Derwood

Yes, but they are up against a mountain of dumb contracts that owners have signed off on in recent years that is now making everyone nervous about laying out 10 years. It's not fair, but every contract from Pujols to Hosmer is stacking up against Harper and Machado's demands. Smart people realize that Harper =/= Hosmer, but owners are using those bad decisions as an excuse to not back the Brinks truck up for the guys who actually deserve it They're making horsefeathers up because they realized they can game the system based off of the horsefeathers player negotiations from the last collective bargaining agreement; stop with your tortured caveats that basically amount to, "look, this is BS, but I can actually kinda see where they're coming from with this BS, so they're not all wrong." The vast majority of teams could easily afford either guy and are simply either choosing not to try (and a bunch of those are simply choosing not to try at anything besides being awful, period), or trying to lowball a couple of generational talents like THAT'S inexplicably the way to course correct shelling out for much older and much worse players (when most of the time those "bad contracts" either paid off or broken even or came pretty damn close; the truly bad ones are still the obvious exceptions and not the rule). Plus it's ridiculous to continually say things like, "nervous about laying out 10 years;" nobody is ACTUALLY paying for either for a decade unless something goes really wrong and they don't opt out well before then. They're horsefeathering disingenuous scum acting like they're locking themselves into a 8 or 10-year deal with a couple of guys this good and this young (nevermind how ridiculous it is to be hemming and hawing even if they WERE actually locking in with guys, again, this good and this young). AGAIN, I'm neither siding with nor excusing the owners. I'm just looking at the reality of the BS circumstances that the owners have created that is depressing the market on Harper and Machado. They have very effectively convinced the common baseball fan that Luxury Tax=Salary Cap, and they've put profit margins above winning. For a small handful of teams, spending this money on these players makes no sense (the Marlins, for example, would not get a good ROI on either, because their entire franchise sucks), but most teams are simply deciding that nickeling and dimeing their way to 75 wins is an acceptable business model

Waves and waves (of Iowa shuttle middle relievers)

Both guys are only 26, and have been each worth approx. $236 million in about 7-ish seasons of play apiece. Yes, but they are up against a mountain of dumb contracts that owners have signed off on in recent years that is now making everyone nervous about laying out 10 years. It's not fair, but every contract from Pujols to Hosmer is stacking up against Harper and Machado's demands. Smart people realize that Harper =/= Hosmer, but owners are using those bad decisions as an excuse to not back the Brinks truck up for the guys who actually deserve it

Am I supposed to know who this is? one of the more prominent cubs bloggers who has claimed sources before Why does no one post his tweets but we have 87 Charles the Cat tweets?

Am I supposed to know who this is?

No, I've never said that spending money on these players is bad, and I'm not (never) siding with ownership. I'm just pointing out that Harper's particular demands limit his pool of interested teams, and he has to decide if that's worth the record contract. I wish it wasn't that way It's an imaginary, arbitrary pool. Not if the owners have collectively decided that profit margins >>>>> winning

Judging by online reactions it appears fans are quite content with the spending money is stupid idea. These same goofs would definitely rage at Theo for not sealing the deal if we were actively pursuing case in point No, I've never said that spending money on these players is bad, and I'm not (never) siding with ownership. I'm just pointing out that Harper's particular demands limit his pool of interested teams, and he has to decide if that's worth the record contract. I wish it wasn't that way

I mean, that's on him, though, right? He can sign anywhere he likes so long as he drops his demands from "richest contract in history" to "unbelievable, generational wealth"

Do not self-report. Do not cooperate. It's that simple. If any AD self-reports or cooperates with the NCAA they should be fired. The only schools that get in trouble are those they try to do the right thing after a mistake was made. Yuuuup. Remember when the OSU team in Urban Meyer's first year went 12-0 but couldn't play for the NC because OSU gave themselves a one-year bowl ban?

Yeah, Philly really put themselves out there with their "we're going to spend stupid money" thing, and if they land neither of the big fish, they'll have some clean up to do on the PR side

Wait, this site has a front page?

No idea how you would prove it without someone just fessing to it. Even if owners were stupid enough to leave a paper trail of emails or texts, I don't know what grounds you could subpoena those communications.

Did Hunter Pence finally die of weirdness?

Cubs winning the WS really did set us on the worst timeline, didn't it?

The big reveal is that they are cutting everything but Diamond Dynasty, sealing me never buying the game again. (Only sorta kidding)

I mean, it's treebird's joke account so.....

Treebeard/bird/mon/man with the scoooop!

Any chance for parole?

It’s really feeling like Harper (and Machado) and their agents entered this off season expecting that teams would be climbing over each other to hand out record-breaking contracts, and are now in the awkward position of seeing a drying up market. Harper, at least, can go back to the Nats on a “hometown discount” (to save face) but Machado? I don’t know what he does. How low are these guys willing to sign for in order to play where they want?

Hey, Tazawa was last good in....2015....so at age 33 he's sure to bounce back

I get the feeling that Bryce just doesn't want to play for Philly. If this was only about the money, Philly would have signed him by now

I'm fine with owners not signing off on stupid 9 figure extensions on 30+ year olds on the downside of their careers. But to lump Harper and Machado in with the Evan Longoria's of the world as a reason to not pay people is absurd. Owners suck

So with Pollock in LA, the market for Harper is pretty much just Philly now, right?

Did he sprain his shoulder signing the contract? Yes, I’ve already made this joke