hall of Famers in one off season. I'm certain Miami just guessed correctly and didn't speak to them at all, which would have been illegal. I never said Boras would call the Sox, I said he would use back channels to get information.

Getting caught tampering is like getting caught using roids. Sure it sucks and hits the pride hard, but you still get to keep the 100 million dollars you earned.

Well it happens all the time. Unless of course, you think Lebron, Wade, and Bosh all woke up one day and decided to play together and that Miami clearing space was all three before FA started was a "coincidence". Scott Boras can't talk to the Sox directly, but he can talk to a friend of a friend of a friend of Hahn's and get his opinion about potential Sox news and goings on.

Yep.

Things have changed now, we have a team set up that needs it. They need to prove times have changed.

What concerns would we have? I hope they pitch their 2nd and 3rd this off-season as we have more use for good major league talent opposed to AAA fodder at this point. This doesn't mean draft picks aren't important, just that we can sacrifice them for immediate talent upgrades.