Roughneck

This is very good. I don't know if the Phillies would want to sign both, but I think if the Sox signed one, they go back to the other with their most recent deal (not the highest they would go) and say "We're leaving this out here for you. Final offer if you want to join, too." One of these guys sign and the market for the other collapses, baring the Dodgers really deciding to get in on Harper.

Okay, he's leaving at least $250 million on the table then. And if he has a bad injury this year, he's then playing for maybe $10 mil next year to rebuild his value and hoping to hit the market again in a year Kris Bryant will be available. It would be super risky, and like I said, the huge spending teams would be out still.

That would be insane. He'd be leaving $300 million on the table. I could see Harper going back to Washington for 1 year at $50 mil or something, since Boras is his agent and seems to like high stakes poker. But realistically, the market won't be any better for them next year. The Cubs/Yankees/Red Sox/Dodgers are still going to have no openings and/or no money to spend.

Tatis talk not enough to get us through the day? I was talking to a younger friend at work about 1994. Just looked at the stats of that team and am once again enraged. The owners should have locked the players out after 93 so it didn't get to that. Holy crap, that team was insane. Hopefully we get Machado today because I want to punch something now.

Someone else said this, but I don't follow this line of reasoning. We wouldn't have rebuilt if we didn't get Shields? Shields wasn't very good, but it's not like he tanked some would-be playoff teams. And Tatis obviously wouldn't have contributed to the MLB roster yet. I think they are in a similar spot, just with another top 10 prospect.

Video of Machado's wife trying to enter the house as Machado was cheating on her. Yonder then cuts her off at the door and distracts her by showing her the new car he bought. Yonder looked back at Machado and winked. Manny nods. Manny finishes up with the groupie, then wipes his forehead with a black towel. Then again with a white towel.

What have you ever been hopeful of? Yeah, I still think about that. With Quentin healthy, he wins the AL MVP and the Sox comfortably win the division. And if you can keep Contreras healthy, too, Vazquez isn't starting game 1 of the ALDS. The rotation is lined up and Vazquez is starting game 4 if that. I really think the Sox would have had a chance to win another title that year.

I'd still take it with a grain of salt. Clearly, he does have access to some inside knowledge. As other with contacts (Rabbit and Y2Jimmy) told us, the Sox are confident in their chances. But unless the Sox have a signed deal haven't announced it yet, the team doesn't know for sure that it will get Machado. They could feel really good about where they are, but the Phillies come in at the last minute and blow them out of the water. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

I think this is just him reading the tea leaves and trying to walk back past comments about the Sox having no chance. Instead of admitting he was wrong before, he could say "Like I said, things changed and the Sox worked really hard to get him."

I just moved into a new house, and it was a huge ordeal. Very stressful through the two days of back and forth bids. You're talking about not just considering tens of millions of dollars, but also deciding where you want to move your family for a decade and which front office you want to trust to build a team around you. That alone takes some time to consider. But realistically, the largest concern for the player by far is going to be money, so here we are.

MIght be, yes. But they aren't. Machado isn't the pretty girl who nobody asks to the prom because everybody thinks she would turn them down. If the bidding really was in that range, there would have been other teams roped in and there'd be a lot more chatter. You'd have the middling or mid-market teams like the Braves, Brewers and Twins, hell even the Mets tossing their hats into the ring, and Machado specifically reaching out to them to get them into the bidding. And that would be low enough where the Yankees could offer him a deal that would only be a modest discount from $200m. That report is wrong.

Using that logic, we might have gotten Justin Verlander since he grew up a huge fan of Frank Thomas. Mark Mulder would have been good for us for a few years. So unless a young star player grew up idolizing DJ Carrasco, the Sox would be limiting themselves to pretty much players who grew up on the south side.

Uribe played 3B for a big part of 2008 when Crede was injured. Looking it up now, I was surprised to see that Crede played in 97 games. I thought I remembered him missing almost all of that season. He missed a month July into August then almost all of September. Anyway, Uribe is GOAT and we don't win the division if he didn't step in as well as he did.

Maybe I remember incorrectly. Maybe I was thinking of him getting off to an awful start that year, which he did. Looks like He started bad, hit pretty well in June, then cooled way off come July. It seemed at the time like he was getting ice cold right when he should be traded. And from the looks of it, he didn't do that well with the Yankees in the regular season either, but he had a pretty big postseason for them.

The owners have called for #1 (or at least a cap). The players don't want a cap.

Clearly not all teams want to win. The problem is that the teams which do want to win seem set at a lot of these positions. Players are in a rough spot because so many teams are rebuilding, and the teams trying to win seem set either set at a lot of these positions or at payroll limits. If the Cubs/Yankees/Boston/Dodgers had legitimate needs at 3B or OF, Harper and Machado would be looking at much bigger contracts and the Sox might not be in on this. Maybe the problem was the players agreeing to the current penalty system, because those teams clearly are profiting like crazy, but no longer willing to spend the taxed money because it also comes with other penalties. A guy like Dozier could moderately improve a lot of teams, but that's the exact move the Sox would have made in years past which would drive fans insane - a pretty good veteran who is too old to be on your next good team, who will help a contender but do just well enough for you to worsen your draft position.

But how does a strike solve that? Teams want to win, and unless there is collusion, they will offer players what they think are reasonable contracts to get them. I guess nobody wanted to go longterm on Dozier. If the Yankees, for instance, wanted him, they could easily offer him way more than the measly $9 mil he got. Are they striking to demand longterm deals? Because that won't work. The only thing that would change this is going to a cap system that has payroll based on revenue, and the PA doesn't want that.

Maybe my memory was clouded by him getting worse as 2017 went on, seemingly tanking his trade value while it became apparent he was going to be traded.

That's nuts. They don't have a salary cap set by revenue sharing. Unless there is collusion which can be proved, nothing you can do. Harper and Machado are superstar players. If no team wants them for more than $300m, then oh well. And why would the majority of the players want to go on strike because the two top players get astronomical deals which weren't astronomical enough? They are both such outliers that their contracts aren't going to really set the market and give more money to the other players. So middle relievers making $1 mil a year would just be tossing away a third of their year's paycheck to help get the super rich super-richer.

Yep. Because the Yanks might not be offering $200m, but current offers around $200m would put them in the ballpark with something like 6 years/$175 mil. No way they are out if that's actually where the bidding is at this point.

Anybody who votes Yolmer should be insta-banned. Like, set up an algorithm where once you press vote, it says "You have been banned from posting at Soxtalk, you dumbass."

Frazier was far from the worst, but he's my most hated. He was really lucky the Sox were bad those two years, because he didn't get the hatred he rightfully deserved. The guy was a douche, he was awful with the Sox, tanking his trade value, then started tearing it up with he went to the Yankees. F him.

You're right that each team has its own goals, but they are also trying to sign the player for as little money as possible. The Sox might have set a 10 year/330 limit for Machado, but could still be offering 7/250 at this point. Manny has a set number he wants, but it looks like he's not going to get it. So this is about beating the other team's offer, provided Manny wants to sign for the most money.

I don't know how close they are, but I know they're both friends with Nicky Delmonico #ItsHappening

I think it's stupid money and family vs insane money and living in Philly.