Bryant, Longoria Frustrated That Harper, Machado Remain Unsigned

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 6:22 am

Cubs star Kris Bryant and Giants third baseman Evan Longoria both expressed frustration for free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, who remain unsigned with less than a month to go before spring training begins.

Via ESPN.com

Post #2 » by **TheCage4** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:21 pm

Why is it any of their concern?

Harper is looking for a monumental contract and Machado has questions about his personality/work ethic and wants big $$.

If you want to stand up for your colleagues, go to bat for the journeymen who work on minor league deals and live in different cities every year.

the_process · Post #3 » by **the_process** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:24 pm

Bryant is toeing the union line. He's also looking ahead to his own FA.

Salaries cannot just keep rising exponentially. Revenue certainly isn't. There are probably only about 5 or 6 teams that can afford to carry a $175M+ payroll. There's going to have to be a salary cap if players think that. That way salary is tied to revenue.

Then there's the history of these long term big money contracts never working out. And also, both Machado and Harper are risky. Machado seems to be somewhat lazy and a primadonna, and Harper is abrasive and egotistical. I wouldn't go higher than 8/300 for either one.

Barcs · Post #4 » by **Barcs** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:26 am

Yep, it's about the union and CBA. Harper is looking for a record deal, it's not something that happens overnight.

Dominator83 · Post #5 » by **Dominator83** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:31 am

I dont blame teams at all here. Teams are wising up that throwing mega contracts at big free agents, rarely ever works. It ends up backfiring a hell of a lot more than it ends up working out. Even then Yankees have gotten away from that formula. In the old days, both machado and Harper would've had Yankee hats on a month ago

spikeslovechild · Post #6 » by **spikeslovechild** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:02 pm

the_process wrote:Bryant is toeing the union line. He's also looking ahead to his own FA.

Salaries cannot just keep rising exponentially. Revenue certainly isn't. There are probably only about 5 or 6 teams that can afford to carry a $175M+ payroll. There's going to have to be a salary cap if players think that. That way salary is tied to revenue.

Then there's the history of these long term big money contracts never working out. And also, both Machado and Harper are risky. Machado seems to be somewhat lazy and a primadonna, and Harper is abrasive and egotistical. I wouldn't go higher than 8/300 for either one.

Was about to say the same thing right now revenue is split 54-46 in favor of the players if players think the current system is no longer fair they can follow the NFL or NBA lead where there are salary caps and revenue is divided up pretty much 50-50