SoxBlanco

Good analysis. What I've always wondered is how does somebody like Boras leak info about the Manny/White Sox negotiations? If Boras calls up Buster Olney to start the leak, does Buster really just run with it and assume Boras is telling the truth when he's not even involved in the negotiations? Same with the Phillies. Why would any reporter believe their leak when the information is about the White Sox and Manny? Is the answer as simple as, "well, reporters crave information and badly want to be the one to break news these days that they will believe anything."?

We gotta keep that whale updates thread updated.

Based on all the smoke, at that point in time five days ago, he thought it would be over by today. But he didn’t have any inside source about that. It was just his guess. Now he’s guessing that this may drag on for awhile.

0.5 years for $20 million. Shatters the AAV record.

And what if the Sox have already offered $250 (either through a formal offer or informal conversation)?

Why do I feel like I read this exact post a while ago? Is this thread turning into the matrix? Or maybe like one of those never-ending staircases?

8 for $275 just makes too much sense. Very high AAV, and yet the Sox manage to stay under $300. Also, Lozano comes out looking great because he was able to get the offer raised by $100 million, even when not many teams were interested.

Ok, and then what happens when they get back to them? Probably the same conversation that I joked about.

And then what does that call sound like? Padres: Hey Lozano, I heard the highest offer is for only $25 million per year. We'd like to enter the bidding. Lozano: Actually, another team is willing to go 8 for $250 right now. Can you beat that? Padres: No Lozano: Ok, bye.

I don't believe the Sox offer has shrunk. You don't believe that, do you?

I want to believe this, but why would somebody who works directly with the big boss be letting it out that Manny to the Sox is pretty much a done deal?

There is no chance that the Sox were never really in the running because of insultingly low offers. Zero point zero percent chance.

At least.

Do you mean actually signing where the deal is official? Or just news that we have reached an agreement?

@raBBit, do you have reason to believe this saga is coming to an end soon? Or did you just mean it in a general sense?

No, Kevin Spacey.

I'm assuming Machado's camp is using SoxFest as leverage. "Hey, I know you guys would want him signed by the end of the next week. Give us this amount right now, and we'll sign."

And since the morning, we've gone from 280 pages in this thread to 288 pages with literally nothing happening.

Guy can't even charge his phone. Definitely not legit.

Any luck trying to get information? We need something to get excited or freak out about.

Perhaps. Judging by what some of our own insiders have said, I think it’s higher than that. I think we’ve officially offered at least $250 by now. But who knows how many official offers we’ve even made at this point.

You actually think our highest offer has been around $210/$220?

If the Phillies think our best offer is 7 years, they might swoop in and offer 8 for $250 thinking they have us beat. In reality, we could be sitting there with an offer of 8 for $275. It would really be great if the Sox leaked both reports. Get the conflicting 7 or 8 year reports out there and everyone will put two and two together and assume the Sox actually offered 8 years but they don't want other teams to know that. Then their true offer of 10 years won't be touched by other clubs.

I understand that, but he's saying that the report about Manny heavily leaning toward accepting our offer has been vetted and confirmed. The part where the deal could still fall through is meaningless to me. If he didn't add that, I would still think the deal could fall through. So he decided to leave himself a direct out. Big deal. The fact remains that he heard Manny is heavily leaning toward accepting our offer. That sounds good to me.

I like the sound of that.