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tlongo has nothing on this troll!

Peavy44 has been the real MVP of this board for the last 3 weeks. He’s 1) provided endless entertainment, 2) made everyone question things they read on Internet, 3) made posters spell check before posting, 4) increased post count of every poster, 5) increased + scores for every poster. For that Peavy44, you deserve recognition as the Soxtalk troll of the month for December (still early, but no one will catch up, seriously). and are the favorite for troll poster of the year (TPOY) honor.

It's from a highly reliable source on Facebook (guy is a dating a the girl who is an ex of a guy whose grandpa's brother is a janitor for the Cubs in the 70's). I would post screenshots but I don't want to risk exposing them.

Secret meeting with the Cubs.

Because there are others teams willing to give him a shot at SS.

For starters, he recently came out and said that he would rather retire than to play a position other than SS, which eventually led to his release (Toronto has Guriel and Bichette ready to fill in at SS). Several other teams are going to give him a shot at SS, Cubs included. So you will not see Tulo playing 3B for the Sox.

We had been worry about the Bryant and Harper friendship when we should be celebrating the NickyD and BHarp friendship.

Someone.. quick!... we need to run a captcha test on ptatc

It only gets weird when we're interacting on a message board where robots are posting on the other end. Until then, it isn't THAT weird.

Ok, that's your experience. I get it. I will just say that it isn't the experience and views shared by others, especially comes to sports and enjoyment of it. Don't be offended when someone don't agree with your generally negative view of it. But I guess you have been around long enough to know it by now.

What was your lesson learned from the bold? Does this apply to your personal view in real life as well? Do you expect failure in everything you do until you don't? Doesn't it hold you back from trying anything at all, in life? This is just one bizarre way of thinking... Imagine a world where everyone thinks they're going to fuck up something before they try it. Imagine Pace before making the Mack trade and tells his boss, "I think I will fuck this up, because we haven't made the playoffs in years, but what the heck!" Do you see how strange that sounds?

Yep, to each their own. Most people don't follow sports because they expect their team to play flawlessly every game, every season. There will be ups and downs throughout your fandom. A few people I know IRL do follow sports religiously so they have something to b**** about, and I do try to avoid debating sports with them IRL.

Harper and MM would cost 50% of that hypothetical $150M. You have 23 other spots to field. This isn't the NBA where you could live and die by your stars. Trying to field a playoff team team with 23 guys at a $75M budget is not realistic. That's why I said it's only sustainable until the young guys get expensive.

Not luxury tax, but maxing out their operating expense. Sox would never approach the luxury tax line.

I think they could if they maximize the cap on their expenditure. However I don't think it's sustainable for a mid-market team like us beyond the first few years, the young guys would get expensive really soon.

Parkman is the type of fan who would rather watch himself play the other team on Madden on Rookie setting and blow every team out 50-0 to get satisfaction from a win. That's what he meant by him "having high standards".

Yes... why the heck not? That's the wet dream of every poster on Soxtalk ? But in reality, they would tell the other they would only sign them if the other falls through, or that the deal is on the table for him until the other signs.

ESPN (Jeff Sullivan) predicts Sox could realistically sign Machado this week. http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/25484819/mlb-winter-meetings-moves-all-30-teams

Sign Harper then we can talk the walk.

You guys don’t believe an owner is stupid enough show his hand in the most expensive deal in his lifetime, do you? It’s absolutely a decoy to drive up bidding for someone you’re not after to eliminate competitors for guys you’re really after. Why? Owners usually has the last say in handing out a deal, the fact that MacPhail said what he said and did not follow through when he has the finally blessing suggested it was a bait. Look at how it worked out - Nats knew Phillies had interest in Corbin and they went overboard and handed a deal to him no one saw coming - and guess what? They were one of the destinations for Harper and now they might be out of the race. Now Phillies will likely focus their attention on the real targets. On top of that, they could also now use the narrative that Nationals did not believe in Bryce and spent their money on a worse player instead. By signin with Phillies he could win division races against his former team and homer against the said player everytime they play. Harper strikes me as someone who would buy into that.

We don't know the AAV they offered for 5 years, it could well be that Nats outbid them on AAV, or they aren't comfortable going 6 on a pitcher. Between not adding an SP and shredding Santana's salary, Phillies may even be able to add both Manny/Harper, then trade someone like Kingery for an SP. And also let's consider that both Manny and Harper will go to the highest bidder, so if neither Yanks or Phillies committed expenditure on a top tier SP, the agents will likely use their now higher than expected budget to bid against one another, driving up the contracts and eliminating Sox out of the picture. I like your optimism CWS, but I think this is the first and last blow to any chance we had.

The more likely scenario is they have limits set on an SP, so they could go after one of Harper and Machado. If Phillies' plan was to go after an SP and OF/3B, shouldn't losing the top tier SP give them money to still go after the 2nd tier SP and more money for Harper and Machado? Also, if Corbin went for $140 M, you could pretty much bump up any Harper/Machado projection by about 5%-10%. This is bad news for Sox.

Ok, this last play call at least bails Nagy out of that questionable TO earlier

If we do end up signing Harper or Machado, we are competing now. Doesn't make sense to wait 2 years and waste $70 millions of star salary to wait on Robert, who has the biggest variance of ceiling and floor of anyone in our farm. Of course, if we don't sign them it's a moot point.

The word you used is gamble, for as good as Robert's tools are, he's a high risk/high reward type of guy and on top of that he's not been able to stay healthy. Camargo is already a 3-4 WAR switch hitter with above average bat and plus defender at both short and third base, cost controlled for next 5 years. Wilson is a projectable #3 type starter who debuted at 20 years old. You get 2 young players who are ready to contribute now for the upside/risk of Robert. Also if you sign Harper long term you have one less OF spot to worry about.