SonofaRoache

No one is saying that they didn't want Belle. The premise is that they wanted him, then intentionally overpaid him. As in, they could have had him for cheaper but spent more for him to spite the other owners.

Evidence I've read over the years leads me to believe it is true. Even if not true, that money isn't close to the big money that will be spent this summer for those two.

Machado is the better player, Harper is the bigger star. I think the Sox love Harper's big name as he is an advertising and ratings machine. ESPN would have us on the air every week and by 2020 they'd be giving us Jenna Jameson's.

The reports are that we over paid him out of spite, and I tend to believe that theory. If there would have been a bidding war for him I doubt we would have gotten him. In 2018, there are bidding wars getting to astronomical levels of money.

If Belle and Jordan are examples then things are worse than I thought. Belle was signed out of spite and Jordan was the biggest no brainer of sports history bringing guaranteed championships,

We will front load your deal, but you get your opt out after year 5 instead of 4. The Sox knew last year he was gonna cost 300-350 million and they still wanted him. They shouldn't be surprised by anything with his movement. He would have more value to us than any other team because he'd be our first super star and face of the franchise. He will get us wins, other FA's, and excitement around the team and rebuild. Positive momentum and vibes are huge.

Facts.

Fair point. The difference is the Cubs hired Theo and didn't let a failed FO oversee their rebuild. They also brought in a manager who took Tampa to the WS. If we aren't hiring a Theo to run our team who brought titles to Boston, then we need to at least bring in a top of the line manager. The Cubs fired Ricky to complete their rebuild, no reason why we should keep him around for our completion. The Royals have been rebuilding for a while, but I told people in my personal life the squad they assembled would win two titles. Modern rebuilding is down to a science.

Look at what Khalil Mack has done for the Bears. He turned a team that was getting better, but still down and out, into a division contender. We need to sign one of these two stars to gain some momentum. Not only will they add victories and take pressure of slumping players, but they will also attract other good players to our team.

Dick, you and I had several disagreements about a few things, but I'm okay with the rebuild. Our FO did a good job acquiring talent, they just need to grow it. I am concerned that we will not bring in good enough FAs to offset busts and to lead our guys to a championship. We will not win with just the guys we have in the system now. Boston, Yanks, Dodgers, Houston, and the Cubs will spend money. If we want to play with them, we need to pay. I want to see us acquire a huge bat and a huge frontline starter before 2020.

The two guys you listed weren't long term pieces making more than everyone else. You can hide their issues because they were far down the pecking order. Machado would be front and center even on that team.

I don't think it's the Dodgers. I think it is the Cubs, as their team leaders wouldn't want that type of distraction, and they can get good guy Harper.

My offseason plan is to bring in Machado and a solid SP. I think these two moves could get us to .500 if our guys take a step in development. I don't want to wait to attract talent because there is no guarantee future FA's will sign here, so take what you can get. I would also like good vibes going into the 2020 season and not worrying about if we can go from 70 wins to 92.

This is unacceptable. 5 years is enough to become a division favorite and compete in the playoffs, like the Cubs have done. This doesn't mean we will win championships, but we need to be a name brought up as a top 5 team in the AL. If this is not the end result, then our guys failed.

Then the better sign a few big time talents to take pressure off the young guys. 2020 should be the fan base's deadline to look like a team to be reckoned with shortly. 2021 will be year 5 of our rebuild, no excuses to not be competing for a championship by then.

Actually we are that irrelevant. People actually respect the As, even though they've done nothing of significance. People forgot we won a title.

This also explains why our 2007 attendance was incredible, even though we ducked. Give the fans some hope instead of year after year of heartbreak.

Well for a rebuild to work things have to go well. We cannot assume at this point however, that everyone will suck and no one will get better. We also can add starting pitching to our rotation via FA or trade. There is no reason not to spend big bucks since our payroll has been so low. We did what we did for Eloy because our window hasn't opened yet. Once 2020 get here guys like Eloy, Cease, Kopech, Rutherford, Robert and Madrigal will all be up. Once your window starts you can call up prospects a little sooner to play in that window. Those guys I listed will be the hypothetical second wave core. We can add a veteran catcher if need be through free agency. We will have a lot of money to spend before 2020. Who knows, maybe we can get 2 positional player upgrades and a good veteran starter. Kopech may be our 4th or 5th starter in 2020 with Rodon, Lopez, Cease all being ahead of him IMO. I've writtien off Giolito but he still has talent. We can also add a good starter to the roster in FA.

This failure was intentional though. They chose to lose these games and even told us they were gonna suck this year. There is a lot of talent in this organization right now even though a lot of it underwhelmed or got hurt. By 2020 our core guys should be up and we would have plugged our bullpen and roster issues with prospects or free agents. We also would have seen growth from some of these guys. This is how most rebuilds develop, ours is no different. I'm as hard as anyone on our rebuild so I understand the skepticism. At this point however, we have to understand things can go from dark to light in one season. Losing 100 games this year doesn't mean we can't win 81 next year or 95 the year after. Kopech will be fine, it's not the disaster that it feels like. He will win 15 games in 2020, and we can still have a good rotation if he is our 5th best pitcher.

In our current situation, our front office cant look at it like this. They have to assume they've put together a nucleus that will ne competitive in 2020 for at least a wild card spot. If this is the case, adding a hall of fame caliber player is a no brainer. Now obviously this rebuild may fail, but they cannot look at things so negatively before it actually does fail.

I'm typing from my phone. The first sentence should have read adding a hall of fame talent is worth more than the downside of an early opt out.

We most certainly can. Adding a Hall of Fame caliber talent is what any opt out years for now. Our front office just needs to do their job to ensure that player stays longer term. A Hall of Fame caliber player can send us from potential division winner to championship contender quickly. See Christian Yelich. In our situation, there may be no other way to acquire this caliber a player.

It won't matter because the Cubs are gonna sign Harper and overshadow our rebuild anyway. The good news is we will be good enough for ESPN to remember we exist.

I have faith a lot of these guys will grow. As it stands right now, they early returns are underwhelming. Next year will be the tell all to who we can count on and who we should begin to write off.

Machado is the better team fit, but Harper brings some superstarness to this team. People will remember who the Sox are with Harper, and others will want to play here. He legitimizes our side of town.