2024 MLB Season Thread

[Jason14h]

Baseball players are allowed to place legal bets as long as not on baseball

They claim no bets were placed on baseball

The issue is in California the sportsbook they used is “illegal “ - without going into too many details on gaming laws there for example B365 is technically operating illegally in Alberta

So assuming they aren’t lieing about betting on baseball the only issue is that they bet on an online site that is now under investigation for being illegal .

Which would really be a nothing burger in the grand scheme of things / spirit of the rule for MLB players betting

The big IF is were any baseball bets placed

And clearly these were Ohtanis bets

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Considering how Ohtani played the Jays in the FA period to get his big deal with L.A., I wish nothing but bad things for him.

This'll be me watching this play out...

Agreed, couldn't be happier, #### Ohtani.

[bizaro86]

Man. Ohtani is what got me back into baseball after not following it for many years. I saw him pitch and hit in person, and the guy is electrifying. Hopefully this wasn't betting on baseball and he can get some help and put it behind him.

[bizaro86]

Also today - Jordan Hicks pitched 4.2 innings in a game. Seems like they are following through on stretching him out to be a starter. He's played 4 games this spring and pitched 12 innings, which would be more of an opener type situation, but he is getting longer. I'm not 100% sure he has the pitch variety to be a strong starter, but he's still striking out 1.5 batters per inning pitched so maybe throwing a 100 mph fastball is enough.

Even if he's only a reliable 4 inning opener for the back of the rotation (replacing Ryu basically), I'd way rather have spent the money on him than IKF. Potential downside is you have an expensive but great setup man and a backup closer, which is great if say Romano was injured to start the year... IKF downside is you have a defensive specialist utility infielder sitting on your bench not playing.

[Roof-Daddy]

Nice to see Yamamoto get his a$$ handed to him today by the Padres. 45.00 ERA 1 ining pitched before getting YANKED

$325 million, 12 years, hopefully he sucks

Screw the Dodgers

[Senator Clay Davis]

I was at least expecting a sham investigation to prove they "looked into it" before letting him walk, but I guess not?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1770782890495799297

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

I feel like if Ohtani had a big gambling debt or gambling problem, he woudn't have deferred so much of his money. He'd probably want or need it up front. Just my thoughts, but I think this will be a nothing story that'll eventually disappear unless Ohtani struggles this season and people wonder if it's because he's without his friend/interpreter.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Conversely, if he had a huge gambling problem and expected a suspension at some point, deferring the money and thus limiting the loss of salary from a suspension would be incredibly smart. Plus he makes $60 million+ a year in endorsements, he can still get down if he wants.

[GirlySports]

Maybe Ohtani will go to the G-League

[Strange Brew]

I'm surprised this isn't making bigger headlines. Maybe reporters are hard at work here getting details.

But the Ohtani story isn't just that it wasn't him making bets, he's accusing his close friend of a massive theft. Forget about whether the gambling involved baseball, that's a felony. The cops are going to investigate this so I don't see how MLB is able to bury it. Surely the Ohtani camp wouldn't play the theft card if it wasn't legitimate?

This isn't Pete Rose, his gambling was never a criminal issue.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I'm surprised this isn't making bigger headlines. Maybe reporters are hard at work here getting details.

But the Ohtani story isn't just that it wasn't him making bets, he's accusing his close friend of a massive theft. Forget about whether the gambling involved baseball, that's a felony. The cops are going to investigate this so I don't see how MLB is able to bury it. Surely the Ohtani camp wouldn't play the theft card if it wasn't legitimate?

This isn't Pete Rose, his gambling was never a criminal issue.

Yeah. It'd be one thing for him to fire his buddy to make him the fall guy. Maybe you make him a side payment later and it's win-win.

Tougher to do that when there's some time in a US prison involved.

[flamingred89]

I think the Ohtani camp thought they could sneak around this by getting ahead of it with the ESPN interview and making the interpreter the fall guy. But once they realized the potential legalities involved they're starting to walk it back. The MLB is being rather quiet about it for now, but they're going to have to say something soon. This feels a lot like the Astro's cheating scandal, and once the internet detectives come out, and start to shed more light on this situation, the proverbial #### is going to hit the fan. There is no way that Ohtani is not in someway involved. This is going to be some fun drama to see playout.

[Jiggy_12]

We'll of course see how it plays out, but this story certainly eases some of the blow of Ohtani not signing with Toronto.

This would have been quite the disruption

[Roof-Daddy]

Hopefully this is just the start of the Dodgers dream team imploding.

Yamamoto got his ass handed to him today, now there is some sort of scandal building around Ohtani and gambling.

Let it crumble to the ground.

[GirlySports]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1770649061974233360

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

We'll of course see how it plays out, but this story certainly eases some of the blow of Ohtani not signing with Toronto.

This would have been quite the disruption

He should have come to Toronto where gambling is legal.

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Hopefully this is just the start of the Dodgers dream team imploding.

Yamamoto got his ass handed to him today, now there is some sort of scandal building around Ohtani and gambling.

Let it crumble to the ground.

Ohtani got out of the locker room without answering any questions, while his teammates were getting asked about it by the media.

I bet Ohtani's teammates are going to start getting annoyed with him skipping out on media and expecting teammates to cover for him all the time. Especially with questions about shady stuff involving him.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I'm surprised this isn't making bigger headlines. Maybe reporters are hard at work here getting details.

But the Ohtani story isn't just that it wasn't him making bets, he's accusing his close friend of a massive theft. Forget about whether the gambling involved baseball, that's a felony. The cops are going to investigate this so I don't see how MLB is able to bury it. Surely the Ohtani camp wouldn't play the theft card if it wasn't legitimate?

This isn't Pete Rose, his gambling was never a criminal issue.

The MLB was also staunchly anti-gambling at the time of Pete Rose.

Now everything related to them is sponsored by a bookmaker, from ad time down to the name of regional sports networks. The MLB needs gambling money to offset the drop in cable TV revenues. Making a big stink about it doesn't help them at all.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

Ohtani got out of the locker room without answering any questions, while his teammates were getting asked about it by the media.

I bet Ohtani's teammates are going to start getting annoyed with him skipping out on media and expecting teammates to cover for him all the time. Especially with questions about shady stuff involving him.

Well, it's tough to talk to the media when you've just fired your interpreter.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Well, it's tough to talk to the media when you've just fired your interpreter.

It’s more than that. He gets to skip a lot of those media sessions and they make concessions that just wouldn’t be consistently afforded to other players. As a teammate it has nothing to do with them so I can’t see them getting too annoyed unless it’s day after day. But he often doesn’t have to talk to the media and that’s not fair.