Sarava

I followed my post up 2 minutes later saying oops I forgot Lopez.

True, though I'm glad the Sox can't sign him.

And I forgot Lopez. There's a lot of options if the Sox can sign a #1 next winter.

Personally I don't like your list. I'd rather sign one of the whales this winter, then sign Chris Sale next winter. And our rotation in 2020 consists of : 1) Sale 2) Rodon 3) Cease 4) Kopech 5) Dunning Something like that...

They're not going to get a chance like this again. 26yo star free agents don't come around too often. Let alone two of them in the same year, and when other teams arent spending much. The Sox must get one of them.

Get it done Hahn!!

There's x factors we wont know about. For instance - maybe Harper wouldn't sign with the Sox under any circumstance? We would never know if the Sox could of had him for the same contract.

As we recall, Lozano made mention of possible CBA violations and/or lying. Here was the quote "I don’t know if their sources are blatantly violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement by intentionally misleading them to try and affect negotiations through the public or are just flat out lying to them for other reasons.". The media isn't bound by the CBA - so he clearly was accusing a team there. And the Sox possible intent would be obvious. Float low numbers out there to hopefully prevent huge offers being thrown Manny's way. Yeah it would bring more suitors, but it would be low limit suitors the Sox would probably be comfortable that they could pass with an offer.

I really hope the Sox say what the hell and send him a juicy offer right before he decides. If that means Harper over Machado, then that's what Machado gets for not signing.

This all makes sense. If the Sox did offer 8/250...Manny's agent putting out this alleged Yankee offer of 220 might be trying to nudge the Sox up. Because I suspect that if both offers are true (unlikely on the Yankee end), Machado probably would take the Yankee offer. The Sox probably would need more separation than 30 mil over a Yankee offer.

I think you're being way too negative here. Really the only guy who has come to the show and disappointed a bit is Moncada. And he has time to right the ship. We all wish we would of seen more by now. But personally I still love his potential. Giolito was already considered damaged goods a bit when the trade happened. We all heard about how Washington was down on him. This trade wouldn't of happened if he was still at the peak of his value. From a Sox standpoint, comparing him to his former top prospect status just isn't the correct way to approach this. Maybe it's disappointing that Coop has been unable to get more out of him. It is what it is. I think you're being way too hard on Rutherford. Some guys take longer to develop. Let's see what he shows this year. There was talk of his body filling out over the winter, which is exactly what we needed to happen. Collins - yeah his star isn't shining quite so bright like it was when he was drafted. I wouldn't call him a non-prospect, just one who is starting to fade. He needs to have a good year in 2019. Your comments about none mean anything until they prove it at the MLB level. Well that's case with all prospects. I'm not sure why you even said that. This whole discussion spun out of you seemingly agreeing with the Sox being the 13th rated farm system. Guys like Robert, Adolfo, Madigrel,Dunning and Cease - we should be excited about them. These guys have good potential. Some of them will bomb out. Hopefully a few won't.

I wouldn't be against limiting or removing the shift.

If Manny sees his shadow, this will go on another 6 weeks?

Maybe the focus was manny at that point. But for whatever reason he hasn't signed. If the Sox switched gears and signed Harper instead, I would applaud that move.

As Sox fans we know this all too well. One of the worst things is to be 'mired in mediocrity' as Rick Hahn called it. Where you suck and are no real threat to make the playoffs, but don't suck enough to get a high draft pick - and therefore are less likely to get impact talent. I'd suggest making a total lottery for all non playoff teams. So the team that wins 87 games and misses the playoffs has the same chance at draft picks as the team that wins 61 games. Not just for the top 3 picks. Make it a total random lottery of all teams that miss the playoffs. Maybe the worst team picks 11th? Or maybe they do win the lottery. The current system penalizes teams that suck, but try to win. That's backwards.

My concern would be if the Phillies then tried to sign Manny also. Because they are already further along in their rebuild than the Sox are. Add in their acquisitions this winter, plus Bryce Harper, and they become all the more attractive. Id rather the Sox close the deal with Manny before Harper signs.

Yeah, I have no problem with Hahn thinking that signing both whales is a bad idea. I mean, the Sox will probably need to sign a pitcher or two at some point. They wont be able to afford anything decent if they have 70 mil a year tied in to 2 players.

Interestingly, Hahn did mentioned yesterday that it doesn't make sense to sign both whales. I wondered if he was just speaking frankly, or if that was a message to one of them. Or maybe a little of both.

At a certain point, the Sox should just give Harper a big offer if Lozano refuses to let this happen and if Harper signs it, then we have our whale. Imagine what Manny would get if Harper suddenly signed with the Sox and he no longer could use the Sox as leverage.

Yeah I miss Hawk. He is White Sox basebal., Jason Benetti is too stiff for my tastes. Probably not his fault. Hawk is a tough personality to follow.

I agree. There won't be another chance like this. The Sox can't lose this fight.

Yeah. To me the whole thing is a negative if they don't land a whale. You potentially have a narrative that 'players won't come here even with gobs of money thrown at them' that could develop.

I don't mind missing out on Grandal. Though maybe I have a bit of concern about Hahn's ability to sell this team, this rebuild and this city to prospective free agents. But we have no clue what they actually offered, so it's hard to make much of a judgement.

Harper related? Are they giving out complimentary hookers to attendees? What else could it be?

So umm, Richard Roeper's tweet about a pretty pretty pretty good Soxfest isn't looking too likely, eh?