Balta1701

Yeah I mean think of where they’d finish in the division this year with him. They were rolling with him, right? Totally dismantled an unstoppable force. How they could give up on a successful offense like this one I don’t know.

1. Still has no concept of getting on base more as a priority for the worst team at it. 2. Where does he plan to get these more athletic players before next year? They have a handful of trade resources but not a lot, they have some money to spent, but they are already talking about their bullpen needs when they have about 0.75 starting pitchers out of 6. Presumably this would involve trading all their tolerable prospects considering they’d need like 15 players.

The fact that MLB did not deal with this promptly as is required by the text of the CBA is consistent with this. It very much seems like the league was hoping this would go away between last summer and January, and suddenly got serious and dealt with their requirements in a few weeks once the accuser came forward in the press. Which has absolutely made me wonder if there are other ones where the accuser did not go public that we never heard of around the league.

The only innings Crochet ever pitched in the minor leagues were a half dozen rehab innings this year.

Exactly.

As are we.

Then maybe don't lecture people on the vital importance of Due Process in this case if you're wishy washy about it on other cases.

He actually just came off the IL on July 29, pitched 5 scoreless innings. But even if he was hurt, the White Sox have actually done this exact thing before. In 2013, Rick Hahn traded Jesse Crain to the Rays for either a PTBNL or Cash Considerations when Crain had been hurt since June 29, with the return to be based on whether or not he actually came off the DL during the season. They could absolutely have done a similar setup with him if any team wanted him, the White Sox pick up some of the money since they're going to have to pay it anyway, and the return in terms of prospects (or a financial return) depending on what Clevinger actually does the rest of the year. https://www.espn.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9519708/chicago-white-sox-trade-jesse-crain-tampa-bay-rays

The way MLB rules work are quite specific on this, the White Sox couldn't do that unless the league did so, and the league could not do so for more than a period of 7 days without some additional excuse for doing so. The only thing the White Sox could have done was cut him and pay him his full salary after the investigation, if they wanted him off the roster.

Yes, you're correct. I believe the woman who shared photos of her bruises in an article online accusing Clevinger, who had no clear benefit in coming forward and who probably cost herself money in the process, is credible. I find it baffling that MLB would have failed to interview her promptly and find it completely improper that they should have had the incident reported to them while he was still on the Padres and still had to talk to her again in February. As this might have come down to a he-said, she-said situation in terms of her statements, taking those statements so far afterwards is one step above trying to cover it up since memory doesn't work that way, it gets worse over time, including for traumatic events. Whoever decided on a suspension or not would have had to know that it would be appealed to an independent arbiter, and these cases are complicated enough when everything is investigated correctly, and inconsistent statements made 6 months afterwards would be an easy thing to argue against. So yes, I've made up my mind. You also have made up your mind that the accuser was lying and that those bruises came from something else or from someone else, despite knowing less than those assigned - you've indicated this by saying repeatedly that he was "cleared" without knowing that. But it only looks bad when I believe the person who published pictures of their bruises, not when you decide you don't believe them because...well, whatever, you won't say where you think those photos came from. And to top it off, we then have things that should not have happened at all, him dragging the team into this. No one ever should have thought a guy publicly accused of domestic abuse should be playing the song "Gold Digger" as their walkout song, and they made him stop right away when they were called out on it. They should absolutely have said "everyone stay away from this person as one of our teammates had an issue with them" and yet somehow this wound up involving one of the other team rookies. These were things that should not have happened. So I don't know the whole story, but I am absolutely allowed to believe the accuser from what was presented even if it didn't rise to the standard of a suspension, and I am absolutely allowed to wonder why on Earth they were still interviewing this person in February as that alone casts doubt on the quality of the MLB investigation. And given all this, it's totally unsurprising that people were insisting he was one of the most likely guys to be traded at the deadline outside of his personal issues and in the end no one wanted him, and it seemed obvious that he would be claimed at the waiver wire deadline, if anyone wanted him. And yes, if they bring him back, the only reason you won't hear about this all next year is that it will be the last straw for a lot of white sox fans.

No, he went through the process and was not suspended, this is fundamentally different from being cleared or proven that he did not do it. We know this language well, it is used in legal matters all the time. We are absolutely allowed to decide that we believe a jury got things wrong and we are absolutely allowed to understand that he probably beat the s%*# out of a woman who later took photos of the bruises but MLB had a high enough standard that, when interviews were done like 6 months later (For whatever reason, and again this should have violated MLBs procedures as spelled out online), they decided they didn't have enough to suspend him. Do you believe that no jury has ever acquitted person who actually committed a violent crime? If so, it's not a good look for you.

Please tell me what evidence there was and what was proven. How was it proven that he did not abuse this woman? What were the causes of the bruises in the photos?

Yes, each of those things was inappropriate and two of them directly brought the franchise into the matter.

No. He was not "Cleared", he was not suspended - that means that whatever "investigation" they did, it didn't meet whatever standard they are using to require a suspension. It is worth noting that MLB's investigation process certainly appeared questionable, as the CBA requires it to be done quickly (literally it requires decisions within days) and yet MLB was still interviewing the accuser in February of last year, which on its own raises issues since memory of events definitely is harder the longer you wait. The decision on a suspension I think is suggested by a panel including 3 independent experts, 2 MLB representatives, and 2 players union representatives, we do not know if there was a vote or anything like that. At the very least this year during the season, we had Clevinger coming out to the song "Gold-Digger", we had Colas seemingly stalking the accuser's instagram page for whatever reason, and we had the accuser suggesting that Clevinger was still calling and leaving her numerous messages. Thankfully this isn't the level of the stuff he was accused of last year, but none of it was good behavior and more than once we saw the team/organization dragged into his personal issues. No intelligent GM is going to look at this and be willing to stick their neck out for a guy behaving like this.

Dude, you personally said Clevinger was more likely than not to be traded at the deadline.

The Dodgers gave up their #8 prospect. you're right, Gio's payout for September will be $2 million. He got all the way to Cleveland, a team who is not currently in the playoffs, and who typically doesn't exactly spend money. In August, Lucas Giolito gave up more runs than Mike Clevinger gave up hits, and that's a gamble worth $2 million to Cleveland. But teams are crying poor about $5 million? Malarkey.

Frankly this is nonsense. He was owed $5.2 million for the month of September and the playoffs. You don’t think a competitive team needing pitching would pay that right now? The Rangers and Astros both took on just about that much per month for Scherzer and Verlander and gave up serious prospects too. The Dodgers took on $9 million for 2 months of Lynn and Kelly and gave up a top prospect on top of it. Giolito got claimed. Yet suddenly $5 million has become too pricey, for a guy with an ERA in the 3s? Not a chance. Put yourself in the shoes of the 2021 White Sox, if Rodon was hurting and Lynn was hurt and Keuchel was struggling in August and a pitcher with no long term commitment became available for only $5 million, how pissed would you be if they didn’t put in a claim? That’s the number 2 seed and home field advantage in that wild card round. The reasons he is still here are entirely non baseball related.

I will stand by every single word proudly.

Slept on it and am pretty sure that the enthusiastic personal endorsement of Clevinger and outright dismissal of any reason why anyone might have a concern about him is easily the number 1 thing he’s done to piss me off all year. %^*+ off.

But who would play RF?