August 17, 20196 yr Been following the Padres box scores and while Machado has been steady, he hasn't set the world on fire or played to his contract. That said, now with benefit of hindsight and notwithstanding the clumsy courtship by front office, am curious on whether the majority believe we should have outbid Padres or that maybe we are better off without him and his $300M K.
August 17, 20196 yr Should definitely have gotten Harper, and should have at least matched Padres' offer for Machado.
August 17, 20196 yr The comments on their demise were well exaggerated. Harper would have been amazing from a marketing perspective. He is well worth his contract and we still need a right fielder.
August 17, 20196 yr I disagree about Harper. Sox have bad luck with NL players. He hasn't put up MVP numbers this year either playing in the same league.
August 17, 20196 yr Yes, Machado is on pace for a ~3.5 fWAR season which is actually roughly consistent with the value of his contract. Having him at 3B with Moncada at 2B would allow us to trade Madrigal for a controllable SP.
August 17, 20196 yr 109 wRC+, on pace for 3.3 fWAR in one of his “prime” seasons. That’s pretty ordinary if you ask me. The second half of that 10 year deal is going to be downright ugly. I’m glad they have the $250M available to address many of the numerous holes still present on the MLB roster. Infield is one of the few strengths on the roster. Use the money to upgrade RF and pitching, pitching, and more pitching.
August 17, 20196 yr Our 3rd baseman is better than Machado already and just ever so slightly cheaper.
August 17, 20196 yr Hindsight is 20/20, but Harper should've been the primary target, not Machado. The Sox are likely better for it moving forward without Machado. Same can't be said sans Harper. We need a RF, and while I get the hesitance b/c we've been burned before on NL hitters, Harper is easily the most prolific talent with the largest set of tools compared to Dunn or LaRoche. Despite the huge addition of Machado, the Sox and Padres are both making the same modest improvements from last season.
August 17, 20196 yr 11 minutes ago, Dan of Steel said: Hindsight is 20/20, but Harper should've been the primary target, not Machado. The Sox are likely better for it moving forward without Machado. Same can't be said sans Harper. We need a RF, and while I get the hesitance b/c we've been burned before on NL hitters, Harper is easily the most prolific talent with the largest set of tools compared to Dunn or LaRoche. Despite the huge addition of Machado, the Sox and Padres are both making the same modest improvements from last season. Not hindsight. I said this 6 months ago. Harper was the perfect fit. Lefty power, high on base guy that you can plug into the middle of the order and the Sox have no clear internal option for RF.
August 17, 20196 yr Harper’s all the way up to a 3 fWAR season. If you consider marketing, national relevance and what we’ve actually gotten out of RF, it would have been the right move regardless of it being nowhere close to his legendary 9.3 season in 2015.
August 17, 20196 yr 51 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said: Not hindsight. I said this 6 months ago. Harper was the perfect fit. Lefty power, high on base guy that you can plug into the middle of the order and the Sox have no clear internal option for RF. Agreed.
August 17, 20196 yr I wanted Harper, not Manny. Too many red flags. None of it really had to do with money. I hate Jerry "hoarding" it. But Manny had red flags. Again, not trying to save Jerry money, but if I were Hahn I wouldn't want to tie up a significant percentage of future payroll on a guy with red flags and with examples of players not being worth much later years of their contracts.
August 17, 20196 yr 3 hours ago, Jose Abreu said: Yes, Machado is on pace for a ~3.5 fWAR season which is actually roughly consistent with the value of his contract. Having him at 3B with Moncada at 2B would allow us to trade Madrigal for a controllable SP. Yeah and I'd bet his numbers would look better in our ballpark and playing in a league with pitchers he's familiar seeing. Oh well. As long as Madrigal is good and they spend the money on another bat for the OF or a top arm (or both) it may work out for the best.
August 17, 20196 yr 18 minutes ago, soxfan2014 said: Yeah and I'd bet his numbers would look better in our ballpark and playing in a league with pitchers he's familiar seeing. Oh well. As long as Madrigal is good and they spend the money on another bat for the OF or a top arm (or both) it may work out for the best. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Madrigal accumulated a higher WAR than Machado over the next 7 seasons (starting next year).
August 17, 20196 yr Dunn, Laroche and Frazier didn't fail because they were NL hitters. Laroche was 35 and really didn't want to play anymore; Dunn declined for some reason; and Frazier never was a great hitter to begin with - he popped homers out of the Cincy bandbox and people thought that would translate seamlessly to the Cell. Plus the Sox don't really bring out the best in the low BA, high walk, high K profile hitters: they seem to walk less, K more as the BA craters once they hit the southside. Harper is a completely different class of hitter.
August 17, 20196 yr 17 minutes ago, GreenSox said: Dunn, Laroche and Frazier didn't fail because they were NL hitters. Laroche was 35 and really didn't want to play anymore; Dunn declined for some reason; and Frazier never was a great hitter to begin with - he popped homers out of the Cincy bandbox and people thought that would translate seamlessly to the Cell. Plus the Sox don't really bring out the best in the low BA, high walk, high K profile hitters: they seem to walk less, K more as the BA craters once they hit the southside. Harper is a completely different class of hitter. Dunn had back problems and was a different hitter after he had that appendicitis for some reason.
August 17, 20196 yr 25 minutes ago, TaylorStSox said: Dunn had back problems and was a different hitter after he had that appendicitis for some reason. Didn’t he also have some heath scare with one of his kids? That may have also distracted him during that historically bad season.
August 17, 20196 yr Dunn was great in his prime but those high K 3 true outcome type of hitters don't tend to age well as their contact ability is already fringy and there is not much room to go down.
August 17, 20196 yr 1 hour ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said: It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Madrigal accumulated a higher WAR than Machado over the next 7 seasons (starting next year). It would surprise me a lot.
August 18, 20196 yr 7 hours ago, Flash said: Been following the Padres box scores and while Machado has been steady, he hasn't set the world on fire or played to his contract. That said, now with benefit of hindsight and notwithstanding the clumsy courtship by front office, am curious on whether the majority believe we should have outbid Padres or that maybe we are better off without him and his $300M K. The problem with retrospect is we don't have all the information. If instead of throwing $300 million at one of those two they give Cole 7/$210 and Puig 2/$50 and Felix Hernandez 1/$30 and Reinsdorf $10...I'd be ok with that shuffling of resources. But if the choice is...$300 mil last year for one of those two versus the Sox sitting on their wallet....well then I hate them...but I do believe they will spend.
August 18, 20196 yr 3 hours ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said: It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Madrigal accumulated a higher WAR than Machado over the next 7 seasons (starting next year). Ridiculous.
August 18, 20196 yr 7 minutes ago, Moan4Yoan said: Ridiculous. So is paying $300M for a guy that will be lucky to produce 25 WAR over the course of his contract.
August 18, 20196 yr 6 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said: So is paying $300M for a guy that will be lucky to produce 25 WAR over the course of his contract. Yet he’s at 36.7 for his career right now.
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