MLB suspends Trevor Bauer for 2 years with no pay

CaptainLaddie

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I think it's very gross that he's doing this but has there ever been a more talented American pitcher to go to the Japanese League? I'm fascinated to see what his numbers will be, even with his time away from baseball. Does Japan use different balls / allow tacky surfaces?
 

jon abbey

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I think it's very gross that he's doing this but has there ever been a more talented American pitcher to go to the Japanese League? I'm fascinated to see what his numbers will be, even with his time away from baseball. Does Japan use different balls / allow tacky surfaces?
He is Japanese, but Tanaka went back to Japan for his year 32 season (same as Bauer), as NY didn’t want him anymore (FB was increasingly unusable), and he didn’t want to pitch anywhere else in MLB. He’s had two strong seasons there since returning.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tanakma01.shtml
 

CaptainLaddie

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where the darn libs live

mauidano

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So - he’s still being paid by the Dodgers ? Or does this deal get them off the hook? And if not that’s yet another scummy thing by Bauer actually demanding and getting the 4m. He clearly has no shame.
$28 million guaranteed form LA. I wouldn’t say he is “demanding“ money from Yokohama. He is being paid for one year of pitching for them. No one plays for free…anywhere.
 

Marciano490

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It’s scummy on the team, not gonna throw another rock at Bauer for taking money to do the thing he does. If someone casts Cosby in a movie, you don’t blame Bill.
 

mauidano

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It’s scummy on the team, not gonna throw another rock at Bauer for taking money to do the thing he does. If someone casts Cosby in a movie, you don’t blame Bill.
Except that Bauer hasn’t been convicted of any crimes. Only in the court of public opinion.
 

Marciano490

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True, but I’m still comfortable voicing my opinion on the internet based on what I’ve seen. :)
 

mauf

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Except that Bauer hasn’t been convicted of any crimes. Only in the court of public opinion.
The difference between this case and others like it is that even if you believe Bauer’s account, he’s a terrible person.

Agree with @Marciano490 that you can’t expect a free man not to earn a living. And I don’t know what the culture is like in Japan on these issues, so I’ll reserve judgment on the club. I’m just glad Bauer won’t be pitching here.
 

Tokyo Sox

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I have to think the Dodgers will release him. Wouldn't surprise me if he ends up out here if no MLB teams will touch him, a la Roberto Osuna.
Bauer is a bit higher profile than Osuna but beyond some griping from a handful of English speaking NPB fans who knew his story, I didn't see any pushback domestically when Osuna went to the Chiba Lotte Marines, and I wouldn't expect much if Bauer came this way either. Many fans here would never know Bauer's story but to the extent any of them bothered to find out why a guy who won a Cy Young a couple years ago was now pitching for the Yomiuri Giants, I think most would just see "no criminal conviction" and talk themselves into it pretty easily.
Wholly unsurprised that this is how it played out. I was hoping for California Penal League as RR said upthread but, oh well. Most of the press in Japanese is full of excitement for his arrival.
This article https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/3d6532fc11772787cfdff6f19d1c23297923dddb spends exactly one sentence on "allegations of assault against a woman." His comments about it being his dream to play here, and becoming the only pitcher to win both a Cy Young and a Sawamura Award (NPB equivalent-ish) are being reported at face value. It will be a complete non-issue for him here, which is disappointing but predictable.

I think it's very gross that he's doing this but has there ever been a more talented American pitcher to go to the Japanese League? I'm fascinated to see what his numbers will be, even with his time away from baseball. Does Japan use different balls / allow tacky surfaces?
I think @jon abbey 's example of Tanaka is probably as close as you'll get of someone coming from the US to pitch here, especially still in something resembling their prime. So I think the answer to your question is no. As to the bolded, I'm disheartened to learn that an active, longtime member of this board doesn't know the answer to this!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/23/sports/hirokazu-sawamura-has-simple-solution-mlbs-sticky-situation-better-baseball/
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14804203

...so that's a yes, Japan uses different balls. They are very very slightly smaller, and are pre-tacked and thus stickier, generally leading to pitchers who've used both to say the NPB ones are easier to control.

My expectations for Bauer here numbers-wise are that he'll dominate and everything other than his K-rates will be as good as or better than his MLB numbers.
 

Jack Rabbit Slim

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Since it sounds like no one in Japan will really care about the assault allegations, I am curious why he only received 1/$4M. That doesn't seem like very much for someone who will presumably be one of the best pitchers in the NPB, but I don't know what Japanese players typically make either. Is this a high salary there?
 

voidfunkt

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Since it sounds like no one in Japan will really care about the assault allegations, I am curious why he only received 1/$4M. That doesn't seem like very much for someone who will presumably be one of the best pitchers in the NPB, but I don't know what Japanese players typically make either. Is this a high salary there?
He's only thrown 180 innings since 2020... he could be dominant but there's definitely some rust/ability questions after 2022. He was working out and mowing down people on YouTube videos but that doesn't necessarily translate into retained skills when you're doing it against college or worse talent.
 

Rovin Romine

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He's only thrown 180 innings since 2020... he could be dominant but there's definitely some rust/ability questions after 2022. He was working out and mowing down people on YouTube videos but that doesn't necessarily translate into retained skills when you're doing it against college or worse talent.
Well, I'll be rooting for his failure. He is 32 and has an odd but effective career: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bauertr01.shtml

Seems like he oscillates between good and great - with the homer suppression being key. Even his micro 2020 campaign was half impressive, and half very-meh.
 

Tokyo Sox

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Since it sounds like no one in Japan will really care about the assault allegations, I am curious why he only received 1/$4M. That doesn't seem like very much for someone who will presumably be one of the best pitchers in the NPB, but I don't know what Japanese players typically make either. Is this a high salary there?
It's actually less than that - 1/JPY 400M which is about 1/3. Nevertheless that will make him the 11th highest paid player in the country and the 5th highest paid pitcher (the #'s are in 10,000's of yen/year). Though I heard there are some incentive clauses for more. So it's a fair amount of money for someone who comes with quite a few question marks.

From his perspective, he's not hurting for money anyway and my guess is he assumes he can do his penance here for a year, collect a few bucks, rehab his image, and make his way back to the bigs next year.
 

AlNipper49

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He's only thrown 180 innings since 2020... he could be dominant but there's definitely some rust/ability questions after 2022. He was working out and mowing down people on YouTube videos but that doesn't necessarily translate into retained skills when you're doing it against college or worse talent.
His YouTube and TikTok have been really good for helping my little guy pitch. I created an account just for pitching tips and his seem to be the ones that he’ll come back and reference.

Example: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR7yHrbf/
 

Tokyo Sox

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He made his debut for Yokohama a couple of days ago. 4 IP, 0R, 6 K.

I fear that if he pitches well there a MLB team will take a chance on bringing him back over.
That wasn't his debut - that was a tune-up start for the farm team. He has yet to pitch in an NPB game, but is expected to make his debut soon.

Edit: Actually, looks like he's making another farm start tomorrow (story in Japanese) and is expected to join the BayStars in early May. His previous start was early in the morning and only had about 2600 fans there, but the article speculates that tomorrow's venue and the Saturday afternoon start time should see a ton of fans show up for "Bauer Fever." Blech.
 
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jayhoz

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Here is the tweet where Bauer asks the fans to adopt his celebration.


And the reply from Yasuaki.

64258
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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What is that even supposed to be?

I'm never one to say a player shouldn't express themselves, especially in triumph, but getting a guy to chase an 0-2 breaking ball in the dirt to end the first inning of a 0-0 game hardly seems worth a fist pump, let alone whatever the hell that is.
 

Tokyo Sox

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It looks like Carrieri took his translation (without attribution) from that Yakyu Cosmopolitan guy on Twitter that I and others have linked to often in the NPB thread. He's usually great, but I disagree slightly with his translation on this one. Yamasaki's original comments are not directed solely or perhaps even primarily at Bauer. He does certainly seem to think the gesture itself is disrespectful, and the fact that he wrote "no respect" all in katakana (ie, basically in English rather than in Japanese) is telling. But the first line is going after the BayStars' official team Twitter account, telling them not to instigate/rock the boat with this kind of thing.

Yamasaki (who is the BayStars closer btw) has since apologized for his comments and said he'll discuss it with the team. I think this brief exchange is a good examination of the original tweet -- 5 or 6 tweets back and forth if you click through -- ending with one showing the BayStars team store already trying to sell a bunch of Bauer Sword t-shirts and stuff:
View: https://twitter.com/thehanshintiger/status/1653001774951981057?s=20