I met up with some friends I haven't seen for a while. They're from LA, and unfortunately, are big Dodgers fan. Of course, I received some good ol' fashion ribbing... all in good fun. But what amazed me is how much mis-information they had. They did NOT know the Astros issued an official apology They thought the Altuve buzzer in 2019 was fact, not a rumor started by some random burner twitter account They thought everyone on the team participated They thought EVERY pitch from 2017-2019 was "stolen" and known by the Astros batters They did NOT know the Astros road splits were better than home in 2017 They did not know about other players (non-Astros) like Logan Morrison, Erik Kratz, Chris Bassit, Joey Votto that have already come out and said this wasn't an "Astros-only" thing. I fear what the local media is feeding these people in LA. Now, the hatred from LA doesn't surprise me.
It's disrespectful to your friends, and I'm sorry for that-- but when I read this I simply hear, "baaa-aa-aa."
So Im looking up articles for fantasy purposes and this one pops up. https://tomahawktake.com/2021/08/12...atlanta-braves-only-have-themselves-to-blame/
Proving these women are emotionally unstable does not prove he didn’t beat the **** out of them. Bauer is proving to be one of the biggest dumbshit athletes of all time, regardless of his innocence or guilt of sexual assault. Dude thinks he’s going to set everybody straight with his “truth”, all he’s doing is digging his own grave. Just epic stupidity.
Yup. If anything, it looks like he knew full-well that this woman was unstable and vulnerable, which is why he engaged in that type of relationship with her in the first place.
She testified Bauer, who has been very outspoken in recent years against pitchers' use of foreign substances, told her about how he uses the substance Spider Tack. They then went to his bedroom for sex after a two-hour conversation, she said.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32050583/trevor-bauer-not-testify-restraining-order-hearing For a guy that loved to run his mouth via Twitter this is pretty ironic.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32051068/woman-denied-restraining-order-trevor-bauer LOS ANGELES -- A temporary restraining order against Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer has been dissolved after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman ruled against a woman's request for a permanent restraining order Thursday. Gould-Saltman determined that Bauer did not pose a threat to the 27-year-old woman, who accused him of sexual assault over the course of two sexual encounters, and that her injuries were not the result of anything she verbally objected to. The judge said the "injuries as shown in the photographs are terrible" but added, "If she set limits and he exceeded them, this case would've been clear. But she set limits without considering all the consequences, and respondent did not exceed limits that the petitioner set." "We are grateful to the Los Angeles Superior Court for denying the request for a permanent restraining order and dissolving the temporary restraining order against Mr. Bauer today," Shawn Holley, one of Bauer's attorneys, said in a statement. "We have expected this outcome since the petition was filed in June. But we appreciate the court reviewing all the relevant information and testimony to make this decision." https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodg...trevor-bauer-restraining-order-denied-dodgers Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said there was a distinction between what the accuser thought and what she communicated to Bauer. “When she set boundaries, [Bauer] respected them,” the judge told the courtroom following closing arguments. Gould-Saltman ruled that Bauer “did not coerce her or threaten her into sexual activity.” She said testimony established that the accuser’s Instagram direct messages and text messages to Bauer indicated to him that she “wanted rough sex in the first encounter and rougher sex in the second.”
Regardless of whether Bauer is charged with a crime, sources around the sport told ESPN they expect the league to levy a significant suspension against the 30-year-old. Further, front-office officials question not just whether the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner will return to the field with the Dodgers but if any team in MLB will be willing to roster him after multiple women have accused him of abuse. In recent weeks, ESPN spoke with more than two dozen sources -- executives, owners, lawyers, players and others familiar with how the league's domestic violence policy operates -- to assess Bauer's future. While MLB and Bauer's camp declined comment, the picture that emerged is one in which Bauer will remain a prominent figure in baseball even as he's not in a uniform, protesting the discipline handed down and trying to salvage his career and money. […] The expectation around the sport is that the league would pursue a suspension of at least one year. Multiple sources suggested a possibility of a two-year suspension. The league has been tight-lipped about any potential discipline as its investigation remains open and, accordingly, it has not made any decisions. Even without a sense from inside the league of where it's leaning, sources cited a confluence of factors that lead them to believe this could be the longest domestic-violence suspension since the implementation of the policy in August 2015. […] When a suspension comes, will Bauer appeal? All 13 of the players suspended under the policy agreed not to appeal. Bauer might well break the streak. Long before the allegations, Bauer's propensity to fight was clear. He belittled people on social media. He twice went to arbitration with Cleveland, unhappy with its salary offers. He raged publicly against Manfred. His tactics won him fans and antagonized others. Not only will Bauer come ready to scrap, multiple lawyers said, he'll do so with a judge already having said the California woman "was not ambiguous about wanting rough sex in the parties' first encounter and wanting rougher sex in the second encounter." "This is going to be a tremendous war," one person familiar with Bauer's approach said. "He's a person who needs complete and total vindication. So he's gonna fight this to the death. Maybe his own death." What does an appeal look like? If he does not agree to a suspension and MLB delivers one, Bauer would file a grievance to be judged by an arbitrator, who is hired in concert by the league and union and can be fired by either party. Bauer's side -- his lawyers as well as the MLBPA -- would present its case. MLB would present its case. The arbitrator would render a decision. Do players win appeals? Occasionally. In August 2013, MLB suspended Alex Rodriguez for a record 211 games after he possessed and used performance-enhancing drugs over multiple years. He appealed and was allowed to play for the remainder of the season. If the league were to suspend Bauer during the 2021 season and he were to appeal, though, he would not be allowed to play. The automatic stay for an appeal of a PED suspension does not exist in the league's domestic violence policy. A fully overturned suspension for a domestic issue is unlikely, according to sources familiar with the grievance process, but because this would be the first domestic violence case appealed, anything is possible. Where do the Dodgers stand? They declined comment but continue to pay his full salary. How much are they going to have to pay him? That depends on any suspension, of course, but Bauer's contract structure makes for a unique case. He signed a three-year, $102 million free-agent contract in February. It includes, sources said, a $10 million signing bonus that already has been paid out in two installments, $8 million in salary paid during the regular season and a $20 million lump-sum deferral due Nov. 30. If a suspension drops before that payment, the Dodgers could conceivably withhold it, but Bauer would challenge that and argue the money owed him was for time on administrative leave, during which he is paid like an active player. The next two seasons are the source of even more intrigue. Bauer can opt into a $32 million salary for 2022. At the end of next year, he can opt into a $32 million salary for the 2023 season -- or take a $15 million buyout and become a free agent. When Bauer signed, it was assumed he would pitch for the Dodgers in 2021 and 2022, then use the opt-out to hit free agency, having made $85 million over two seasons. Now, depending on the result of any appeal -- or the possibility that he somehow can rescue his damaged reputation -- him opting into that final season might be a fait accompli. If Bauer is suspended for an entire season, the benefit for the Dodgers goes beyond saving tens of millions of dollars in salary. For that season, Bauer will not count against the team's competitive-balance tax payroll -- saving the Dodgers from a $34 million hit on the number that determines their luxury-tax penalty and perhaps allowing them to pursue higher-priced and higher-valued free agents from whom they might shy away otherwise. Can't the Dodgers just terminate his contract? Not right now. The policy gives the league discretion to discipline unless Manfred transfers it to the team -- and with a suspension still an option, that's unlikely. Once any prospective suspension expires, if there is money remaining on the contract, the Dodgers could theoretically try terminating. It just doesn't work very often. The last successful contract termination was after Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon grabbed GM Ed Wade by the neck and threw him to the ground in 2008. An arbitrator upheld the termination, which cost Chacon around $1 million, in 2010. Other cases of attempted terminations have wound up with players receiving overwhelming portions of their guaranteed money, even if they seemingly run afoul of the uniform player contract rules meant to hold a player accountable if he "shall fail, refuse, or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship or keep himself in first-class physical condition." It's possible that if the suspension is long enough, the Dodgers don't proceed down the termination path. But if they have no intentions of Bauer ever again wearing their uniform and they're on the hook for $32 million in 2023, the legal fight might shift from MLB vs. Bauer to Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Bauer. How do players feel about this? Inside the Dodgers' clubhouse, they've more or less moved on. Bauer has been gone for almost two months now. They've resigned themselves to winning without him. That said, there was a distinct pocket of veterans on the team who didn't want Bauer anywhere near them again. There was also a group of players who would have welcomed Bauer back. The players were not unanimous in their judgment, but if ever there's a point at which Bauer tries to return, those in opposition are likely to make their voices heard louder than the rest. On other teams, there was annoyance that during the cross-examination of the California woman, Bauer's lawyers named two other major league players with whom she had sex. "I'm not asking you this because I'm slut-shaming you at all," Shawn Holley, one of Bauer's attorneys, said. But scores of players did not see it that way. They did not understand why the woman's sexual partners were material to defending Bauer and believed he broke a code in having his lawyers drag other players' names into his case. Is Bauer going to play this year? No. If the DA does not make a decision on charges before the end of the season, Bauer almost certainly will remain on administrative leave. If he's charged, MLB would either extend his administrative leave or use the paid-suspension provision in the policy. If he's not charged, a suspension will be coming, and even if Bauer appeals, the lack of an immediate stay will prevent him from returning. When is Bauer going to play? Almost everyone asked that question said some derivation of the same answer: Never again in MLB. Now, that could be prisoner-of-the-moment talk. Plenty of things can change. All it takes is one team to convince itself Bauer is worth the repercussions. Five players on major league rosters today were once suspended under the policy. Never is a long time. But the details of the allegations, Bauer's reputation as a difficult personality, teams' fear of public backlash and a climate in which allegations of sexual assault have far deeper repercussions than at any time before are like four walls converging on Bauer. As great of a pitcher as he may be, sources said they had a difficult time envisioning a path back into the good graces of the league and the team. Rodriguez shed his pariah status, but that came after his playing career, and PED use is often forgiven. Domestic-violence allegations attach themselves to a person as if affixed by Spider Tack. At this point, the answer to that question is far down the road. The DA must make its decision. Then MLB. Then, presumably, an arbitrator. And, after all that, if Trevor Bauer still wants to pitch in the major leagues, if he still has any fight left, it might still not be enough.
My guess is MLB will suspend him w/o pay after DA decides not to prosecute or after the trial if the DA prosecutes. Not sure if Dodgers get to keep the money or if they have to donate it charity.
If they succeed in doing that, it will be a first. Historically, despite the whole "good behavior" clause, guys have fought against not being paid, and have won.
