MLB Offseason 2013-2014

I've already spelled it out for you multiple times, but I'll say it all over again:

- MLB's senior vice president for investigations, Dan Mullin, seduced a Biogenesis nurse for information on Rodriguez
- MLB purchased Biogenesis documents that were known to be stolen; Florida investigators warned MLB to stay away from them. In purchasing those stolen documents, MLB committed obstruction of justice and and caused the Florida and federal investigations against Bosch and his clinic to fall apart.
- MLB spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase additional evidence, which anyone can tell you isn't exactly a reputable way of doing business.
- MLB has been blackmailing Bosch; they ensured his cooperation by saying they'd hand over everything they have to the feds, and stop paying his legal bills, if he didn't say what he did about Rodriguez.

And the 60 Minutes report was a fucking joke and every bit the hit piece I said it was going to be ... it was MLB jacking off into its own mouth. The whole thing was obviously timed to coincide with the arbitrator's decision (and the MLBPA is furious about it), Bosch's attempt at fake crying was hilarious, and he has no credibility whatsoever.

The best part was that he had no remorse for anything and admitted that he'd still be doing the exact same thing if he didn't get caught THEN following it up with the worst attempt at fake crying I've ever seen. He talked out of both sides of his mouth the entire time.

He claims he's been working with players for 10 years, yet only Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez get mentioned by name -- a guy who is out of baseball, and a guy who will get the Bonds treatment. None of the players already suspended get a mention.

Then he implies that PED usage is widespread, and what he's doing is leveling the playing field. If he's at all credible, then the logical takeaway is that the league has a massive problem on its hands, but 60 Minutes ends the report by sucking Selig's dick and saying he oversees the toughest anti-doping program in sports (which is false on its face; that's the NFL and the Olympics), and he is very very tough on them (even though baseball didn't test for drugs ten years ago). Don't look behind this curtain!

If you think that MLB propping up a drug dealer (MLB has been working in back channels to get Bosch out of legal jams, and has also been paying his bills -- thus far, he's gotten a cool $2 million from MLB) to go after its own employees is a good thing, then I have no idea what planet you're living on, because that's a chilling precedent for labor rights and what it says employers can do when they decide they just don't like someone.

Why negotiate a CBA and a Joint Drug Agreement if you aren't going to abide by them?

Edit: Joe Posnanski has an excellent article summarizing why 60 Minutes' piece was a hilariously bad joke.

The MLBPA has lost far more power than that, and it's not a good thing for the game.

I mean, okay, Alex Rodriguez is dirty as fuck, and he also gives people a million reasons to dislike him because he's an asshole. That doesn't excuse any of MLB's behavior, which has been wildly inappropriate from Day 1 because of Selig's zeal to nail Rodriguez to the wall. If MLB had gone through the proper processes (processes it agreed to), this wouldn't be a complete fucking farce. They didn't, though, which makes this entire "scandal" a joke.

"These guys are really good baseball players, but I'm glad they aren't on this old, shitty team I root for even though they'd make it better."

 

Obstruction of Justice is illegal.

Should Petitte be in the Hall of Fame?

 

Almost all of MLB's Biogenesis evidence is twice stolen, and most of it is not the original source material. MLB paid the accomplice of the second thief (using a false name) in cash for those stolen goods. Their only substantial witness is an admitted drug dealer (who ironically may never end up in jail for dealing drugs to kids because MLB obstructed the investigation by state and federal police, which is obstruction of justice) who filed what MLB now contends are false affidavits, and only changed his story after receiving major financial and legal benefits from MLB, and who during the arbitration appeal invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege to avoid Rodriguez's cross-examination -- after not doing so during MLB's examination. They don't actually have a positive test or any physical evidence of use.

On what planet is that a competent or above-the-board investigation?

Incidentally, the arbitration opinion is a fascinating read. Rodriguez does not come across well, but it's clear that he got badly railroaded with little to no recourse because of how weak the current CBA / JDA process is in protection for players on "just cause" violations.

 

Whether or not a plea bargain is made doesn't change whether or not an underlying crime was committed.

Should Alex Rodriguez be in the Hall of Fame?

 

Man, the debate on that five years after he retires is going to be insane.

Looking at the numbers, it's indisputable. JAWS puts him as the second-best shortstop of all time, behind only Honus Wagner, and fourteen full points ahead of the guy in third place, a little-known fellow named Cal Ripken, Jr., and thirty points ahead of Luke Appling, who's ninth among shortstops. (Rodriguez is the only active player in the top nine; all are in the Hall of Fame.) If he retired today, the stats argument would have him sailing in on the first ballot.

But then there's everything off the field. His name was illegally leaked off a confidential list of positives that wasn't even supposed to exist, and long before Biogenesis, MLB was already going after him because of that and the Anthony Galea stuff. (And the baseball media at large has generally bought into that narrative.)

What we have, based on the arbitration documents, is some documentary evidence that is really sketchily sourced ... but if taken at face value, while not a smoking gun, generally supports the idea that Rodriguez was using, and a witness supporting that documentary evidence that would have been absolutely annihilated in a real court case but was much tougher to impeach here because of the rules of this arbitration, particularly in that he was examined by MLB's lawyer, but when the Rodriguez side came up for cross-examination, he was allowed to take the 5th. On the other side, we have a bunch of drug tests that Rodriguez passed and his vehement public denials of use in the period in question.

I personally think Rodriguez has probably been doping all along, even back in Seattle, and I honestly had little sympathy for him until the stories came out about MLB's "investigation." But that's mostly informed by my belief that a very, very large percentage of baseball players are doping in non-detectable, or barely detectable, ways, considering one of the smartest organizations in baseball gave Jhonny Peralta $53 million a few months after he got popped, which says they think either Peralta's still using and getting away with it, or that it did not significantly contribute to his success.

So, I guess my opinion is that Rodriguez should be in the Hall, considering that at no point in the last 60 years has baseball ever been clean. Henry Aaron and Willie Mays were users of amphetamines, which have a much more demonstrable effect upon performance, and I don't see anyone campaigning for their recall from the Hall.