If the Sox truly feel they have the top bid and that they waited everyone out for a closing offer, then ..yes..announcing at SoxFest makes sense. Because this franchise struggles to score top in-Chicago news attention amongst the major sports teams, and SoxFest is their time to go guns a-blazing and capture that bored third-party fan (i.e. the Blackhawks fan) who is a free agent currently with their attention up for the taking.

We don't have enough info to know just how much 'upper hand' the Sox have, but if you are open to the possibility that the Sox hold good cards, then this scenario is possible. 

Signing Manny is about signing a superstar for the franchise, so PR is a part of this - don't discount it

I could see the Sox having gotten into Joc with a small offer and then pulling back when other offers came in.

He fits as a lefty bat but there's basically no way we're win-now in Year 1, and OF is deep farm-wise. 

I also don't know if I see the point in making trades when your payroll is low and 3 WAR players are signing for a bag of Funyuns currently

4 minutes ago, SoCalSox said:

Trusted information from board insiders & even Ken Rosenthal says otherwise. 

Sox are in discussions with LAD for Joc. Have been for about a week now. 

What?

MLBTradeRumors said they're not a match, because they really aren't.  That doesn't meant it can't happen, it just doesn't seem to make a ton of sense, especially for the Dodgers.  As far as I saw MLBTradeRumors didn't say they didn't have discussions.

Also, are your referring to the same Ken Rosenthal that said the deal isn't close?

 

2 minutes ago, GREEDY said:

What?

MLBTradeRumors said they're not a match, because they really aren't.  That doesn't meant it can't happen, it just doesn't seem to make a ton of sense, especially for the Dodgers.  As far as I saw MLBTradeRumors didn't say they didn't have discussions.

Also, are your referring to the same Ken Rosenthal that said the deal isn't close?

 

MLB Trade Rumors is saying they aren't a match. What I'm saying is that they don't really have any inside info.

 

Rosenthal has indeed reported that they have had talks, maybe nothing is close but there's plenty to support that they are a potential match. That's the entire point, which flies in the face of what MLBTR is saying. 

8 minutes ago, beckham15 said:

So back to harper and Machado combo it is ?

I am staring to wonder besides the Phillies, who is legitimately in on these guys. Maybe the Nationals. But maybe. This may be the one time the Sox hope that the market comes back to them might actually work, especially if these guys really don’t like Philly. If Machado’s agent was sitting on an 8 year $250 million offer or better, why would he become so pissed off at Olney and Nightengale? Makes me think the money is a lot closer to what Levine is telling us then we may believe. And Harper? What if it was the White Sox leaking interest in Joc Pederson to get Boras to get off the pot before he lost yet another suitor, and maybe had zero leverage sending one of his all time highest profiled clients to a place he didn’t want to go? 

I guess it’s like having a $100 million house. Probably great to live in, but if you need to sell it, getting full value is going to be tough.The market is too limited. See Jordan residence highland park,IL. On top of it, these guys do eventually have some kind of deadline.

15 minutes ago, bmags said:

Maybe but Dye was like watching someone run in a pool in 2008.

I definitely remember that clusterfuck.  I think that shows how much of an issue this potentially could be.  I'm one of those who thinks Palka is 100% unplayable in the field.  I hope he's worked on it and I'm wrong but man, he looked beyond lost last year.  And I've also been turned around on Joc in center, not a good idea.

 

They should change the rules so Engel can play center and Palka hit for him.  Someone get me Manfred on the phone.

2 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

I am staring to wonder besides the Phillies, who is legitimately in on these guys. Maybe the Nationals. But maybe. This may be the one time the Sox hope that the market comes back to them might actually work, especially if these guys really don’t like Philly. If Machado’s agent was sitting on an 8 year $250 million offer or better, why would he become so pissed off at Olney and Nightengale? Makes me think the money is a lot closer to what Levine is telling us then we may believe. And Harper? What if it was the White Sox leaking interest in Joc Pederson to get Boras to get off the pot before he lost yet another suitor, and maybe had zero leverage sending one of his all time highest profiled clients to a place he didn’t want to go? 

I guess it’s like having a $100 million house. Probably great to live in, but if you need to sell it, getting full value is going to be tough.The market is too limited. See Jordan residence highland park,IL. On top of it, these guys do eventually have some kind of deadline.

+1

1 minute ago, bschmaranz said:

I definitely remember that clusterfuck.  I think that shows how much of an issue this potentially could be.  I'm one of those who thinks Palka is 100% unplayable in the field.  I hope he's worked on it and I'm wrong but man, he looked beyond lost last year.  And I've also been turned around on Joc in center, not a good idea.

 

They should change the rules so Engel can play center and Palka hit for him.  Someone get me Manfred on the phone.

I don’t know how to do defensive splits but I actually thought he progressed a lot.

17 minutes ago, SoCalSox said:

Trusted information from board insiders & even Ken Rosenthal says otherwise. 

Sox are in discussions with LAD for Joc. Have been for about a week now. 

Yup, this is correct.

3 hours ago, raBBit said:

He already broke it when he said that Machado didnt want to leave chicago without signing  weeks ago. 

Just put me on ignore already. Thanks.

3 hours ago, fathom said:

The Cubs drafted phenomenally, which sped up their rebuild.  The Sox rebuild could be significantly improved right now, but their first round picks have been a disaster (Fulmer, Collins, Burger).

Players with more than 1 career WAR drafted by Jed and Theo with the Cubs:

Bryant (21.6 in 559 games)

Almora (3.5 in 331 games)

David Bote (1.0 in 74 games)

Zack Godley (traded for Miguel Montero)

Kyle Schwarber (2.7 in 337 games)

Ian Happ (2.3 in 257 games)

 

After Bryant, who was obviously very important but was also the most obvious choice a team is going to get, we're not exactly looking at murderer's row here. Some of these guys may very well take on bigger roles in the coming years but weren't important for their World Series win.

 

2 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Since no one remembers, the trick with Semien was that he put up like 40 errors his first year with the As as shortstop, and a couple months into the season they had to bring Rob Washington in to work with him. They made comments about how he’d just never done drills or worked on footwork as a shortstop. Those comments weren’t made as shots at the white Sox but instead they were explaining why he had so many terrible errors.

but, from a white Sox perspective, how a guy could come up through their system playing SS more than any other position without doing basic footwork training, that was truly mind boggling. 

And out of that, the As developed one of the better fielding shortstops in the league, because they worked at it and the White Sox did not.

thats not a commentary on how stupid the trade was, that was a look inside the white Sox development failures that the As gave us without meaning to. 

I think the bolded is an overstatement of where Semien's defense is. His numbers looked quite good last year, for the first time. Looking at the full body of work, I don't think it's even fair to say he's clearly better than Tim Anderson, whose defensive development is a feather in the cap for the White Sox.

8 minutes ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Just put me on ignore already. Thanks.

You’re back! So what was the update you got?

1 minute ago, Jake said:

I think the bolded is an overstatement of where Semien's defense is. His numbers looked quite good last year, for the first time. Looking at the full body of work, I don't think it's even fair to say he's clearly better than Tim Anderson, whose defensive development is a feather in the cap for the White Sox.

Really? Semien's defense was better than Anderson's substantially last year, Anderson's numbers last year were good following a really bad season, I said "he's one of the better defensive SS in the league", and that's not ok but saying that Anderson's defensive development is a feather in the cap for the White Sox is ok?

Fine, Anderson's defensive development is a feather in the cap of the White Sox and the A's have the whole bleeping bird.

1 minute ago, SoxBlanco said:

You’re back! So what was the update you got?

Nothing more than I already tweeted. Based on who said there would be surprises, there is reason to believe it might be Manny related, but since it was vaguely "some surprises at SoxFest", I didn't include it in my tweets. 

7 minutes ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Nothing more than I already tweeted. Based on who said there would be surprises, there is reason to believe it might be Manny related, but since it was vaguely "some surprises at SoxFest", I didn't include it in my tweets. 

You mean we have to downplay all of those eyeballs? Shame.

1 hour ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Bullshit. 1st of all we don't have Machado yet or Pederson and all of sudden adding Keuchel to a terrible group of starting pitchers is going to make a team that had 62 wins last year a contender. Ater we get that starting pitcher and Machado and Pederson talk to me in October but chances are getting all 3 is a long shot which makes being a contender in 2019 an even bigger long shot .

Regardless of what happens with Machado, this starting staff as it stands today is awful.  Sure I would expect guys to improve, but 25 games worth?  No way.

maybe we sign Shawn Kelley, beef up the reliever mix with current FA dollars, but then only send ready-now cheap young relievers to LAD for Joc. Hamilton/Fry would be the ones to catch their eye i'm sure, but if we did that, then the youth& farm is left untouched , at least re: non-relievers

 

Just now, Heads22 said:

 

Was just about to post this. Gotta be either Joc, or a possible pitcher signing.

1 minute ago, Heads22 said:

 

Probably just barstool related lol. 

Trade with the Tigers for Gordo!?!?!

Bryce.

1 minute ago, CWSpalehoseCWS said:

Was just about to post this. Gotta be either Joc, or a possible pitcher signing.

Well the last of the better pen arms left in free agency are getting heavy interest 

1 hour ago, OmarComing25 said:

Both of these statements are wrong.

Last year our position players didn't crack 10 WAR. 

Steamer also currently projects 16 WAR from our position players without Machado. With Machado it'd be ~20. Add in Joc and it's ~22.

 

Just now, aeichhor said:

Well the last of the better pen arms left in free agency are getting heavy interest 

This is probably what it is, or a starter. 

1 minute ago, South Side Fireworks Man said:

Bryce.

One can hope.