{"id":49786,"date":"2024-02-08T14:34:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T19:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49786"},"modified":"2024-02-16T14:58:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T19:58:06","slug":"49786","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49786","title":{"rendered":"The case for Trevor Bauer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I can\u2019t say that I\u2019m paying much attention to the baseball offseason other than the big name moves that are spoon-fed to me through mainstream media, but there\u2019s one name that I\u2019ve been very curious about to see what happens: Trevor Bauer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Long story short, Bauer was accused of sexual assault, suspended by MLB, went to Japan to keep on pitching, eventually found innocent and legally exonerated, but remains unemployed, despite having put up a solid season in NPB and remaining in game-ready shape.<\/span><\/p>\n

And today, Trevor Bauer has basically declared that he would play for free:*<\/span><\/p>\n

For a team that doesn\u2019t want to commit multi years, hundreds of millions of dollars, or many elite prospects for a Cy Young award winner, they could sign me for the league minimum and pay 0 incremental dollars over what they have to pay to that roster spot anyway. Just another option for teams that want to win and don\u2019t want to break the bank.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*League minimum, last time I checked was $725K which is a ton of money, but largely negligible as office supplies as far as a Major League Baseball organization is concerned<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious at this point, Bauer is grasping at straws for a job, and I\u2019m sure that if were able to secure one, he\u2019d probably fairly easily be able to re-establish his value and get back to Major League fuck-you money again, but it\u2019s evident that there\u2019s some league-wide black balling of Trevor Bauer, despite the fact that legally he\u2019s in the clear.\u00a0 Sure, there are other accusers and probably civil suit(s) somewhere in the background, but by and large we still have a man that has been found guilty of nothing, but is still being punished by today\u2019s societal standards that perception is reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was live-or-die by the Braves on a daily basis, I\u2019d probably be in support of the blackballing of Bauer here; the Atlanta Braves must remain pure and respectable and the high standard of integrity that can only come with wearing The A.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not that guy anymore, and I am still a Braves, fan, for lack of a better term, albeit a shitty one that probably hates the team more Taylor Swift fans love Taylor Swift, and I\u2019m tired of seeing the Braves overachieve throughout the regular season and flop in the postseason like it were the 90s again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I know we\u2019re just three years removed from the Braves being World Series champions, but with teams this talented, expectations this high, and a contention window wide open, a team has to strike while the iron is hot, and I feel that the Braves are squandering their chances by being so Braves-ey, and constantly thinking they\u2019ll continue to get overachieving performances out of their roster for the rest of this contention window.\u00a0 The lack of depth in starting pitching has been exposed over the last two years, and the team shit the bed in free agency this off-season in addressing this need, while fans continue to sing the praises of general manager Alex Anthopolous as if already won the next World Series.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would much, much, much rather see Trevor Bauer take the hill in a playoff game over Bryce Elder, or even a late-season tired Spencer Strider, whom both have shown the tendency to run out of gas by the time the playoffs start over the last two years.\u00a0 And it would be nice to have a reliable starting option in the wings if there\u2019s another late-season Max Fried injury, or Charlie Morton\u2019s 40-year old arm starts to go, or it turns out that Ian Anderson can\u2019t bounce back from injury or that any of the fringe starters they got are better served in the bullpen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trevor Bauer got knocked around when he first got to Japan, but he still compiled a solid overall season in the land of the #1 ranked baseball nation on the planet, where he had a 2.76 ERA and 130 strikeouts in as many innings, a solid\u00a0 9.0 K\/9.\u00a0 He would slot into the top-2 of any starting five in baseball, and it would literally cost any team the same cost as it would to pay the 26th<\/sup> man on the roster, whose primary job will be the late-inning pinch runner for the team\u2019s veterans.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s absolutely little more than the Braves, and their stat-geek fans love, more than saving money, and a willingness to take the league minimum, is about as big of a money savings as there possibly is.\u00a0 Nobody does what Trevor Bauer did, because the MLBPA won\u2019t let them, but seeing as how Bauer was blacklisted, he\u2019s obviously not a part of it anymore because he\u2019s not actually employed by MLB at the moment, so here we are \u2013 an ace-caliber pitcher showing his hand and telling the world that he\u2019s willing to play for peanuts so that he can re-establish himself in Major League Baseball.<\/span><\/p>\n

And just to put the kibosh on the perception that the Braves are too high and mighty to pick up an innocent miscreant like Trevor Bauer, let me remind Braves fans of some of the guys in franchise history who were actually guilty of crimes against women:<\/span><\/p>\n