turnin' two

Yeah, I get it, and if you were to say that Manny is definitively the better defensive player. OK that is true. But I think you could also say flat out that Harper is the better offensive player. How you come to terms with those two things is where your opinion ends up. For me, I prefer the better bat.

That is completely fair. But so far at their best, Harper's best is better. And in terms of consistency, Harper's career OPS is only .005 points below Manny's career best, and .078 points above his career number. That is about the difference between Abreu and Avi last season. Machado's career OPS is the same as Mike Napoli's (.001 better, actually). Harper's is better than guys like Harmon Killebrew (.016 better) Eddie Mathews ( .015 better) and Willie McCovey (.011 better). Not saying he is better, but at this point in his career, he has a better OPS (.900). He twice has put up OPS numbers better than 1.000. Manny has put up numbers over .900 once, this season, at .905, playing half his games in a notorious hitters park. Manny Machado's OPS at this point in his career is .002 better than Harold Baines' career number, including the .661 OPS he put up in his age 41-42 seasons. Another thing you have to consider is how the guy will age, and I think Harper's skill set, of OBP and SLG will age better than Machado's defense. I will be thrilled if the Sox get either one of these guys. Personally I prefer Harper, but I see that a case could be made either way. I just don't see how you can state one is better than the other as if it is a fact.

It depends on how much of the contract the Sox pick up. I would think that they wouldn't have to kick in any top level prospects.

He hasn't even mentioned the Sox as a contender up until today. It seemed as if he was absolutely trying not to mention them actually, I have a hard time believing he changed his stance with out hearing something.

I spend a lot of time in Milwaukee, and more than a little in Detroit. Neither is bad. Milwaukee, is great actually. And there are some really nice areas and great restaurants in Detroit (burbs at least).

Robert Johnson?

There can be reasonable arguments made on both sides. For example, look a their ceilings. So far, Harper's best season was 3 WAR better than Machado's best season (they both happened in 2015). While Manny's defense gives him a higher floor, Harper's bat gives him more of a ceiling. And if Manny is insisting in playing SS, that really hinders his defensive value. There are cases to be made on both sides. Personally I agree with what Bmags said earlier, and would prefer not to pay just on defense.

I don't know that that is unequivocally true.

This exactly for me.

Plus he didn't say what I want to hear. So he is clearly not credible.

You are sending me mixed messages not Hahn.

I think it is Andrew Freidman who said, if you are rational about free agents, you will never sign one.

I wouldn't think so. Arenado will play next season at 28, and 29 as his first free agent season, as opposed to 26. He will command fewer years than Harper/Machado.

I haven't really seen too much of his mechanics, but unless he has the worst named thing in sports, the inverted W (seriously, that is just an M), his mechanics weren't the problem. Other than the M, mechanics don't seem to have a correlation to TJ. You know what does have an incredibly strong tie to TJ? High velocity.

Good luck. He has a no trade, and nixed trades to STL and SF last offseason. He wanted NY, why would he change that now? Also what teams are going to be in play for that contract?

No joke.

I think he gets more than that, and he is worth more than that. If it were 2/20, I think the Sox could play there (provided they land someone else first...) but pairing him with Colome and Jones would be a pretty solid back end.

According to BBref, of his 5 most similar hitters, 4 of them were already in the HOF. Tony Perez, Al Kaline, Dave Parker, Billy Williams and Andre Dawson are the 5. Is he the best player in the HOF? No not at all. Nor is he the worst. Some of his numbers are completely at home among the hitters in the HOF. He is top 50 all time in hits(46th) and RBI(34th). He is 65th in Home Runs. 78th in Doubles. He hit .290 with an .820 OPS over 22 seasons. He was an All Star at age 40 with a .919 OPS. Maybe he didn't have the high peak that many HOF-ers, but he never really had any valleys either. His career was basically a 22 year plateau that yielded some great numbers.

He hasn't started in what, 3 years, and wasn't very good when he was a starter. That would be even more odd I think.

Hahah! Beat me to it.

I don't know. I honestly don't see much difference between the two. Obviously Hamilton swipes more bags, but I think Engel has the speed to do it, he just needs to be turned loose on the bases. Engel hit .235 with a .614 OPS (and Engel hit .260 with a .668 OPS in the 2nd half). Hamilton hit .236 with a .626 OPS ( no real difference in his halves). That difference is worth the 6 million in pay I wouldn't think.

MLBTR reported that Greinke's no trade rights have been a "major impediment" . I believe it was reported earlier, that the Sox are not included on his no trade list, this would seem to give the Sox some leverage in dealing with the DBacks. Edit Here is the link https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/12/nl-west-notes-dodgers-lemahieu-belt-greinke.html

Congrats to Harold! Man that is such great news. Always one pf my favorites.

Oh, trade the guy that had the worst ERA in the MLB for a stud SP. Why didn't I think of that. Blake Snell? deGrom? You think those teams would throw anyone else in the deal? Maybe deGrom and Syndergaard for Giolito?

Because the driving conditions there are infamously dangerous.