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Neighborhood Janny said:
Overall, I'd say this Spring Training has been...well, as good as Spring Training can reasonably be. I've been impressed by the Grapefruit League this year, especially Detroit and Washington. I certainly won't make predictions this early on, but both of those teams are showing some genuine promise in getting better. Detroit especially could be a contender for a second place finish in the ALC and Washington might go a little above expectations in the NLE.
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It'd be nice to see a competitive Detroit team again. I don't like any of the other teams in the AL Central.

It's been almost a decade since Dave Dombrowski waved the white flag and traded David Price to Alex Anthopoulos' sub .500 Blue Jays at the deadline.

Anthopoulos quietly knew that management was bringing in Mark Shapiro to replace him. So he went all in, traded 12 pitching prospects for rentals at the deadline (none of them amounted to much, best was probably Matt Boyd).

He also got very lucky in that the Jays played .600 ball, making the playoffs for the first time since 1993 and lost to the Royals in the ALCS. AA resigned as GM anyway since management was effectively giving him a demotion by making him report to Shapiro.

The Tigers have been irrel and all kinds of awful since.
 
Dodgers get the win and Ohtani has a 2 Hit, 1 RBI, 1 SB performance for a not too shabby debut.

I saw too many Angels games where they would go into the final inning having just leveled the scores or having taken a lead, only to fuck it all up. Some franchises are just cursed like that.

The Dodgers, hopefully, will at least not do the whole "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" that I had to endure for the last several years with the Angels.

Tomorrow will also be interesting because it'll be Yamamoto's debut, so fingers crossed that he's got his command figured out.
 
Mordecai 3 Finger Brown said:
Eric Hosmer retired today.

His 8 year, 144 million contract he signed in 2018 with the Padres was essentially the worst contract in baseball the day it was signed. He's still owed 26 million combined over the next two seasons.

Supposedly Hosmer was also an asshole IRL.

There was an old Fangraphs article by Eno Sarris from back when Hosmer was in KC. The sabermetrics guy was trying to interview Billy Butler about hitting and Hosmer kept heckling something along the lines of "This nerd is the worst!".

Although Fangraphs ended up becoming insufferably woke, so maybe Hosmer was the Chad in the end after all.
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I can believe that. Douchebags in baseball are as common as old people in Florida.

Though that 2015 Royals team was on a mission to prove their surprise World Series run wasn't a fluke. Some other teams were trying to put them back in their place (Brett Lawrie and Jeff Samardzjia come to mind), so they developed massive chips on their shoulders and took on the role of baseball's punks.

The only guy from that team I truly didn't like was Yordano Ventura. He's remembered fondly because he died in a car crash, but it's been memory-holed that he was a hothead who'd frequently run his mouth and start fights. He was the kind of thug who'd have been a gangbanger if he weren't a ballplayer.
 
Meat Target said:
The only guy from that team I truly didn't like was Yordano Ventura. He's remembered fondly because he died in a car crash, but it's been memory-holed that he was a hothead who'd frequently run his mouth and start fights. He was the kind of thug who'd have been a gangbanger if he weren't a ballplayer.
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It's a little fuzzy since it was a decade ago, but I thought Ventura had a reputation for being a hothead who threw at players.

And of course playing in the AL at the time, rarely had to ever worry about stepping into the batter's box himself.
 
Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's interpreter and longtime associate, has been fired from the Dodgers.

He apparently ran up $4.5 million worth of gambling debts through both Draftkings and some illegal bookies. According to his initial statement, he went to Shohei for help. Shohei agreed to cover the debt on the condition that Ippei walks away from gambling forever.

Shohei then proceeds to make some of the bank transfers to the bookie's associates himself. This part is important because it technically ties him to the chain of transactions.

Shohei's attorneys are claiming that it was theft by Ippei and Ippei has also claimed that Shohei was in no way involved with any gambling in his statement.

Why the fuck did this idiot get involved in this kind of shit to begin with ? He allegedly makes between $300 K to $500 K per year and had a job as an interpreter set for decades.

Now after all the wreckage clears, he'll be lucky to work at a motherfucking car wash for minimum wage.

I'm more concerned that Shohei is going to get banned or some shit because Baseball loves to fuck itself up its own ass.

I hate the motherfucking Antichrist so much.
 
Sorry, but once the professional leagues got in bed with gambling, they have no leg to stand on. How you gonna plaster Draft Kings and Fan Duel all over the place and then pretend like nobody connected to any players or organizations is gonna try and cash in?
 
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Unarmed Gunman said:
Sorry, but once the professional leagues got in bed with gambling, they have no leg to stand on. How you gonna plaster Draft Kings and Fan Duel all over the place and then pretend like nobody connected to any players or organizations is gonna try and cash in?
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Yeah it's insane that they want to take billions in sponsorship money from gambling outfits but still have these idiotic policies. How the fuck are they even going to properly police some shit like this ?

Only allow affiliated people (players and otherwise) to use special issue phones which are monitored ? I mean, even in that situation, players and associates who really want to gamble will find a way.

There was a time when people thought that sites like Draft Kings and Vegas sportsbooks would put organized crime-affiliated bookies out of business, which is laughable. The whole reason why people continue (and will continue) to use illegal bookies is because you can stay anonymous.

If there's no way to properly police something then just open it up and let motherfuckers do what they want when it comes to gambling. I don't gamble myself and consider it throwing away money but if people want to fuck their lives up, then go on ahead.
 
Illidan Stormrage said:
Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's interpreter and longtime associate, has been fired from the Dodgers.

He apparently ran up $4.5 million worth of gambling debts through both Draftkings and some illegal bookies. According to his initial statement, he went to Shohei for help. Shohei agreed to cover the debt on the condition that Ippei walks away from gambling forever.

Shohei then proceeds to make some of the bank transfers to the bookie's associates himself. This part is important because it technically ties him to the chain of transactions.

Shohei's attorneys are claiming that it was theft by Ippei and Ippei has also claimed that Shohei was in no way involved with any gambling in his statement.

Why the fuck did this idiot get involved in this kind of shit to begin with ? He allegedly makes between $300 K to $500 K per year and had a job as an interpreter set for decades.

Now after all the wreckage clears, he'll be lucky to work at a motherfucking car wash for minimum wage.

I'm more concerned that Shohei is going to get banned or some shit because Baseball loves to fuck itself up its own ass.

I hate the motherfucking Antichrist so much.
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Pitching coach to Ohtani :
"Ok, Aaron judge is leading next once you're back on the mound. Now it's no secret that this man is good, so don't give him a good pitch, sliders on the outside, maybe some splitters too, it you walk him so be it the people after him aren't as good."

Ippei to Ohtani (He took money line on the Yankees):
"Throw that shit down the middle niggaaaaaa."
 
Unarmed Gunman said:
Sorry, but once the professional leagues got in bed with gambling, they have no leg to stand on. How you gonna plaster Draft Kings and Fan Duel all over the place and then pretend like nobody connected to any players or organizations is gonna try and cash in?
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They went so far as to allow Bally Sports to buy and run a whole slew of the regional cable TV broadcasts for many teams.

Until the live sport cable TV cashcow went belly up and the contracts became albatrosses.
 
Trevor Bauer was signed for six games with Diablos Rojos of the Mexican League including an exhibition game vs the Yankees on Sunday


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Mordecai 3 Finger Brown said:
It's a little fuzzy since it was a decade ago, but I thought Ventura had a reputation for being a hothead who threw at players.

And of course playing in the AL at the time, rarely had to ever worry about stepping into the batter's box himself.
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Same with Jose Fernandez. Died tragically shortly after getting in a fight with his girlfriend, then got drunk and snorted coke while operating a speedboat. Rest in piss, retard.
 
Here's where things get complicated:

The investigation was ongoing and Shohei's camp decided that the best thing to do would be for Ippei to give a tell-all 90 minute interview to ESPN.

Shohei's legal team probably went livid because this goes against whatever strategy that they're concocting to get Shohei off of the hook. They immediately reached out to his camp and the spokesperson hurriedly disavowed the entire interview (that they had put together in the first place).

This was the 1st galaxy brain tier fuck up: always have all of your ducks in a row (including your lawyers) before you go public with anything.

The verified by Shohei's lawyers "official" statement is that Ippei basically embezzled funds from Shohei and used it to pay off gambling debts.

Here's what I think really happened:

Ippei started gambling on sports in 2021, after meeting that bookie at a Poker game. He made sure to bet on sports other than Baseball and believed this sort of betting through a bookie to be legal. This was in conjunction with his betting on sites such as Draft Kings.

Eventually, not only did his gambling debts run into the millions but he confessed to Shohei about these woes. Shohei made the decision to help Ippei out on the condition that he walked away from gambling. Shohei then wired the money himself to an associate of the bookie that Ippei was using. These transactions were then picked up by the authorities as the bookie is being investigated by the Feds. This is where we are now.

So what would be the best way to spin this in order to ensure that Shohei isn't impacted ? Well, I would say to keep your "lies" simple.

They should admit that Shohei was the one who wired the funds, but was unaware that this was for a gambling debt to an illegal bookie operation. He simply took Ippei's word that it was for something else and wanted to help his buddy out.

The reason is that it's too easy to trace IP addresses and they would eventually determine beyond a reasonable doubt that the transactions were made from Shohei's own machine. I suppose that they couldn't prove that it was Shohei himself was the one who made the transactions, but most people wouldn't believe that Ippei had THAT much direct access to Shohei's bank accounts and logon credentials.

A bunch of people are claiming that the bets were placed under instructions from Shohei and that it was actually he who was gambling. This, I doubt very much. Shohei is nearly 30 and has had "fuck you money" for damn near a decade now. If he had some kind of a gambling habit then it would have been clear by now. His mom used to manage his money and he lives a pretty spartan lifestyle, so I personally doubt it that he had any interest in gambling.

Yes, I'm biased. I want Shohei to keep playing and continue making Baseball relevant (relatively speaking, no one gives a fuck about this sport without Shohei's star power). Ippei was the one that fucked up and he has to live with the consequences of his decisions. As long as Shohei was not actively involved, then I want him doing what he does better than anyone in the game's history: play Baseball.

I don't want to hear about "justice" in a world where the motherfucking "justice system" is harassing Trump on some cringe shit and allowing illegals in NYC to carry guns.

Shohei playing Baseball is one of the few things that gives me peace of mind in this hellscape of a world that we live in.
 
Illidan Stormrage said:
A bunch of people are claiming that the bets were placed under instructions from Shohei and that it was actually he who was gambling.
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It is beyond obvious Ohtani was gambling. The money was coming straight from his account. MLB doesn't care neither will the fans as he's not the only player to be gambling in the millions every year. When all of your sponsors are betting sites you have no leg to stand on as well. This is Pete Rose 2.0 for the MLB and we will see how hilarious the denials are from the front office.

No bookie is going to allow an interpreter to get $4.5million in debt to him. But an MLB player? They could make that much with a commercial and a few live appearances. "Yeah I'm an interpreter that makes five figures a year can I have a credit line of a few million to gamble with?". No bookie would agree to this. But an interpreter placing bets for his multimillionaire client is an easy agreement.
 
TheHarbinger said:
It is beyond obvious Ohtani was gambling. The money was coming straight from his account. MLB doesn't care neither will the fans as he's not the only player to be gambling in the millions every year. When all of your sponsors are betting sites you have no leg to stand on as well. This is Pete Rose 2.0 for the MLB and we will see how hilarious the denials are from the front office.

No bookie is going to allow an interpreter to get $4.5million in debt to him. But an MLB player? They could make that much with a commercial and a few live appearances. "Yeah I'm an interpreter that makes five figures a year can I have a credit line of a few million to gamble with?". No bookie would agree to this. But an interpreter placing bets for his multimillionaire client is an easy agreement.
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Really ? What gives you such absolute confidence that Ohtani is the one gambling ?

Granted, neither of us can say with 100% certainty but I'll lay out the rationale as to why I think otherwise:

1) There were 2 separate payments of $500 K each coming from Ohtani. Not a steady stream of repayments covering the whole amount, but only 2 separate payments covering a portion of the debts.

2) Ippei earns as much as $500 K per year, which isn't exactly chump change. In addition to this, we don't know what he was telling the bookie regarding his relationship with Ohtani and his confidence that Ohtani would help out if he got in too deep of a debt hole.

3) Look at other cases of people who were prolific gamblers, when it comes to athletes or people around sports: Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dana White (just to name a few). They all started very early in their careers because they were simply drawn to gambling. We have never had any indication that Ohtani was ever interested in gambling.

4) Ohtani grew up in Japan, where gambling is illegal with the exception of Horse Racing. Ohtani was never involved in Horse Racing gambling (it would have been major news given how every inch of his activities is scrutinized to an autistic level in Japan). If he was ever even remotely linked to illegal gambling then it would have been a huge scandal in Japan.

Again, we'll find out for sure in due time but I'm pretty sure that it was Ippei alone and Shohei was simply trying to help him settle his debts.

With all eyes on him to see how he was mentally handling this complex situation with Ippei's gambling, Shohei swings and gets a hit on his first at bat. Ends up scoring a run as well on Will Smith's double.

Dodgers are in quite the hole at 5-1 but it ain't over yet. Yamamoto looked like dog shit sadly. Hopefully he figures it out.

Edit: In his 2nd at bat, Ohtani blasts a fly ball for a Sacrifice RBI. 5-2 Dodgers and while they're leaving runners out there, the team is fighting back.

Edit: Welp, if you're gonna be down 9-2 then they might as well have kept Yamamoto in the game...

Edit: 9-4 now and the Padres are going into their Bullpen.

Edit: Betts with the clutch 2 RBI double, followed by a Shohei line out to make it 9-6. Still in it boys.

Betts with the clutch 2 run homer to bring the Dodgers to within 10-8 at the bottom of the 5th. Ohtani got 2 bullshit ass strikes called on him before flying out to Right Field.

Freeman gets on base but Smith can't keep his hot streak going.

Edit: Dodgers pitching just doesn't have it tonight. No easy innings at all, other than maybe 1. It's good to have a deep Bullpen but man, none of these guys look consistent out there. 11-8 Padres so far.

Edit: Max Muncy is a fucking scrub fielder. 2nd error today and now it's 12-8 Padres. Fuck, even Betts has had some iffy plays at Shortstop.

Damn, this turned out to be quite a crazy game. Dodgers score 2 runs at the bottom of the 8th to bring it all the way to 12-11.

Ohtani hit a few bombs today but just couldn't clear that right field wall. Regardless, the Dodgers have put themselves within striking distance to have a shot in this game.

Edit: Of course they just have to give up a 3 run homer to Machado in the 9th...

Edit: Down 4 runs, bottom of the 9th. 1 last swing I guess. Honestly, if you give up 15 runs and 17 hits then you're not worthy of winning. Dodgers may as well take those moral victories of having made a game of it and be done with things.
 
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Re: The Ohtani situation

Something is majorly fucky about this entire scenario. If Ippei was millions in the hole with illegal bookies and Shohei just wanted to help his best buddy out of a bad situation, I can understand. You can't hold Shohei liable for helping a friend in need, regardless of what you think about that friend going into massive debt. Clearly Ippei has a problem and Shohei did what any other person would do. However, to put out a statement that confirmed said story and then to retract it shortly afterward is way too suspicious for my liking. If all you did was help your friend out of a sticky situation, why wouldn't you be honest about it? Why retract and then blame your friend? And this was after Ippei had his moment at a press conference where he told the press that a story was going to come out that implicated him in something bad and that he took full responsibility for it. The messaging here is not clear at all and there is no direction from anyone's PR department on how to frame the story.

We all know how close Ohtani and Ippei are. I'm sure each of them has dirt on the other. I mean, come on, if any of you have close friends (this is Kiwi Farms, so maybe I'm being a retard by assuming such things) you have probably been in situations where you have confided secrets and committed some shenanigans. I know I have and those things have never been disclosed to people I wouldn't want to be in the know. From what has occurred over the last 24 or so hours, it seems to me that perhaps Ippei has something embarrassing on Ohtani that Ohtani may not want to be out in public. Maybe the retraction came out of an abundance of caution because they knew Ohtani's name was on the wire transfers and thus there was direct implication of possible wrongdoing? Even then, it still makes no sense to put out a statement saying X and then putting out another statement to say that X is no longer the position you're taking and that the new statement is Y.

We've got to let this shake out. Right now, I don't think Shohei needs to be under any investigation from the league or his team. Ippei being fired is the right call, as sad as it is, because there has to be a standard for all members of an organization. I think it's sad that Ippei has now completely ruined his life and lost what was the most cakewalk job one could ask for. What's sadder is that this could be the end of a very long friendship between two men who have been with each other for a long time. As I see it, Ohtani has done nothing wrong until proven otherwise. We just have to let it shake out and hope for the best, whatever that may be.
 
So excited to see Yamamoto have a 4.8 season ERA and Ohtani to receive a lifetime ban from baseball this year
 
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