 we start off with Bryce Harper so Brody Van Wagon and said come and get us and the Phillies said hold my beer so the Phillies signed Bryce Harper 13 years $330 million no opt-out clause that will take Harper through the age 39 season without an opt-out and the thing that's stunning about this deal is the average annual value now he breaks the record for the most guaranteed money breaking the record that was held by Jean-Carlo Stanton which was a 13 year $325 million deal and right now Harper essentially will make a smidge over $25 million a year which in this market in this day and age happens to be great now what is what kind of players are going to be at the age of 37 38 39 I think that what the Phillies are thinking yeah if this is a 10 year deal we can look at it as $33 million a year but it's a 13 year deal so when you're dealing with luxury tax tax threshold you know this is done 25 million a year that's why the long-term contract helps the Phillies because it amortizes the cost of the deal 25 million gives them 8 million more to play with rather than giving 33 million for 10 years so you know just by looking at the deal and Scott Boris telegraphs his fastballs when a rod signed 252 in Texas the reason it was 252 was because the previous highest mark ever for professional athlete was 126 by Kevin Garnett he wanted to double that and you know he went into this thinking I've got to beat the Stanton contract and he did by five million dollars but let's be honest Stanton signed his contract four years ago so the value of that contract went up just five million dollars in four years I think the Phillies made a great deal now the question though Don and Peter does Harper really want to be in Philadelphia or did Boris exhaust every single option and couldn't get the Dodgers to bite on a long-term deal and couldn't get the Giants to bite on a long-term deal obviously the Yankees were never in play the Cubs were never in play so Harper goes from Washington to Philly and that construction worker who shouted out at him a couple of months ago just take the money baby he took the money and ran 330 million dollars and now the National League in my opinion the three best teams the Phillies the Nationals and the Braves and the Mets are a smidge behind yeah right I mean how how can you tell me otherwise I mean Philadelphia was a good team last year they kind of faded down the stretch but now they go out and get one of the best players in baseball in a ballpark where he can easily hit 50 home runs Michael I mean that ballpark does not there's not a picture-friendly ballpark by any stretch of the imagination so he can launch home runs there help them offensively even though minute Washington lost him they're still a good team man they've got showed over the whole year with the moves that they made yeah he's 19 gonna be 20 now so he's gonna be better and become maybe the next superstar for that team and the Atlanta Braves they went out got Donaldson they're defending champion so yeah and you know what the whatever the structure is and the national history major Corbin right right so the history of Major League Baseball Michael whatever scenario you were ever talking about about making the playoffs it's impossible to make the playoffs as a fourth-place team in your division can't do it because the teams above you are going to be wildcard teams and you're going to be outside looking in so if there are three teams better than you in the nationally geese that means you're not going to the playoffs hold on we got to check in with our Phillies desk real quick and see what the celebration is like Andrew Andrew you are over there this is amazing this is great he is well do you know that right before you went on a 255 Don I got a text from Andrew all capital letters Phillies exclamation points he is getting right now I was walking past him as he saw the news and he he flung himself back and almost ran into me like I saw that moment there's a word I can use to really articulate what I saw but I got to stay on brand but it was that level Michael I was standing next to him when it happened is any idea what that means no we do you stole it's my word but I wasn't even going to go there but I think anybody that knows me knows what that means so yeah there's there's plenty listen yeah there's plenty a little little I started so many places I want to go I'm just not going to take it he was he was very excited let's put it that way yes he was there was um there was a lot going on there but I walked by I mean so I was happy because we live in a world now Michael where it's about the business in the world less of a fan I mean that's a guy that had genuine excitement for his team landing one of the best players and you know what it's the type of signing that changes the balance of power it really does because you know a couple of weeks ago maybe a month ago van wagon and said come and get us I mean I don't know if that was just uh eight uh you know GM speak so to excite his fan base but I think they've got to do a little bit more now you know they're going to start the year without a third basement essentially and you know the now met fans I'm sure are going to come down and go why didn't we sign this guy because it does change the balance of power if you looked at this and said all right harper goes and signs with the giants or the Dodgers you can make the case the Mets could be better than the Phillies but I'm sorry with Bryce Harper the Phillies are better the Phillies made other moves as well so Gore is a big pickup for them these are good moves and and real mutile and listen what we have to understand is we can only analyze the information that we're given okay but what's starting to come down now is that Harper didn't have a problem with Philadelphia I think he just knew that he could get what he wanted from Philadelphia and to keep the narrative of not wanting to go there was going to drive the price up because Ken Rosenthal just tweeted source no opt-outs harper didn't want one so if you're led to believe that report what that tells you is he had never had a problem with Philadelphia had never had a problem being booed in Washington nine times during the course of the season when they played there he and Boris knew that when push come to shove that money was going to come from Philadelphia and the more he tried to shop at other places they probably knew going back to the organization in Philadelphia saying they were prepared to pay stupid money that that probably drove the price up so I don't think he ever had a problem but I will tell you I don't think this is a great deal for him I mean this was the seminal expected free agent this year he and Machado whichever way you cut it gets five million dollars more a year than Harper so it's like remember when Magic Johnson and this is when money was different he signed a 25 year 25 million dollar contract with the Lakers that was quickly renegotiated like four years in that was a million dollars a year so you give him all the years he wants because all you care about his average annual value Bryce Harper is going to make 25 million dollars a year there's a lot of people that make more a lot yeah but that was not the intent of Boris when he started this I mean that's fine Michael but the 13 years is almost unprecedented in this day and age we're talking about a Rodney and got it four years ago it's it's it's but it's but right now we were talking 10-year deals and going like how outrageous is that it's a 13-year deal so yeah average annual salary is less than Machado but he gets to continue to make it you know three years beyond when Machado's contract expires so he still gets three more and if he decides to play depending on what's going to be happening you know down the road when things may change the fact is he's going to make that 25 plus three more years longer so that still means something right but what's 25 million dollars in 10 years what what's it going to be worth in today in in those days dollars I'm sure it's still going to be a lot of it's not it's not going to be like money that that you can't even believe I mean by that I would say there will be major league baseball players making 55 to 60 million dollars a year maybe but but you know what not a 36 37 year old so Machado's deal is up at 10 years right when his when he's deal with San Diego whoever ends up picking up that contract when that's over he's going to be how old he'll be 20 he'll be 26 all right so be 36 years old he is not going to have the ability to make 30 million dollars a year at that age right and say you know what he has a great year at the age of 36 and then average annual salaries are over 40 million he might be able to sign a one or two year deal yeah but you're looking at that way Michael we're also looking at you know a cba he's going to come what if they institute a salary cap what there's a lot of things that can happen to where maybe this money isn't going to listen and he's and he's just betting the fact that here I am going to be 37 38 39 years old guaranteeing myself 25 plus million dollars when Machado is going to have to go around trying to get some kind of stupid money at the age of 36 when his contract expired and maybe not be able to manage as Peter said 330 million dollars it's an incredible haul for playing baseball I get it but this is not the dream that Boris had the dream Boris had was a 40 million dollar year contract he fell 15 million dollars short sad sad that's all I can say I borderline feel bad for Harper but at the end of the day Michael Boris can lick his wounds Harper can lick his wounds what there can be regrets but the fact is for 2019 and the foreseeable future the Philadelphia Phillies went out and add themselves one heck of a player that the Mets are going to have to contend with now for the next decade if there is you know winner or losers in this and it's hard to be a loser with 330 million guaranteed money the Phillies won this the Phillies won this because Middleton said I'm going to spend stupid money this is not stupid money 25 million dollars a year is not stupid money it's just not and when can they and when could they get out of it can't it's guaranteed no matter why he could god forbid break I believe no opt out no opt out I would like to say that even at that price this is still not a good deal for the Phillies why because you I mean Harper's been really good you're telling me there's no chance that fast forward six years you're like I cannot believe we're paying this guy 25 million dollars a year he kind of turned into a bum the last he gets a little injured but I the end of his career he's not good you're paying him 25 13 years there's almost no chance he can be good here's why this whole thing is ridiculous okay take a look at how long the average general manager stays the GM and how long an owner might actually own the team I mean if the if the if the Phillies win a couple of championships over the next five years they may not care how the contract ends the idea is well how do you lock the player up for the next few years so we can win a bunch of championships I think a lot of people know like how are you sitting there analyzing well you know when he turns 36 37 man this is not this is gonna look ugly heck everybody who made the decision might be gone by then but if they win between now and then they're gonna be they're gonna be heroes in a town like Philadelphia where the team has literally won just twice in the last hundred years or whatever or three times a hundred years that they went a bunch of champions with the guy who's gonna who's gonna moan and groan about a 10 years if that happens a limited player if that happens sure but what if they don't and it feels that it's gonna look bad right and it feels like Bobby Bonilla before you know if you think about it though you know you're talking about stupid money right signing Andrew McCutcheon three years 50 million dollars when there's no way he was valued at that I mean the Yankees loved Andrew McCutcheon wanted to keep him not of that money so he's making 17 million dollars a year Bryce Harper's making eight million dollars more a year than Andrew McCutcheon who's 32 years old again I I understand what Peter's saying you're you're risking whether or not this guy becomes a good player I think this guy has a drive for greatness he wants to be an all-time great so I don't think he's just gonna go in the toilet after three years I think he I think the Phillies look at this if we can get 10 great years out of them the other three years that's that's great we will give him 25 million dollars a year for a gold watch whatever whatever gets it done and even if it's you know a really good seven years you know whatever gets the deal done to bring him here and win and establish yourself as an all-time franchise during that period of time then you could print you're probably gonna live with it and again Philadelphia may find themselves in a situation where they could get themselves out of the deal you know the way that Texas was able to get themselves out of the deal the way Seattle was able to get out of the deal with Kano so there is an exit strategy that could still be applied at some point and it'll be easier to do if this team wins three championships in the next six years because Mark Feinstein is reporting a full no trade clause in the deal with the Phillies so they can't trade him anywhere unless he says okay so there could not have been a problem with Philadelphia then right I mean we'll never know how can you know we'll never know but it's completely locked in no opt out you know he must really want to be there then