SonofaRoache

Well Philly is attracting Harper and lots of other stars go there to play. You tried to sell Philly as a small market and it isn't. Whether you like Philly or not is your business, but it's a large market.

Again we need to stop focusing on the total amount of the contract as opt outs will deem that number meaningless. I agree the difference in salary to us would be marginal, and front loading a contract makes things much easier for us. As well as gives Harper or Manny incentive to opt out and redo.

No and no. If you actually read my posts instead of one mostly in jest you'd know where I'd stand. But you cannot read, so I wouldn't expect that.

He's trying to convince people Philly is a small when it is a top 5 mlb market and top 7 size US city.

Look at our 2007 attendance. If we win, people will come. Harper alone will start it but we must win.

Well of course but my point is Sox fans aren't going to Wrigley to see anyone. Maybe a handful baseball purists will. And Kris Bryant isn't too far off from Harper when he was MVP. Everyone was ducking him off.

They were probably there with a significant other or family member, not to see any Sox players. How many people here have gone to Wrigley to see a Cubs player?

I'm not buying this. Sox fans didn't flock to Wrigley to see Lester or Bryant or Heyward or anyone.

But we aren't a winner yet and that's my point. We are also asking him to take a big leap of faith that it could happen. Whereas Philly is there now. This is also probably the reason most of the GMs feel he is signing in Philly.

How does this set the rebuild back? We still have young talent coming up so it isn't FA or bust. At some point we will have to spend on FA's to compliment our youth. Better to do it now in a strong class than wait to spend for a class with a bunch of junk.

I think Cleveland is making them think. They have a lot of young talent and enough money to spend to compete against a Cleveland team in danger of winning 86 games or less. They were gonna spend big next year to compete in 2020, so they may say why not do it now while good players are available.

If people dont like chokes why would they like us? Harper would help, but how do we get our rightful share when the Cubs are on a tear?

Google search baseball markets. There is a big difference between city market and baseball market. The Sox have the third largest market, but in terms of baseball, they are much smaller because the Cubs dominate the market.

Google the stats and see for yourself. They are always between 5 and 9 in market rankings. The cities that have 2 teams split their markets. That's why the Sox have a lower market size.

Philly has a top 5 market. Our Sox are middle of the pack.

Those guys contracts won't be back breakers though. Brantley is a good player who would help us a lot for 3 years and Happ would be here for 2 two years.

I dont think extra money will play the big role we all think. Mainly because he will want an early opt out anyway to renegotiate the back end money. Front loading his contract would put us over the top imo.

I agree completely. The question is does Harper want to risk his presence will do this and things will turn out fine over what Philly and SF already has? It would be interesting to see how Kenny and Hahn play this.

Even if Hahn spends money and the return isn't as great as it should be, these moves will be in addition to our great prospects. That's why I want to give Harper or Machado a fifth year opt out while front loading their contracts. If it isn't working, they would probably opt out, and if it is working, we would be in a great position to re-sign them.

After reading Boras comments and from what I see, Harper wants to be a star. He wants that spotlight bad and wants to be the common era babe ruth. I think Philly has a huge advantage over us in this regard and they also have a further along rebuild. I wonder how we will sell him on being that type of star here. Yeah it is Chicago, but we do not have that electric environment or feel that the Cubs have.

Most fans at Hawks games are Cubs fans, so they'd probably boo.

Rick Hahn can get from the meetings to Chicago in a few hours. So him being at the GM meetings wouldn't necessarily prevent him from meeting with Harper if it came down to it.

True, but other teams historically have spent way more than us. I hope we go balls to the wall, but will we spend 25 to 50 million more than anyone else to secure a big fish?

Never complained about paying MJ before. However, the Bulls usually want to spend big on FA's but struggle to do so, finishing second a lot. I am hopeful the Sox won't suffer the same fate.

Are you a Bulls fan?