Around Baseball 2024 edition

cajunrevenge said:
I dont know the specifics of the case but he is also known for being an immature prick and a clubhouse cancer. He would probably be on a team if not for that bad rep.
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I think that's what a lot of fans forget about Bauer. I don't think the owners care as much about his sexual proclivities as they did about all his bitching on his Twitter feed. I don't know if that caused any problems in the clubhouse, but Bauer comes off like a real jerk. Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't, but it is what it is.
 
cajunrevenge said:
I dont know the specifics of the case but he is also known for being an immature prick and a clubhouse cancer. He would probably be on a team if not for that bad rep.
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I think you're right. He basically has no friends to call on who will stick their neck out for him.
 
Right. His being blackballed from MLB has more to do with who he is as a general human being than with how he chooses to engage in complied sexual intercourse. If he was seen as good chemistry guy, he’d be getting the BOD right now from some team.
 
Gotta be more than 4 million…. I would think he would ask for ten million plus all legal and the rights to the future movie ….and a lifetime supply of dodger dogs ….
 
He's going to get a lot of hush money, and a nice mansion in California and a beautiful Japanese Minka.

He's going to get a lot of hookers and VIP access in Vegas courtesy of MLB/LAD.
 
Heard about that on the radio on my way into work this morning. They were saying there is indication that more than $4.5m was taken from Ohtani. And what the interrpruier had done was turn off Ohtanis notifications when he was taking the money so Ohtani wouldn't notice.

That could be a reasonable explanation.
 
Can I just say, I love how many times in this story I’ve heard or read the phrase “Orange County bookie.” You hear “bookie” and you think of some cigar-chomping tough guy from 1940’s LA or New York. But Mizuhara got caught up with a bookie operating on the mean streets of Laguna Beach.
 
bravesfanforlife88 said:
Heard about that on the radio on my way into work this morning. They were saying there is indication that more than $4.5m was taken from Ohtani. And what the interrpruier had done was turn off Ohtanis notifications when he was taking the money so Ohtani wouldn't notice.

That could be a reasonable explanation.
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I can't imagine that Ohtani is the only one with eyes on an account with that much money in it. Ohtani has to have accountants, investment advisors, his agent, and maybe even lawyers keeping eyes on his affairs. Ohtani doesn't just make money from his baseball contract. He's not just getting a paycheck direct deposited into his account every couple of weeks. We're talking about the game's highest earner from endorsement deals. He's got sources of revenue in multiple countries. Who knows what other income he gets from investments, appearances, etc. If nothing else his agent would be making absolutely sure Ohtani has the best money managers looking after him.

For the explanation that this interpreter turned off notifications to work we have to buy that none of Ohtani's people had line of sight on this account. Because there's no way an interpreter makes multiple payments totaling over $4 million to an illegal bookie using Ohtani's account without any of Ohtani's people seeing it.

The explanation of the interpreter taking the money only works in a vacuum where you assume there's no one else keeping an eye on Ohtani's affairs.
 
cajunrevenge said:
They could have assumed it was Ohtani spending the money.
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Apparently the story is that the interpreter took Ohtani to a bank and opened an account where all of Ohtani's salary would be deposited. The interpreter then told Ohtani's US based financial advisors that Ohtani denied them access to that account. Ohtani's agent says he asked about the account multiple times but the interpreter always said it was private. This is the apparent explanation as to why no one caught that the interpreter was stealing.

I don't buy it. First, to believe this whole story you have to believe that Ohtani is an absolute idiot. The language barrier can't explain everything away. Who lets their friend convince them to open an account which millions of dollars will be deposited into without their agent or any financial planners involved when you don't understand the language the transaction would be in? I don't believe Ohtani is that gullible. My first reaction in his place would be to have my agent there with me.

Next, I don't buy for a second that the financial advisors and Ohtani's agent would be fine taking the interpreter's word that Ohtani wants his salary deposited into this random account and that they can't see. That structure sets off huge alarm bells for the potential for embezzlement. Ohtani might have trusted the interpreter but there's zero reason why Ohtani's agent or financial people would just trust this guy.

So to buy the story you have to accept that at no point did any of the people around Ohtani try to have a conversation with him about the account his salary was deposited into using a different interpreter. If this was a side account that a relatively small amount of money was going into, that would be one thing. But when his salary is going into this account you don't just take the interpreter's word for it. Getting a Japanese interpreter of your own isn't that expensive.
 
striker42 said:
Apparently the story is that the interpreter took Ohtani to a bank and opened an account where all of Ohtani's salary would be deposited. The interpreter then told Ohtani's US based financial advisors that Ohtani denied them access to that account. Ohtani's agent says he asked about the account multiple times but the interpreter always said it was private. This is the apparent explanation as to why no one caught that the interpreter was stealing.

I don't buy it. First, to believe this whole story you have to believe that Ohtani is an absolute idiot. The language barrier can't explain everything away. Who lets their friend convince them to open an account which millions of dollars will be deposited into without their agent or any financial planners involved when you don't understand the language the transaction would be in? I don't believe Ohtani is that gullible. My first reaction in his place would be to have my agent there with me.

Next, I don't buy for a second that the financial advisors and Ohtani's agent would be fine taking the interpreter's word that Ohtani wants his salary deposited into this random account and that they can't see. That structure sets off huge alarm bells for the potential for embezzlement. Ohtani might have trusted the interpreter but there's zero reason why Ohtani's agent or financial people would just trust this guy.

So to buy the story you have to accept that at no point did any of the people around Ohtani try to have a conversation with him about the account his salary was deposited into using a different interpreter. If this was a side account that a relatively small amount of money was going into, that would be one thing. But when his salary is going into this account you don't just take the interpreter's word for it. Getting a Japanese interpreter of your own isn't that expensive.
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No chance ohtani didn't know.
 
striker42 said:
Apparently the story is that the interpreter took Ohtani to a bank and opened an account where all of Ohtani's salary would be deposited. The interpreter then told Ohtani's US based financial advisors that Ohtani denied them access to that account. Ohtani's agent says he asked about the account multiple times but the interpreter always said it was private. This is the apparent explanation as to why no one caught that the interpreter was stealing.

I don't buy it. First, to believe this whole story you have to believe that Ohtani is an absolute idiot. The language barrier can't explain everything away. Who lets their friend convince them to open an account which millions of dollars will be deposited into without their agent or any financial planners involved when you don't understand the language the transaction would be in? I don't believe Ohtani is that gullible. My first reaction in his place would be to have my agent there with me.

Next, I don't buy for a second that the financial advisors and Ohtani's agent would be fine taking the interpreter's word that Ohtani wants his salary deposited into this random account and that they can't see. That structure sets off huge alarm bells for the potential for embezzlement. Ohtani might have trusted the interpreter but there's zero reason why Ohtani's agent or financial people would just trust this guy.

So to buy the story you have to accept that at no point did any of the people around Ohtani try to have a conversation with him about the account his salary was deposited into using a different interpreter. If this was a side account that a relatively small amount of money was going into, that would be one thing. But when his salary is going into this account you don't just take the interpreter's word for it. Getting a Japanese interpreter of your own isn't that expensive.
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It's all pretty ridiculous, yes, but I don't see any reason to believe that the US Attorney is conducting some kind of cover up for Ohtani, and I very seriously doubt that the Ohtani team is capable of creating a smokescreen so elaborate that it could fool the federal government.
 
MadduxFanII said:
It's all pretty ridiculous, yes, but I don't see any reason to believe that the US Attorney is conducting some kind of cover up for Ohtani, and I very seriously doubt that the Ohtani team is capable of creating a smokescreen so elaborate that it could fool the federal government.
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I know prosecutors. Most of them honestly don't care if they've got the right guy or not, they just want the win. If they think they can get a plea they'll go for it whether they think the person is guilty or not. I knew a guy who quit a DA's office because getting people to plea when they hadn't done anything was killing him.

Also, the Feds don't usually go hard after the gamblers in these situations, they go after the bookies. Why would the Feds expend the effort to determine if Ohtani or his interpreter was doing the betting if they don't care about the betting charges in the first place, the interpreter is willing to confess, and they're going to get bank fraud handed to them on a silver platter? Digging in deeper would either confirm what you already have a guy willing to plead to or else reveal that it was Ohtani betting, in which case the fraud charges vanish and you're back with gambling charges the feds don't want to bring to begin with.

So while it's not in the feds interest to cover for Ohtani, it is very much in their interest to take the easy win they're being handed.
 
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