he gone.

Side note, has anybody bought any of the fanatics stuff lately? I bought some (what looked like) good looking stuff online last year ... received it. absolute TRASH. The Nike quarter zip had a screen print logo .... was thin... the hoodie was paper thin ... one of those 70 degree summer night hoodies and was extremely baggie. T-shirts were paper thin... I legit won't buy anything from Fanatics anymore. They really ruined the quality to take a nicer profit margin.

Back to solving a different crime Scooby doo.

That's what common sense was telling me. Why would teams buy at $100 a pop.... I mean, they are the literal team. They aren't buying the secondary market. They probably aren't buying at the wholesale market. Teams are buying their jerseys from the source.

I'm official out on the monitoring of this situation... I had a dream the sox signed machado for 10 years $340mm last night.. and that Hahn had a presser trashing the media about how awful their reporting was and that they doubled the $175mm rumors and the Sox are in it to win it. The fact that this made my dreams scares me. It's infiltrated my subconscious. A new low.

Alonso and Nova were definitely overpays. While although we really didn't give up anything of note, we still are paying a larger salary than necessary based on the FA market. Take the $2.5 for McCann and give it to Gattis. Take the $9mm for Nova and give it Bucholz and _______ as FA's. Take the $9mm for Alonso and apply it towards literally anybody. I definitely would have done the offseason in a different way, but whatever. None of these moves really matter long term anyways. Not like Alonso, CarGo, Miley, Gattis, Bucholz, etc. really matter in our quest of a 2021 championship.

No reason not to, but these guys are really waiting out FA to get the shot to play for the teams they want to. I feel like were the safety net for these guys which sucks. Regardless of what happens I am going to be fairly certain that each of these guys are going to opt out after year 3 or 4 with whatever team they sign with this offseason. They'll both then sign on with a big wig team ... bosox, yanks, cubs, dodgers, etc.

At this point in the offseason I don't even need Harper/Machado to sign in the next week, but my god, I need SOME action. JB Schuck signings cant be it all! Someone please sign some of these pitchers and bats. I'm sure some of these guys have offers they've sat on, however just a few names that come to mind for me if you can pick them up on minor league deals (or very minimal major league deals ($1-2mm) Evan Gattis -- I really wish we wouldn't have thrown $2.5mm at McCann. I hate that signing. A lot. I think most of us did. I don't follow Gattis enough to know, but he put 50 games behind the plate at neutral dWAR in 2017 and 2016. He's not your ideal guy ... he kind of is Palka in a way... but I'd very much preferred signing Gattis as your backup C for a few million.. hell he maybe even would accept a minors deal at this point. He'd give you a .250BA, and say 20 dingers with 300/400PA. Give him 30-40 games behind the plate, give him a handful at 1B, a handful at DH. McCann seems like a total waste. At least with Gattis you're getting some flexibility out of him (albeit redundant). Weiters -- kind of same reasoning. I think you can get him almost at a minor league contract. I hate that we guaranteed McCann that money. I'd much rather had two guys signed to a minor league deal and have them battle it out. I think both are better than McCann and both probably will end up costing less. Not sure the rush to go out and pay above market value for a Catcher these past two off seasons with Hahn..... Robbie Grossman -- I think adding OF's are a bit redundant at this point. I think there a number of FA that would either represent an upgrade, or slight upgrade over our current guys (Palka, Engel, Delmonico, Tilson, Cordell) but I also think not many of them a much brighter, or really any brighter future with this organization, so seems like a waste of resources. Names that come to mind are (Melky, Adam Jones, Granderson, CarGo, Maybin). Those guys more or less are aged and really just take a spot from the possible young guys we have. So although its an extreme long shot that any of our guys make a big enough case to warrant a shot long term, I don't think any of the guys listed do either. I think an Adam Jones maybe offers the most in terms of adding to the clubhouse (hate saying that) and returning league average return in RF. Carlos Gonzalez would probably represent the best shot of maybe returning a low level prospect at a deadline if he mashes homers. All that being said. Grossman is a guy I think that actually bucks all the guys listed above inside and outside the Sox organization. Grossman has put up a OBP of .360+ in each of the last three years... and with considerable plate appearances. He doesn't strikeout a whole ton ... limited pop, but a good amount of doubles. Defensively? Very limited. So again, this may be repeating itself and not a point of need .... we already have Palka as a somewhat upside (power) bat who is limited in the OF. We already have Alonso (like him as person, but not sure why we have him) at DH, 1B. We already have Abreu 1b/DH. So no real spot for Grossman. But I look at Grossman with more upside than Palka.. I'd rather have a guy who gets on base at a .350-370 clip and hits doubles than Palka who is a more of an all or nothing bat. Moylan -- out of the pen I like him. Big groundball guy. Ranks top 10. Kind of guy you want coming out of your pen when you have guys on 1st and 2nd and no outs. Get that double play and move on to the next guy to strikeout out #3.

My hope and focus isn't so much on numbers. I'd like to see him go out there and CONSISTENTLY pitch well. He needs to lower the blow up innings. He needs to be able to go out there and log 180+ innings. He needs to give us a chance to win as a 4/5 type starter. I think Coop is kind of the perfect coach for him. Coop seems to like to simplify things ... more of the mindset of "get it and throw it" while Gio is a student of the game. Gio seems like the guy who would have a nice career as a pitching coach and who can identify issues, however I think that's to his detriment more times than not. Gio reminds me of Gavin Floyd a lot. So I guess that's my ultimate goal for him. A guy who can be a 3/4/5 type starter but also have stretches where he's a 1/2 type guy for months at a time. I think my goal is for him to be more consistent, log innings, and become a solid rotation option in 2019. I don't think he'll ever hit that "top prospect in MLB" ceiling, or frankly ever come close to it, however I think he has a chance to be a solid contributor on a contending team.

I could talk on this topic for days.. my take: a) sports are competing against more entertainment than ever. Better video games, more kids activities, better technology, etc. b)baseball does really need a pretty big overhaul. I fancy myself probably a top 1% involved fan. I have the MLB package, play fantasy baseball, gamble online on the games on a daily basis, watch every Sox game that is not during work, etc. Even at that I couldn't convince myself to sit through 4 hour playoff games. And those are supposed to be the most entertaining games to the random fan. c) The issue is the time & pace. Yes, it'll bring in some fans if you sell the players better via ideas like player's weekend and cool jerseys, etc. But the reality is there are 162 games. It's a ridiculous time constraint to expect anybody who casually follows baseaball to tune into a Dodgers/Pirates game during the middle of the season if they are from Chicago. And unlike football or basketball where the superstar can continually affect the whole game, baseball you're up to bat like once an hour. The only true superstars are the pitchers in a way. So I always think baseball will be at a disadvantage in that sense. But time and pace is the main driver in my opinion. When Buehrle pitched it was awesome. It kept me as a viewer on the edge of my seat a bit more. Games should be 2.5 hours consistently with give or take dependent on the game. d) how do you do that? I think its a clock in between pitches like they've tried in the minors, but even quicker than what they have in the minors. Players can complain, but it's not really up to them.. the fans dictate what they want and I think if you took a poll I'd guess 80%+ would rather watch a 2 hour 15 min game rather than 3 hour and 15 min game.

Every year we pick someone like him and try to apply the "coop can fix em" mantra. Most of the time they are released by mid-year. I think you can add him to the list.

I believe this is correct. He was brought in late last year and also moved to Chicago in the offseason. Would seem to be the logical choice. Though he needs to stop swiveling in his chair so damn much.

Ah, the great rename of 2003. I remember where I was that day. Everything has naming rights tied to it down to Scout Seats, GR club seats, to stadium club, to the plaza.. im surprised Southpaw's shoelaces aren't sponsored by now. I guess it affects people all differently and I respect it made a big impact on you, I Just don't think it did to most.

Announcing a name change to a cellular phone company v. signing a top 10 FA contract of all time is apples and oranges. Joc Pederson could be a thing. Machado no sir.

It would be super, super cool and would love it. I just think the Sox holding out a signing, or really any team holding a signing, no matter how big, is very unlikely in the digital age. There are too many people involved in getting a contract signed where it just takes one snitch for leaks to come out. Unless there are crazy NDA's being signed, I just think odds would be like 1/10,000 that something as big as Macahdo could be held for that moment. So agree with everybody it would be cool, I just don't think it's plausible or that it crossed/crosses the Sox FO minds at all.

I sparked way too much anger with my question... We need to separate ourselves & look at this from the outside perspective... not the SoxTalk everyday crowd. How much did you pay attention to the Cubs fan fest? How much did you click on articles more? LIsten to local radio covering it? Did you turn on NBC Sports to watch their opening series or any of their coverage of it? Listen I'm a superfan too.. I'm bored as shi* posting on this page with fake made up dream lineups almost everyday.. I buy season tickets... and fake myself into believing the Sox are going to do the damn thing soon... but I also step back and can separate. I won't turn on one second of SoxFest coverage. I don't care if Mark Giangreco, Lou Canalis or give us 32 seconds on the local news and frankly nor does any other fans outside the very, very small majority of us on this board and a few other thousand die hard fans in Chicago. The general sox fan cares more about Jose Abreu bobble head day in June than SoxFest in January. Not trying to come of harsh.. but SoxFest just isn't a big deal and signing Machado in some kind of "reveal party" would be click bait day and be quickly forgotten.

Why are we acting like SoxFest is the Super Bowl? It's a small event at a hotel in January for superfans and autograph hounds. I literally wouldn't go if someone gave me a free ticket. Why would the sox go through any production to do some kind of reveal of a trade or signing there?

But it was always going to be that way.. we had no minor league system. Even if those 4-5 guys were absolute studs, you'd need to do a lot of supplementing with FA because the minor leagues was such a desert. You're not building this for 2019 or 2020. You're building this to hopefully be the Cardinals or any other really successful organization that it's a constant revolving door of home grown talent, young minor league talent coming up and your occasional big splash FA. The kind where you can let a Pujols leave and not miss a beat. Or where you can make an offer to David Price or Stanton, etc. etc. This isn't trying to compete for a window of 2019-2023. This is building a foundation from the ground up from 2021-2040 type of plan.

Your expectations are too high. If evaluating talent and players values was as easy as you suggest then you should be the GM and we'd be winning world series for the next decades.

You heard it from Jenksycat first... Pollock won't get more than 3 years. and he's just going to cost a "few million more" than Joc Pederson would... 2/13 for Joc 4/55 for Pollock. Just $42mm more ... just a few million more.

I didn't realize Santana was that old. I'd still take him though. Santana, Gio, pass on all rest. I'd also take Keuchel at right price.

Boredom.

I hope your day job isn't being a lawyer. You're bad at proving your points. Find me where I said there was absolutely no chance of teams winning... And sold. I'll will 100% do that deal with you. $100 on any 4 teams of my choice into the playoffs. I'll save this post.

You like speaking absolutes a whole lot. I just said those 4 teams, in my opinion had less than a 10% chance of winning. I also said earlier that it was a slim chance a team would win.

which is not to say there is absolutely no chance they win. I am saying that it was highly unlikely they could win a 5 game series, then a 7 game series ... then another 7 game series. There's a difference between Trevor Cahill, Wade Miley, and Anibal Sanchez going head to head for one game and winning and consistently doing it on the big stage against a Chris Sale or going against Mookie Betts or Astros lineup. Again my opinion. I'd just say those 4 teams had a less than 10% chance combined to win the WS against the participants last year.

Answer this question objectively then. You are given $100 entering the 2018 MLB playoffs. Who do you put your money on at the Vegas odds. You can select three bets. Try and not let what happened effect your decision. I'd take $50 on the Yankees at 7/1 cause of that bullpen I would have taken $25 on the Indians at 8/1 based on their starting rotation and ability to have shutdown games + Ramirez/Lindor offense potential + playoff experience And Dodgers for $25 at 9/2 because I didn't trust the other teams in the NL. I would have lost my money obviously, but I also would have never considered the A's, Rockies, Braves, or Brewers at those odds.