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So that basically puts the Giants in the drivers seat right? Padres and A's probably don't want the contract, Dodgers might not be able to afford it. Do the Angels try to make a run at him then?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2017 -> 10:56 AM) I know, if Yoan can just make a bit more contact then that does everything. He's already hammering the ball when he hits it. Oh wait you meant the other possible superstar hitter. Yeah, but Luis Robert looks like he'll be a few years away. But it will be nice to have a CF with good power and hitting ability. Wait, you were talking about the other other possible superstar hitter.

The only thing we have going for us for Otani is the fact that we might be able to give him a big extension the earliest, but thats playing so close to the line on breaking the rules that I don't know if Reinsdorf would even okay us trying to do it. Maybe we can hope the Cubs try to get him by selling him on the city and then we come in like "Hey, we're in the same city, but we can also let you DH on off days and we have the best pitching coach in the league."

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 04:24 PM) There were at least two women who said that they were "romantically involved" with the account. Girls sent some random person they met on the internet naked pictures of themself/themselves. I know Te'o got catfished and a lot of people get duped all the time but I never knew women were getting duped too. I always the lonely guy was the typical target. It is absolutely mind-bottling to me that people have romantic relationships with people they never even meet or see on camera. I guess it's a very specific type of person who ends up in these kind of ordeals but I'm thankful that I will never be one of them. You should watch Catfish on MTV some time, its actually a pretty good show. Someone did a statistical breakdown of the series and about 2/3 of the catfish were women while victims were just about split. Also of note to this case, women were almost twice as likely to misrepresent their gender.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 05:24 PM) The 15-20% thing would apply to players 25 and over who would be eligible for MLB contracts as well. But not if they are international free agents after their 9th year (I think thats how it goes, correct me if I'm wrong.) So for the top guys who would get service time when they are 19 or 20, they would become free agents when they are lik 29, so there is only like a 4 year for them to get money from the player leaving. And even then, 20% at that point might be worth less than what they could get for a young, high potential guy right now where a team would be willing to pay the higher posting to have more cheap control. So it might not be worth the risk of the player not getting them as much money later for them to keep the player. I could also be off on all of this; I have a pretty rudimentary knowledge of NPB signing procedures.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 03:11 PM) Sherman now reporting that the MLB and NPB have a "tentative" agreement in place to extend the previous posting rules on more year, though nothing is final and the MLBPA has not yet been notified: http://nypost.com/2017/11/08/mlb-has-tenta...ne-hurdle-left/ I think the biggest problem was the MLBPA didn't want Otani to get screwed by having to leave money on the table, but once its made clear that he is willing to do that and doesn't care if his team gets more money than he does, everything will be resolved. What is interesting if how this will effect other Japanese players that might want to come over. If the previous deal is just extended a year and the next deal will have the percentage formula, NPB teams can probably get more now than a percentage of the small international caps.

Longenhagen at Fangraphs had a prospect chat and was asked if 2019 SS Bobby Witt Jr. is the best HS draft prospect regardless of class. He said if you think De Sedas can stay at SS, De Sedas is better, but Witt is definitely a SS and has more offensive potential than Turang. That really says alot about De Sedas to me especially because we have shown a willingness to take guys with defensive questions.

He is #22 on the Twins top 30 for MLBPipeline and #11 for the Twins on Fangraphs, though that one was from almost a year ago, so he'd probably be ranked lower just due to additions since then. 45 overall grade on MLBPipeline and a 40 FV on Fangraphs.

Do we have to put him on the 40 since we claimed him off waivers?

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Nov 2, 2017 -> 11:15 AM) Quoting this because it is now relevant. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/11/nego...ree-agency.html I hope he doesn't come over until he's 25 that way whatever team gets him has to pay a ton for him instead of getting him for cheap. It will be just about in our contention starts, so it might free up a free agent that can help us.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 30, 2017 -> 02:12 PM) I’m liking the idea of a De Sedas pick more and more, hopefully he’s there at #4. I think he just struggled a bit in a wood bat tournament, so I wonder how teams will view that. Hopefully with him being in Florida he will face some good competition this year so teams get a better view of him.

I think its pretty obvious that we're going to keep Renteria, but what about grabbing the guy the Cubs just fired for hitting coach. John Mallee is from Chicago and has worked for the Cubs and Astros, two pretty good hitting teams.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Oct 25, 2017 -> 07:09 PM) I believe the sox are in the 50 million range with nbc sports. about 500k per game. the sox actually make more money on nbc sports than the cubs, since the sox air about 100 games on nbc sports. the cubs get the same amount, but air much less games on nbc sports. wgn I was told was about 125k per game. So if we do end up at $100 million its really a $50 million increase? Thats good, but doesn't seem like it game-changing money that will make us change our spending habits.

QUOTE (Donaldo @ Oct 25, 2017 -> 08:21 PM) The South Bend Silver Hawks were a White Sox affiliate back in the 90s. I didn't know that. I wonder what the local baseball team that was broadcasted was at that time? There was more at play than just being an affiliate that made everyone Cubs fan, like changing the name to the Cubs so you could reuse your apparel and a new owner who redid the stadium and promotions. I'm pretty sure they've broken their attendance record each year since then. I believe the owner also use to be a minority owner of the White Sox (who some thought would eventually buy the team from Reinsdorf) but switched to the Cubs when they switched affiliations.

Does anyone know how much we make from our TV deal right now? Like saying we'll get $100 million is nice, but if we currently get $75 million its not really that much of an increase and actually might just be matching inflation or new expenses with the better cameras or something.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 16, 2017 -> 05:54 PM) Was just going to add this. The other critical benefit is to allow scouts to travel between locations more easily. Hawk mentioned this in passing during a game relatively late in the season, saying he thought Jerry was nuts at first, but that it has proven to be quite advantageous. I had thought of the player movement part, but I never considered the scouting part. That makes so much sense. I still wish we had a team near Chicago, I now see the advantages of having them all near each other which is really possible if they were near Chicago.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 15, 2017 -> 07:29 PM) I would hate running a minor league franchise where good players are always taken away without my having any say in it. It's like how do you convince anyone that the winning and losing matters? I don't think they try to. I think they get fans out by selling the game as a fun experience at a good price. Thats why there are always so many weird promotions you see in the minors.

In theory I like it, but something tells me I would hate the execution of it.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Oct 13, 2017 -> 05:24 AM) I like the idea too, but not for someone signed beyond 2 years max. So of the names they mentioned, Tomas has three years left, but could turn into a player and be part of the rebuild; Markakis only has one year left at $11mm, so he could be an ideal bridge to Eloy Jimenez if we trade Avi this offseason; and Ellsbury has 3 years left at a little over $21mm per year, so he has the worst contract, but he was also a constructive player last year and maybe could hold down center until Luis Robert arrives.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Oct 12, 2017 -> 10:01 PM) The title says just buy low; the OP used a young player as his suggestion. If you are looking for guys to flip, well, I have no idea. I don't think that should be a prime concern. They will need a veteran starter and a reliever to absorb innings...if they can be flipped in July, then that's fine. But anyone they sign should be cheap. I'd still like to see them look at Martes; Astros have moved prospects and young players. And in his post he asked what guys we can get cheap. But we're arguing semantics. The thread was mostly going towards what veterans we could sign or guys we could trade for without giving up much. I don't think Martes fits either category.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Oct 12, 2017 -> 07:30 PM) Because he stunk it up this year. His price should be discounted. He looks like a good Cooper candidate to me, where his value in Chicago is greater than his value in Houston The OP also used a similar example. Better candidates, to me than aging veterans, for whom the price is down because the production is down, with very little chance of recovery. Rarely are they a discount. What is your definition of "buy-low" candidate. I think part of it is we are mostly looking at cheap buy low, sell high guys. I don't think we are trying to name every prospect that has lost some value so we should try to trade for them because it's a "bargain"

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 12, 2017 -> 06:02 PM) The knights seem like a goldmine and a great setup down there. Believe they led all of minor leagues in attendance for two years before finishing 3rd this year. Sox should not risk losing them if they don't have to. Downtown ballpark in a major city with that view is special. Of course they don't own the park so I'm not sure how that would work. Yeah, I know Charlotte has a great set up, but what about Kannapolis? There are single-a teams near Chicago in Peoria and Kane County. So I guess you have to weigh the advantages of having a lot of your teams in one area in the Carolinas or having the potential of adding fans by having a minor league team near the big club.

QUOTE (turnin' two @ Oct 12, 2017 -> 05:02 PM) Is Tomas really a type of give away candidate? He was injured for most of this season, but last year had a 30 HR 30 2B season. He is only 26. He isn't a strong defender, but certainly a guy the Dbacks could continue to use, and if they don't re-sigh JD, he will probably be penciled in as a starter, I would think at least. It sounds like are trying to get out from under his contract, so yeah, if a team is willing to take it own it sounds like they would be willing to give him away. I think the big problem is that he doesn't get on base enough for his offenisve value to be high while his defense is atrocious and brings him down to a negative WAR guy. So far he's basically a slightly better hitter than Matt Davidson, but a much worse defender at a non-premium defensive position while costing ~18X more last year.

I've noticed that a lot of teams are buying their minor league affiliates now, and a couple seem to be trying to get teams closer to their big league club. I know how nice the Knights stadium is, but I wouldn't hate getting some of the other affiliates closer to Chicago. I might help build up the fan base in the region. I lived in South Bend for a couple years and when the local minor league team became an affiliate of the Cubs, a lot of locals became Cubs fans because they had a team they could both watch on TV and watch players who may one day make it there or big league guys on rehab assignments. A second thing I noticed going over minor league affiliates is that we have fewer minor league teams than most organizations. When you look at the lowest four levels (Short Season A, Rookie, Complex, DSL) we have three teams in these league while the average for the rest of baseball is 3.8 with only 10 other teams having only 3 teams. I think it might be a wise investment to try to get a Short Season A ball team so some of the youngest guys we have can get more live at bats. This could be especially important if we end up going HS heavy in the coming drafts.

Chen is intertesting because he could fill one of the rotation spots and could have a bounce back year where we could potentially flip him. He's also on the Marlins and we know how much they need to shed salary, so I don't think it would be hard to get him. The downside is that he is signed through 2020 and the last two years are pretty expensive, so if we can't trade him we might be on the hook for that. I like Tomas because he is still young, would deepen the Cuban connection, and the D-Backs are in a position to content next year but need more financial flexibility, so they may be more willing than most to give up a prospect to clear room. Ellsbury or Markakis (assuming we trade Avi) could be interesting options to hold down spots on the big league club until Robert and Jimenez are ready.