Chicago White Sox

The question is how does that make them better? Trading their depth to unload Heyward to then pay Harper $40M per year seems like a net decrease in the grand scheme of things, especially when they have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball.

Agree to disagree on this. Why in the world would someone in New York care that Kris Bryant plays for the Cubs when purchasing a pair of shoes? And if you’re theory is true, why did Bryce Harper sign one of the largest deals in baseball with Under Amour when he plays for the Nationals? They aren’t exactly a storied franchise.

Ok, but he’s also the 2016 NL MVP. I think his Adidas contract has more to do with his superstar abilities & than playing for the Cubs. Local endorsements are different story obviously.

That is entirely due to us not having a star and nothing to do with the underlying uniform. And maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t see a ton of national marketing campaigns involving Cubs players.

For national endorsements? Will the team he’s on really make that much of a difference? Bryce Harper is Bryce Harper and already a proven commodity in terms of marketability. I guess I wouldn’t think the difference in earning power would be that significant between the Cubs & Sox.

I don’t follow the marketing angle.

We’re roughly 45 days away from spring training and there are still a ton of free agents available. Baseball’s system is definitely broken.

? The Sox haven’t played a single playoff game in the last 10 years and have shown little to no accountability for that poor performance. That’s why our fanbase is “perpetually miserable”, not because of a World Series or bust mentality.

The difference is the Yankees are below the luxury tax right now and can easily afford Machado. The Cubs can not add Harper right now (even at a discount) without moving substantial money. And given that he turned down 10/$300M from his former team, I don’t see him taking anything less from the Cubs even if that’s where he’d like to end up.

They would have moved him last year in July or August if anyone offered anything of value. As for the mentoring role, that’s what Nova was brought in for. There is no logical reason to give Shields another 150 to 200 innings IMO.

There really aren’t a lot of rumors connecting the Cubs to Harper though. You’ve got some Twitter cat and then apparently the Cubs beat reporter on NBCsports has complete knowledge of the Cubs’ offseason plans and is openly sharing them at dinners. To me, it all seems far-fetched that they’d be able to move enough salary to pull off this type of move and I questing how it actually makes them better.

Shields is unflipplable, last year proves as much IMO. I do have a small fear they bring him back, but I’m praying our front office is smarter than that.

I agree that Nova already fills that role and does so with at least a little bit of upside. I’d really hate wasting two rotation spots on two “innings eaters”. Hard to find diamonds in the rough if you refuse to swing for the fences.

At this point in the rebuild, we can at least lose with a little class. Throwing Shields out there every fifth is an insult to our paying customers. Like I said, at least give the spot to someone with a sliver of upside.

Because roster spots are valuable and shouldn’t be wasted on guy with zero short-term or long-term upside. Either sign a flip candidate for the fifth spot (like Pomeranz) or give it to a young guy like Stephens or even a wild card like Banuelos.

Capitals are your friend, not the enemy! But otherwise very good points all around!

Sat - Me canceling my cable because I refuse to watch a team that plans on giving Big Game James 30 starts next year.

Lol...I’d be all for it, but didn’t want to get too greedy. But add those four guys and this team has an outside shot at the division in 2019.

Alright, for some reason I feel like there could be a ton of pent up moves that get announced shortly after the holiday. Here’s my dream week for the White Sox: Wednesday: Kikuchi - 4/$38M (plus ~20% posting fee) Thursday: Ottavino - 2/$21M (w/ vesting 3rd year option) Friday: Machado - 10/$350M (opt-outs after years 4 & 6) Flame away!

Simonetti Source & Leyritz are the only two people I’m aware of that have said something similar. I know next to nothing about the first guy, but it sure reeks of someone pitching his wagon to Dan Clark because why the fuck not. And I know Jim Leyritz broke the Stanton trade a year ago, but he’s also not a guy that does this for a living and has had some big misses. I question how much real time access he has to the front office and he was also was responding to some random person’s question and not intending to report anything. Am I missing anyone else?

Well you don’t worry about paying someone after a career year unless said year was a clear outlier which it wasn’t. And like I said, the difference between his 2018 and 2015/2016 seasons can be explaining by a natural aging curve.

Here’s my legit, unbiased guess on what’s happening. I truly believe the Sox & Phillies are offering substantially more money than the Yankees. All else being equal, Manny would love to go to New York and has told people as much, but is unlikely to leave big money on the table. I’m guessing Dan Clark had heard the former from someone close to Machado and is simply exaggerating the certainty of him joining the Yankees because most people think it’s his likely landing spot and he has an opportunity to be the “first to report”. I’m also going to guess offers are not truly final and that Manny is thinking through how much money he’s willing to pass on to play in New York. I would imagine there is still some last minute gamemanship to take place.

I know some of you guys have already abandoned the Machado ship, but I’m going to reiterate the silence from legit insiders is deafening. Not a single guy has responded to Dan Clark’s report. If things were really as close as some of these minor / New York “insiders” were suggesting, one of the national guys would have gotten some indication on this by now and tweeted accordingly. I truly don’t think a decision has been made yet and fully believe we’re still in this thing.

Career year? How was this season that much different than his 2015 & 2016 seasons? And do you not expect young players to improve as they reach their prime? Come on man, just come out and say you don’t like the dude and are unable to be objective. Also, if you’re only interesting in signing players that want to be here, then god only knows when the next free agent will be joining us. Outside of summers in Chicago, we aren’t a very desirable destination at the moment and won’t be until we have some level of sustained success.

I think they will try again next year with Arenado & Rendon (if they make it), but those guys will be entering age 29 season (so less attractice to us) and who knows they just may have more suitors than the current whales do. If you told me a year ago there would only be three teams in the mix for Machado & Harper I would have said you were crazy. The reality is none of the traditional big spenders are involved for these guys and plan to do whatever it takes land one of them. This honestly may be the best opportunity we have to land a whale and that’s the primary reason I’ve been so optimistic. If we’re prepared to spend, there is zero excuse not landing one of these guys.