Roughneck

Personally, I'm not getting my hopes up yet. I generally have a positive outlook on most things, but I'll believe this when it happens. There is obviously some actual good info backing up what Rabbit says, unlike that Australian douche guy on twitter, but I won't get high or low based on any reports. Lots could still change.

Here's the likely scenario: Sox: Here's a huge contract. We're going to win a bunch of titles and run a train on the American League. Join us or perish. Machado: That's cool and all, but you would still kinda suck in 2019. Sox: Well, what if we brought over your best friends so you could play alongside them for a year until we're respectable? The Sox assumed $13 mil and one-year contracts for veteran players. It's not like they're building Machado his own private clubhouse and giving him geisha.

Not even close. The Sox brought in two decent-at-worst major league veterans who are not known to be clubhouse troublemakers. The Cavs weren't able to sign Lebron's superstar friends to play with them, but instead had his doofus man-child parasite friends running around the Cavs facilities like they owned the place. Not in the same zip code.

Imagine getting so worked up over $4 mil. Imagine raging about a player based on a steamer projection. Imagine anything.

I meant season 33-37, which is 5 years. If he's hitting 35-40 homers a year at that point and giving good defense at 3B (even if no longer elite), it's not out of the ream of possibility that the market at that point could give him $30 mil a year. Either way, he'd likely get more AAV for ages 36-37 if he signed 7 then 5 year deals, rather than a 10 and a 2. And a 7 year deal would like give a higher AAV than 10, so he could make more overall if he stays healthy. So it's not *all* bad for him. But yes, he is going to take the best offer overall. We don't know what any teams are really offering, but nothing we know would lead us to believe the Phillies are offering anything close to 10/$325.

It's not about what they want, but what teams will agree to. And hitting the market again at 33 would be a lot better for him than hitting it at 36. It's riskier, but maybe instead of a hypothetical $100 mil over years 8-10, he could sign a new contract from age 33-37 which would pay him $150 mil. Why would the Phillies LEEROY JENKINS by giving Machado 2 years and $85 mil more than the next highest offer?

Setting aside that reports have the Sox being the highest bidder to date, this is wrong. The Sox have devised a budget for the years and dollars they would give to Machado. That is a particular budget which was planned around him, independent of the rest of the roster. They would not pass him up because they are $13 mil "short" for one season. They cover their big league payroll before a single ticket is sold. Also, they aren't going to be at their payroll limit next year, anyway. They will have more big money to spend next offseason. The $13 mil will be a drop in the bucket this year. Also, since the suspected bidding for Machado is currently about $80 mil less than most were expecting, I think the Sox have plenty of room to go before they reach whatever the absolute limit was they set for Machado.

If it comes to that, you can light your torch from mine as we storm the G-Rate. But the vague reports we have so far say that the Sox are offering the most money. Maybe the Sox are saying to Machado "Money aside, 2019 is going to be a rough year on the field. But what if we made it a little more fun and let you play with your besties why we get the kids ready for our title run?" Might be a way to make the one should-be bad year of his contract more tolerable. Are the young impressionable members of the Sox in the running for $300 mil contracts? Different rules. Besides, Jay and Alonso are at worst decent veterans. It's not like the Cavs putting Lebron's doofus friends on payroll.

But you know how this works. They set a range for what they want to spend in a given year, and that fluctuates depending on how good the team is, obviously. If they value a winning team at $200 million, they aren't going to spend $260 mil in a year just because they saved that money the previous year.

That's not how payroll works and you know it. You used to always talk about the Sox having extra money when they needed it and Jerry not finding change in his couch. You know how payroll works. If the Sox wanted to have payroll around $150 mil a year, they aren't going to spend $250 mil in year 2 just because their payroll was $50 mil in year 1. They have a budget and shareholders and all that. They will spend in a given year what is appropriate for that year. Anything they didn't spend in the past is profit. If you want to argue they should have used to $13 mil to build a facility in Latin America, that's fine. But you are not being clever here.

But that's a false equivalency. The Sox have a low payroll and could offer Machado $100 million a year for the next 4 years if they wanted to. They set a value and a dollar amount to his production. The $13 mil is not stopping them from offering Machado money, and the Sox reportedly have the highest offer to him. As for Jay, this seems like a move that would only happen if they were getting Machado. Otherwise, why would Manny want to influence the Sox to sign his friend, then have his friend spend a year on an awful team? Jay is no star, but he's a competent player who could have gotten a contract elsewhere. Unless this is an elaborate punk'd from Machado, I don't think he'd want to stick his friend on a 4th place team.

As scuzzy as this conversation is, one of my first thoughts when we traded for Yonder was "maybe he doesn't *want* to play with his brother-in-law. That would hinder his ground game, if he was so inclined. But honestly, even if that was a concern, it would only be for 1 year. Freddy's wife is Ozzie's wife's blood niece, and the Guillens raised her as their daughter, I believe. Talking about poop. That's a paddlin'.

Remember when Johnny Damon's wife preferred Chicago to Detroit? Money wins out.

I thought that from the beginning. I believe the Sox might have put out the 7 year line in the sand as an opening offer, fully intending to go 8-10 if necessary. But the dollar amount seemed way too low.

Do we know that they are screwing around though? Going into the offseason, I think everybody thought Manny would get 10 years and over $300 million. I thought it as recently as last week. When the reports came out that the Sox wouldn't go over 7 years and their offer was closer to $200 than $300m, I thought it was awful strategy. But so far, it looks like the Sox have read the market correctly. The Sox need to sign him no matter what. But if I were the GM, I might have locked him up a week ago at 10/$325, when the next best offer was for $130 million less. That extra $130 million could go a long way. They are going to have to offer more years and dollars than the Yankees, but not to a crazy amount. Maybe he signs elsewhere and the full story we get in the postmortem is awful, but for now, I can't fault the Sox for the little we know about the goings on.

If that Sox are offering close to $250 mil, that would be insane for him to pass up. Any contract he signs will leave his grandkids filthy rich, so he will have no worries about money. But would he bet on himself and leave $100 mil on the table hoping things go well and he's healthy the next four years to cash in? Maybe he improves and hits the market at a better time. Or maybe he Heywards. Really damn risky, and I don't think any 26 year-old would take that risk.

I don't follow Carl on Twitter. I follow Dave, and I was shocked to learn from Carl about Dave having legitimate connections within the Sox now. Dave used to be more militantly anti-Reinsdorf, which I think has completely disappeared from his feed. I remember him ranting about 3 years back that Jerry was a POS and maybe something along the lines of he needs to die or the team won't win until he dies. Either way, wishing death on the owner of a team you cover and calling their kicker a cocksucker in a viral video are bad ways to stay connected with those teams.

That seems about right. I know Carl. Good guy in real life, but he obviously did something else last night with his embarrassing Bears rant that went viral. Dave and Carl left their old jobs and are now fulltime at Barstool, and that requires them to get eyeballs. These guys are "media personalities." They are like Howard Stern, Mancow, Dan Bernstein, etc. It's all about creating a character that gets people to pay attention to you because: 1) they agree with you; or 2) they hate everything you're saying. I imagine last night's video will become his new "persona," as it got him something like 5 million views.

Of course it Danny DeVito would fly Southwest. Dude's tiny so he'd have more than enough leg room.

Yeah, I know. I live here. Just in general, unless he was coming to watch the Bears game, there isn't much to do this time of year that he hasn't done in town during the season or when the Sox showed him around.

Sure. Chicago is lovely in January. No, we're mostly mocking it.

You are correct that not all athletes fly first class or private planes. But for something like signing a contract for around $300 million, the team is sending him a charter without even being asked.

I had the pleasure of flying in first class once in my life, when there were empty seats and my aunt who worked for American was able to get me moved up. Let me tell you, it's amazing. Someone about to make hundreds of millions of dollars is going to pop for first class, and he'll take free champagne with his Zzzquil.

It appears Matt Breslow is friends with the rapper Warren G.

I just multiplied 20 x 10 and got 200%. The Sox are for sure signing both guys. Don't you feel foolish now.