If you'd like me to send screen shots to people in the industry, both players and coaches, who have worked with Machado, they'll all say he's a great teammate and hard worker. LMK
OT: Baseball Free Agents
- Thread starter Hungry Jack
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If you'd like me to send screen shots to people in the industry, both players and coaches, who have worked with Machado, they'll all say he's a great teammate and hard worker. LMK
Machado said he's not a fake hustle guy. You're taking what he said literally.
Adam Eaton, for instance, is widely hated in every clubhouse he's in but comes off as some media darling for his hustle and work ethic. You're just taking what he said at its most literal translation. He works his ass off to be great and he is
Ok, good luck with that. As a Cubs fan, I really hope the Sox sign him because they will soon regret it. As a father of two young Sox fans, I hope this is all a marketing ruse because signing Machado to a mega contract would doom by kids to a decade of baseball season misery.
"Let's act like we're gonna go hard after Machado or Harper this offseason then not actually do it, that'll make the already pissed off fanbase happy!"
Great marketing tactic
Playing 100% all the time is not fake hustle in my book. Running out pop ups at full speed is not fake hustle in my book. Admiring a ball you think is a home run only to find out it turns into a single rather than a double or triple is not fake hustle in my book. As a dad of two fairly good travel baseball level players, i’ve only spent their entire lives drilling into them that there is a right way to play and a losers way to play. Machado is a loser blessed with a lot of physical talent. The lukewarm interest in him is a reflection of that assessment.
I didn’t say that it was a good tactic. In this case, I am hoping it is the better of two bad options. This is a Jerry Reinsdorf owned team after all. Have you seen the shit show that is the Bulls lately? Jerry isn’t going to have a HBS case study written on his sports management acumen any time soon.
Ah, America 2019! Catch the fever!
Lukewarm interest in him is because of the market factors I posted above.
Also I think we can all agree Javy Baez plays his ass off but he's pimped out balls he thought were gone too, only to find them turn into singles. Same with Contreras who also plays his ass off.
And comparing your coaching methods to your young travel ball sons to Manny Machado does nothing for your argument
Don't. The Machado stuff people have spewed since he didn't run hard on national TV is sports-radio-caller-level crap.
No but he *did* stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Or if the billionaire owners would agree to make half their profits the cash would be there for FA's.
No, I am citing my opinion and supporting it with the only fact that really matters. It’s a fact that despite having significant resources, no team has come even remotely close to offering either of these players a “market value” along the lines of what had been forecast by some. The reason is that neither of them is worth that kind of money.
ERRR wrong again. You're "fact that really matters" is nothing more than poor opinion.
They're worth what teams are offering them.
I am of the opinion that if we get to the point where there is so much money in a sport where we are arguing whether it’s less worse for a player to get a $350MM contract or for a billionaire owner to make a few more million more a year , then something has gone terribly wrong. basketball is in a similar situation when there is so much money in a sport that bench warmers or minor roll players who barely see the floor are getting 8+ million a year. If it has gotten to that point, how about the players and the owners agree to give fans a break. How about we make it so that a family of 4 doesn’t have to drop $400-$500 to go to a baseball/basketball game? How about the TV contracts are structured in a way that enable ESPN to function viably? They will kill the golden goose if they keep going at this pace.
This is a very important point:
"The Yankees discussed financial parameters with Machado and Lozano, but they wanted him at their price because they're going to have 4-5 guys that are up for long term extension in the coming years. Same with the Cubs with Baez, Bryant, Rizzo eventually, etc."
Would Cubs' fans rather have Rizzo, Bryant, Contreras, Hendricks, and Baez or Harper? I think for most of us, this is a no brainer. Teams are becoming more aware of the need to keep their best players if they can, not only to be competitive, but also because roster stability breeds greater fan interest and support.
Err wrong again. I didn’t say I was their baseball coach. I am their life coach and the direction I gave them how about how to play the game as winners are lessons that apply to every aspect of their lives. No one taught Machado those lessons and his career clearly shows that.
If they signed Harper, they would not lose every player you just listed. There would certainly be sacrifice in 1, or potentially more of those guys, but it wouldn’t dictate that much. And if it was between signing him or KB, I think you can make an argument either way. KB is going to cost a very pretty penny eventually, probably in same ballpark as Bryce. If you’d forego multiple pieces you mentioned there to pay him what he wants, I’d also say that’s respectable.
If they are unwilling to sign Machado or Harper because this step would deprive them of the resources to sign their own players, isn’t this an indirect acknowledgement that they value those players more than Machado/Harper? In my view the answer is pretty clearly yes.
That wasn’t an isolated incident. Machado played like that throughout his career with the Orioles. He just isn’t a winning player. If I recall correctly, you and I had a similar disagreement over jay Cutler? Similar situations. Character and attitude matter a lot in team sports. At NU, FItz calls it “fit”. Call it whatever you want but guys like Machado and Cutler are cancers to sports teams.
This was put up on Fangraphs a few days ago:
The other factor that has bedeviled Cincinnati’s rebuild is the inability to develop pitching from the fairly impressive group of arms that they acquired in recent years. The Reds had hoped to have at least a few solid, mid-rotation arms from the list of Anthony DeSclafani, Brandon Finnegan, Cody Reed, Keury Mella, Tyler Mahle, Amir Garrett, Sal Romano, and Robert Stephenson by this point. While the book’s not closed on this group, the team still don’t have a single healthy, dependable, mid-rotation-or-better starting pitcher.
Gray and Wood would be nice additions on a team with a few top notch starters, but no depth (see the Braves, or maybe the Giants), but on the Reds these guys will be counted on for a lot of quality innings. But when you are coming off 67 wins, anything helps.
Trout is what? Trout is a great player who plays hard all the time. Never seen or heard anything to the contrary about him.
Ok, I understand your point.
This is not about being liked, this is about being respected. Ideally a leader is liked and respected but i’ve seen many instances where succesful teams/companies were led by people who were reapected but not necessarily liked. I’ve never seen a successful team/company led by someone who was liked but not respected.
I believe he was responding to corbi, who made a point of Machado not being "a winning player." The same could be said of Trout, if one is only talking about "winning."
Machado doesn’t exhibit the personal characteristics and habits of a player that is a leader on a winning team. That shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that one player on his own can will a team to win if he has these characteristics. These are team games and you need more than one player to win championships. On the other hand, one bad apple, particularly when it is your best and most highly paid player, can be the reason why another wise good team does not win a championship.
Except that's just what you watch on TV. You don't know how his teammates, coaches, etc. view him. You assume that he's a "bad seed" because of a few dirty plays, but he's loved by teammates. I know this for fact. He's undoubtedly pulled dirty moves on the field, but nobody cares what the opposition thinks.
Also - he's played 155+ games every season other than 2014 where he got hurt. He sure is lazy though
I'll say this: I have no personal or even knows-someone-who-knows-someone knowledge of Manny Machado or his characteristics or habits. I see only the little bit we see on TV plus whatever media has come out about him over the years. I'm *pretty* sure you also don't have any, but correct me if I'm wrong.
I also am an avid reader and consumer of baseball news and the Machado is a cancer view is not new. My view of him as a player is reinforced by what I have seen of him on TV and in person over the course of several seasons.
Once again, I’ll reiterate there is a difference between being liked and being respected. A leader doesn’t have to be liked, but he has to be respected. Machado is not a leader and shouldn’t expect to be paid like one.
