Grant77

God it's nice to have Varsho back.

Very impressive Varland!

I was playing around on fangraphs and saw this: Position player WAR: 1. Jays, 2. Cubs Defensive value: 1. Jays, 2 Cubs Pitching value: 22. Cubs, 24. Jays I hadn't realized how similar the teams were on the surface. It would make a fun World Series with the 2 best hitting and defensive teams. Lots of runs, but great defense.

Atta boy Little! 6 straight curves!

I would say so. There must be a disagreement then, good research.

This is my own speculation, but I get the sense that the Jay's doctors think he's ready and MLB does not. Schneider made a point to differentiate between the two and I sensed a little frustration when he discussed MLB's tests, as well as a bit of bewilderment when he mentioned how good George feels. It sounds like he's doing his full normal routine here in Toronto.

Could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Schneider says Springer is hitting, fielding, and running with the major league team, but MLB won't clear him to play in minor league games. He says he looks and feels normal, but there are a 'lot of boxes to check' when it comes to MLB's testing.

After August 15th, he will be able to retain his rookie status and we will still be eligible to get a free pick after next season. I'm not sure if that is a factor.

Jeff Blair says that George Springer is back with the major league team and no longer in Buffalo.

I'm not sold yet. He's just 6-24 with a double and a walk outside of that one game in Colorado.

If you're keeping France, I'd rather see Schneider go down than Loperfido. I think they are similarly talented hitters and the roster construction just works better if we keep the lefty. It's a good problem to have.

There is essentially no investigation when the defendant agrees to plead guilty to all charges. I would be more convinced if he had pled not-guilty and were still convicted.

Certainly not, I'm somewhat liberal actually. I just believe his original statements more than the investigation. Those kinds of statements are actually seen as the most credible in criminology, for what it's worth. MLB doesn't have the strongest track record of telling the truth to it's fans, especially when it comes to stars. That's no conspiracy.

Definitely not the first, but I'll be happy if it stops that false narrative.

I would love to hear some of the names that Yesavage was available for. Probably not a reliever, considering they didn't get Duran. It could just be that they offered him for Skenes or something, which is a no-brainer.

Ohtani himself said via his spokesperson that he knew about the gambling and the debt, which he paid off in 500k increments because it was the maximum he could do. You don't need to guess about that part. Also, I do believe that knowingly funding sports gambling is a 'crime' in baseball terms. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Taking steroids isn't necessarily a crime either, but it's problematic in a baseball context. In the one instance where I believe a a player who unintentionally took steroids (Chris Davis), he was still suspended.

Just one clarification. I don't believe the interpreter said anything at first. Ohtani himself was quoted via his crisis management spokesperson and the Dodgers saying that he knew about the gambling and the loans. After a few days, they then tried to redact those statements and had Mizuhara himself state that Ohtani didn't know anything. I was unconvinced by that change in the narrative. I more or less agree with your general point, I just wanted to clear that up. I don't think he's an evil mastermind, but funding sports gambling is still troubling. The players know that it's against the rules in this day and age. A guy like Ernie Clement would absolutely be suspended if he lent money to his friend for sports gambling. The cover up/PR campaign (which we all agree seems likely to differing extents) also rubs me the wrong way as a fan. I feel justified in not liking him and I think all of the fans I met during the KC series feel the same way. Fandom is always a subjective thing, so I accept everyone's opinions.

I made a mistake in my first post. You are correct, I was wrong. I did not mean that he was placing the bets himself. Mizuhara was placing bets on sports with Ohtani's knowledge and funds, if you believe the original statements from Ohtani and his spokesperson. I don't really draw a big distinction between those two things, as he would probably still be banned for life, had the investigation confirmed those statements.

If we ignored the first 48 hours of the gambling scandal, then I would be in full agreement with you. To tell you the truth, I'm the type of overly trusting person that be susceptible to what you describe. The fact is, Ohtani was quoted by his own employee and his own team, as saying that he knew about the gambling and the payments. I'll never believe that there were multiple miscommunications and mistakes from a crisis management expert and other people that deal with PR on a daily basis. There's no other proof or anything that either of us can have. I just don't believe that, period. You're obviously willing to write it off as a series of enormous mistakes and I'll accept that view because I respect your opinion, but I see another incident in the very next season as a small amount of confirmation for my view.

I can't name a baseball fan that I know who; 1. Believes the revised story that came out after the original facts and statements from the Dodgers and Ohtani's spokesperson. 2. Thinks that sending your friend to jail to cover for your crimes is an acceptable thing to do. 3. Thinks that a second alleged crime within a short time period doesn't merit some level of suspicion. If your friends all believe those things then that's fine, but I don't like players to commit crimes and that's a very common view amongst baseball fans that aren't your friends

Bauer isn't an active player so I didn't forget him, but I agree that he is hated. Alex Rodriguez too, both are real *******s and cheated. I'm not stating that he is guilty in this instance and have carefully worded my posts to reflect that viewpoint. The hate on X goes beyond what you would expect, had this been Mike Trout or something. I expect that you would see a lot of people defending him. In this case, any reasonable or critical thinker will, at the very least, have strong suspicions about the gambling scandal and will no longer give him the benefit of the doubt for these allegations, like they would for another player.

Sources? Why be so dense about this? I know you followed the story. Ohtani's spokesperson that he hired himself said that Ohtani was aware of the gambling and the payments. The spokesperson (again, Ohtani's employee), even had direct quotes from Ohtani himself saying the same thing. Before you say he wasn't placing the bets, paying a friend to gamble on sports is still against MLB policy. That story was repeated a couple of times through multiple outlets and sources for the first 48 hours until the entire narrative changed. Some of it is outlined in this article, but it doesn't have the corroborating statement from the Dodgers that said something similar. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39784809/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-mizuhara-theft-line

Which active player is more hated? Especially in Toronto. I can really only speak from personal experience, but the people in my life generally believe the original statements about the gambling scandal, which means that he sent his friend to jail for his own crimes. That's utterly despicable in my view. I'll grant you Altuve for cheating and perhaps Machado for his attitude, but he's right near the top. Most of the game's stars are free of controversy and loved. Outside of steroid guys, I can't remember ever seeing this level of hate for face of the league type guys like Jeter and Ichiro. Look at the comments on Jomboy's tweet about him. There's a level of vitriol that is extremely high, even for that platform.

Perhaps, but you don't see other figures like Judge getting caught up in this kind of thing. This is two scandals in a year involving Ohtani. I think it would be pretty naive at this point to think that there's no fire to all of this smoke. I honestly thought it was naive of people to still support him after the first scandal where his spokesperson and the Dodgers both stated that Ohtani himself was gambling and then quickly reversed course. MLB ran an outrageously successful PR campaign on his behalf. Critical thinkers that I respect in life and on this forum actually fell for it, which was shocking and disappointing to me. I also don't think the Rivera situation is really comparable, should the allegations in this case be proven true, or a settlement awarded. They allege direct involvement from Ohtani, not some foundation that is merely associated with his name.