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Evan Longoria - 10 years $135mill

Fangraphs does disagree with this velocity loss and place it close to a half a mile per hour...

I’m well under 70 and live kind of far away in Chicago...

Well, it was a trade, not a signing. But a lot of people were excited, like really excited. Way too excited considering the Sox were still a last place team whose best starter was Rick Porcello....

If a team is “given” forty percent winning percentage, that is an inherent parity that isn’t found in any other sport. The economic disparity becomes a matter of efficiency in obtaining the rest of the wins...

No matter what the sport, fans cannot handle it when the score is tied. Why is that? Is the uncertainty of when it ends so stressful?

Players worth only two or three more wins than a minimum wage jabroni are NOT elite players, salary noneithstanding. The only difference in this case is closers, where the best are only 2-3 wins more than the average players. But then how many more wind does a great closer give you?

But not as much PR. Remember what this site was like when we acquired Kimbrel?

See, so he’s done with no more knees left to operate on. Machado at 26 can play SS or 3b. Eventually he might have to move to 1b or DH, but he has the bat to handle the production associated with those roles....

Going by results to date - Sandoval. But those 8 figure contracts that go into a player’s 40s like Pujols and Cabrera looked like bad ideas from day one. I do think Joey Votto, whose deal is similar, will become as burdensome, but to his credit, hasn’t yet...

Which is why Kimbrel was Consolation Prize B...

Of course none of them were 26 either. I agree there is risk. Evan Longoria was roughly the same age as Machado when he signed a 10 year deal. But 8 years for a 26yo player isn’t the worst contract we will see this off season...

The bottom line is, a bunch of teams have publicly declared interest in Machado and/or Harper, which tells their fan base they are willing to spend. As only two at most can land Harper and/or Machado, teams will look at Keuchel and/or Kimbrel. At some point, if you are the White Sox or Padres or Phillies, you need something like this to save your off-season. Keuchel more so than Kimbrel....

I do so want to go to your team’s games...

Absolutely true. Last year for the Sox, the bullpen threw 587 innings, of which Kimbrel only pitched 62. I have faith that Barnes can handle the closer role; he has improved every year and he is certainly capoable lready. But it's the handling of the other 525 IP that bother me. I lack the faith in Braiser that many have. (He was in Japan for a reason, folks.) Hembree is OK. Thornburg and Smith need to recover. Workman is about the bottom of acceptability. Johnson is barely a major leaguer. On the bright side, apparently there is something to this Colten Brewer fellow. Domingo Tapia had one of the most dominant pitches in the minors not too long ago. Meijia was a former Met top prospect and good closer. And Lakins, Feltman and Poyner are available. And there are still penty of free agent pitchers besides Kimbrel. Nick Vincent, Aaron Loup, Tyler Clippard, Jake Diekman, and Ryan Madson would all be potential improvements for the Sox...

Kimbrel is going to be Consolation Prize B for one of the teams budgeting for Harper and Machado.

I do doubt many players look at teams the ways fans do, and despite what players say, I bet going to a winning team isn’t that high on the priority list when they’re free agents...

That sounds like an issue I would take up with the man holding a gun to your head and forcing you to come to this site...

It might be the bullpen. It might even be the closer. But if there are issues in the bullpen, it’s more likely to be the guys throwing the 450 non-closing innings than the guy throwing to 60-ish closing ones. But that doesn’t mean the closer role isn’t overrated and overvalued. But I would definitely not attribute 3 AL East titles to Kimbrel with no mention that the Sox also brought Price in at the same time and Sale one year later...

But to me, the notion that relievers are inconsistent pitchers is backwards. The truth is, inconsistent pitchers are relievers...

Whether or not the Yankees are spending 30%, 50%, or 75% of their revenue is immaterial. They’re still among the highest paying teams in the league just about every year and NOT the problem with these new abysmally slow tightwad off-seasons...

In the last 35 years, only 10 different teams have won an NBA title. In MLB, there have been 10 different World Series champs in the past 16 seasons...

So I guess you don’t count the additions of Yonder Alonso, James McCann, and Ivan Nova fornthe White Sox? They may not be adding the bigger names you like, but they have been active, which goes for a few teams on that list. San Diego is somewhat hamstrung in their ability to trade for bigger names, since most teams won’t look past Tatis. This does happen, as you Yankee fans know - teams only focusing on a top prospect in a trade. Gerri Cole went to Houston because Pittsburgh was unable to pry Gleyber Torres from New York. San Diego has at least 10 prospects ranked higher than anyone in the Sox system, but if both teams inquired about the same player and they offered their #10 and the Sox offered Chavis or Hernandez, we get the player. But bottom line - there are teams making zero effort to get better. But half of those 8 teams (at least) are making effort, just not with the results right now. If/when Harper and Machado actually sign somewhere, the fallout will become more attention to Keuchel and Kimbrel. Expect Chicago and San Diego to be involved in one of those waves. But yes, Baltimore, Detroit, and Miami and maybe a couple others are a disgrace right now...

What do you mean by tried to get better? The White Sox and Padres have been connected to Machado and Harper, and so far the White Sox are the only team with a public offer to either. In fact, the White Sox entire off-season seems to be built around courting Machado, as they traded for his brother-in-law and signed his winter workout partner. Both these teams have been very public in their pursuit of big money free agents, that one or both might sign Keuchel or Kimbrel as a consolation prize. The Rangers and Royals have both been active this off-season as well, just not in the pursuit of the bigger names. Don’t go writing off signings like Jesse Chavez, Lance Lynn, Billy Hamilton and Brad Boxberger as “not trying” and lumping them in with completely inert/legally dead franchises like Baltimore and Detroit, who could not have done less to improve their teams...

MLB tried to contract several years back, with the two franchises being the NExpos and the Twins. The Expos have since relocated and become very competitive in Washington and the Twins were the first franchise to draw 3 million fans , prior to that organization being ruined by notorious cheapskate Carl Pohlad. The MLBPA vehemently opposed the contraction...