Ohtani! Yamamoto! It could happen! Maybe.
But that’s not the reason to start the new thread…
Because holy shit, the Wander Franco allegations have been detailed in court in the DR, and…just…yikes.
For the click-averse, TL;DR crowd:
We’ve known that Franco was likely to be charged with an inappropriate relationship with an underaged girl. Per the details today:
- She was 14 at the time
- Franco attempted to pay her family off by paying 100,000 Dominican pesos per month (about $1,700 USD), and also made separate transfers for much more to buy their silence.
He’s been charged with “commercial sexual exploitation” and money laundering. He was a no-show at a court appearance earlier in the week and is under arrest and remains in custody.
If the allegations bear out (and it sounds like they will), that might be a career for him. Wow.
Seriously, if he is convicted then may he rot in jail indefinitely
The Dodgers still need a closer. And there are questions on the left side of the infield. And even as a Dodger fan I know winning the regular season means nothing come playoff time.
Mets sign Harrison Bader. I mean I don’t hate this move as it’s just a 1 year deal, but it also likely means they have no intention of going after Cody. Bader is an amazing fielder, but hitting is meh. Cody will be super expensive and risky, but he’s had enough good seasons to make me think the down seasons were a bit of a fluke. It’s not easy to hit .300 in todays game and he’s done it twice and he’s still pretty young at 28.
They really need to freaking sign Pete to a long term contract. I don’t know why that’s been so hard. There’s zero indication that he’s going to slide backwards and he’s been super reliable. SIGN THE DUDE. :(
Mariners sign…uh…never mind.
Heck of a career. Can’t say I followed him closely, but it seems injuries won out.
Good player, great guy. Main reason he left town was because Cleveland couldn’t afford the deal he got with Houston. All this from a once-player-to-be-named-later (the last piece of the CC Sabathia trade from Cleveland to Milwaukee, and we only got to choose him because Milwaukee made the playoffs).
Love me some Michael Brantley. And yeah, his career I think got derailed a few times due to injury, though he also was able to come back from some of those.
On a list of players of this current era that I’d least like to face as a pitcher with men on base, I wouldn’t have too many guys higher than Brantley.
Michael Brantley’s batting eye, illustrated:
I guess I also didn’t realize: Brantley was the “Player to be named later” sent to Cleveland to complete the CC Sabathia trade to the Brewers. Wow.
Even worse - the rumors I hear all suggest they didn’t even make him an offer, which seems likely since they didn’t extend a qualifying offer at the time.
He had such a sweet, effortless looking swing and as mentioned above a great eye. Brantley ends up juuuust shy of .300 with a .298/.355/.439 career slash line and a career OPS of 117. Without all those injuries he may have been an outside HOF candidate but as is he’ll land solidly in the Hall of Very Good.
It also turns out not offering the QA was actually a benefit to him being able to find an ideal landing spot due to the lack of a compensatory draft pick, not that it was done out of the goodness of Cleveland’s heart (he wound up signing for $16M a year). Cleveland wasn’t even able to realistically afford the QA (almost $18 million in 2019) and keep the full team within budget at the time, so they didn’t make the formal offer; good player to have, but it would leave the team with too many holes and his health was always a question mark. One also has to remember that was the offseason of the Carlos Santana/Jake Bauers/Yandy Diaz/Edwin Encarnacion trade, and even that only happened with included help to pay a portion of Santana’s contract.
SIGH
Jake Bauers . . .
Robbie Ray to SF in return for Haniger (welcome back) and DeSclafina.
Can you feel the excitement?
… and the dodgers, pitching/bullpen blows up and loses in the playoffs…
… Again ;)
It would surprise me at least a little bit if Wander Franco ever played in MLB again.
Yikes.
Ya he’s never touching a professional baseball field again. Let’s also not forget he’s freaking married too. Woof.
It’s (probably) a good time to be an Orioles fan. What a couple of days they’ve had!
First, parsimonious owner Peter Angelos sold the team earlier in the week.
Now today the O’s have acquired Brewers starting pitcher Corbin Burnes for a couple of ok-ish prospects.
Great pickup, even as a one-year rental.