Is any of this even real or just all manipulated by the gamblers?

[Olerud363.354]

Season over, but JaysBlue made some interesting points on one of the gamethreads.  My reply here because I think it deserves it's own thread. 

Basically his vibe was things are so weird, how do we even know it's real and not just manipulated for gambling?  Is Cease really only throwing 92 now with no control?  Did Vlad really lose his power for no reason?  Or are they just playing to the whims of gamblers?  For the record I do not believe at all that Cease and Vlad's problems are on purpose for the Gambers.  Simply an arm that's toast and a back that's probably just as bad. 

However I think there is some truth to what JaysBlue is getting at.  I don't think Cease, or Vlad, or the Jays are doing anything improper.  However I also think the problem is WAY bigger than people acknowledge and MLB is kind of doing what they did with the steroid era.  They are aware of bigger problems but only acknowledge the small.

Emanual Clase blowing the ALCS on purpose.  So much smoke there and no one hardly talks about it.  Check out his regular season and playoff stats.  So it's like there are levels to this.

1. Emanual Clase just thew balls on first pitch - bad but not game changing.

2. Clase purposely blew the ALCS

3. It's everywhere.  Everyone is blowing everything on purpose for the gamblers.

I think we are at 2 for sure, but probably not 3, but also somehow barely acknowledging 2. 

I truly believe Clase blew the ALCS but it will never come out, and they will just go after the stupid 'ball on first pitch' thing

I truly believe there are some other cases out there just as bad, that we may, or may not ever know about.

I don't believe Jays are tanking on purpose though, just major undisclosed injuries ...

[Pendleton]

I checked with the other gamblers and it wasn't us