Soxbadger

I would be shocked if the White Sox ever lowered their "formal" offer.

Mous's agent is Boras. Hell likely wait for Machado to set the market.

Id just drop it. Anyone who wants to feed at the trough of *insider* news is going to keep coming at you. I find the *inside* information has gotten ridiculous and run its course. It doesnt help facilitate discussion, it doesnt create good threads, it creates people begging for a little insight of something that may or may not happen. One thing is pretty clear. once Lozano posted his rant something changed, as there have been almost no leaks.

So you believe that the Sox are on Machado since his price is theoretically lower than Harper, but would potentially move to Harper if their prices were even.

My math says you're implying Feb 6...

LOL my bad, Im going to edit.

I dont even know what their politics are, nor do I care to. I believe (and someone can correct me) Rabbit posted something about Moncada being called up. (haha sorry Machado on the brain)

That was my recollection too. My opinion is, its fine if people have information or not. The problem is that in the past people were not here for the likes or their blog. We were just a bunch of White Sox fans who wanted to talk about our team. Some of us played OOTP together, we played Madden, we had softball games, whatever. It was like a group of friends, who had a common interest. Now it seems like people are trying to be insiders for the glory. Which is ironic in a way. None of the posters I remember fondly ever broke news or were insiders. I remember them because they had damn good posts and I respected what they had to say.

Is it just me, or has the amount of *insider* talk really jumped up this off season? Maybe its because I was off in the Filibuster, but *insert old man back in my day* I dont remember nearly as much *inside* talk.

I agree with this. I actually think you go out of your way to not draw attention to your posts. And due to that, Ive gone out of my way not to quote you or implicate that you may know things.

But how am I going to get likes, followers and people to listen to my podcast? Thats why when I post, you get my no sauces guarantee. I have a day job, and part of my job is keeping secrets.

People are really missing the point of the post. It was about why Lozano and Boras historically have been different at negotiators, and why its hard to compare the negotiation of Harper/Machado. If people disagree with that fine, but Boras had JD sit out an entire season. Again, I could have said "MLB" but I presumed most people on this message board would understand the reference.

I dont recall saying that at all. I recall mentioning that their AGENT (who is the same) has had his players wait extreme amount of times to sign contracts. I used JD Drew as the most extreme, but I dont ever recall saying that the situations were similar. Maybe Im missing something? I mentioned it comparing Boras and Lozano. Boras has historically had clients sit for extreme lengths, Lozano does not have a similar reputation. (edit) I dont know how anyone could be confused, JD Drew sitting out after being drafted is a pretty famous event for Boras. On a message board like this, I just presumed that everyone knew it was the draft. My mistake for giving people credit that in a post talking about Boras, people would have heard of one of his most famous negotiations.

He was drafted by the Phillies in 1996. He refused to sign. He then was drafted by the Cardinals in 1997. I dont recall ever mentioning that JD Drew sat out in the middle of his career. So not sure where you would get that...

Thats what we thought last year, then they went on a *hot* streak.

??? JD Drew sat out instead of taking the Phillies offer.

The Bulls didnt have one of the 5 worst records last year. They cant make that mistake again.

I think right now they are being offered both less AAV and less total than what people expected going into free agency. Instead of signing with Phillies, JD Drew sat out a year (played for an independent team) and then was drafted by Cardinals the next year. Phillies offered $2.6mil, Boras allegedly wanted $10mil. Cardinals gave Drew $7mil.

(IMO) Harper is different. Boras turned down a significant offer last season. It would be very bad for him to take less than that. Also Boras has been doing the "wait" game forever. He had JD Drew sit out an entire season.

In a depressed market there is even more incentive to take the *buy now* offer immediately, because you dont know if it will ever come back. My response was to whether Lozano has told teams what Machado would sign for today, and I have to believe he has.

This late in January, there has to be. Id say that the buy it now price has been known since he met with all 3 teams. (edit) For comparison, Pujols (Lozano's other huge client) signed on December 9th. http://www.espn.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/7330066/st-louis-cardinals-albert-pujols-join-los-angeles-angels

I just wish this was some con job where the Bulls were purposefully losing to try and get the top pick. That they learned from last year and had to make it look like they werent tanking, but at the same time still lose. I know thats not happening, but I hope they lose every game this year.

Im really just tired of the whole "bidding against themselves" argument. This isnt an auction. Highest bid after a set amount of time doesnt win. This is a contract negotiation. It should scare every Sox fan that almost a month ago it was "Manny is going to make his decision in early January." At that time there were 3 *likely* destinations, Sox, Yankees and Phillies. Yankees seemingly arent that interested. So that left 2 teams, Phillies and Sox. By some stroke of luck, Phillies havent really seemed to be the top destination for Machado (whether its he doesnt like them or they want Harper), but there just hasnt been a lot of smoke for them. That basically left the Sox as the "default" option for Machado. Almost a month has now passed and the Sox still havent closed the deal. Many people on this board hoped Sox would sign *both* Harper and Machado, now there is a question of whether the Sox are even going to offer 1 contract worth $300mil. Sorry to be a negative nancy without any sauces, but these chain of events should absolutely scare any Sox fan. People can say they arent afraid of the Padres, but they absolutely should be. You should be afraid of any team willing to get into the mix now. Just because a month ago they thought Machado was out of reach, doesnt mean that their ownership could have been persuaded to reconsider. There were rumors of them adding Moustakas. For all we know their GM convinced the owner that it was worth the extra money to go for Machado. The Sox need to make a splash, they need to put the money that they made with their low payroll to use. Free Agents like Machado are rare, the Sox chance at another player like this in Free Agency could be much worse in the future. Without the final numbers its hard to say, but I really doubt that the Sox are offering such an *overpay* that they should walk away.

Pretty sure the flight is longer than 3 hours.

I think they've been given a number. I think its that Sox have talked about increases and Lozano is still sticking to his number.