Category Archives: los angeles dodgers

Bauer Back in Baseball?

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Caption: Trevor Bauer

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a third-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

March 14, 2023

Trevor Bauer made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2012 with the Arizona Diamondbacks before being quietly traded to the Cleveland Guardians (then Indians) in December 2012. He became a full time starter in the big leagues in the 2014 season when he started 26 games.

Bauer worked his way toward his first (and only to date) all-star appearance in 2018 when he went 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA in 175.1 innings. He was also sixth in Cy Young voting and 22nd in AL MVP voting.

At the trade deadline in 2019, Bauer was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, which proved to be a smart trade as he won the Cy Young in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He started 11 games, going 5-4 with a 1.73 ERA while leading the league in shutouts and complete games with two each.

That offseason, Bauer inked a three-year, $102 million deal from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Through 17 starts in the 2021 season, Bauer was 8-5 with a 2.59 ERA and looked to have another great season.

However, all of that would change on the 29th of June, when sexual assault allegations were brought against Bauer. It was also reported that the accuser had filed for a restraining order against Bauer on the 28th, one day prior.

The story starts around April 18, 2021, when Bauer first had physical contact with the alleged victim. Court documents state that Bauer reached out to the victim over Instagram direct message after she had tagged him in a post about watching his game.

The victim accused Bauer of “assaulting her on two occasions during what began as consensual sex.” Along with her accusations, there are also text messages between the two as well as pictures the accuser took of herself to document the abuse.

Shortly after these accusations were made public, the Dodgers announced that Bauer would be placed on paid administrative leave while the charges were being examined. Then, in April of 2022, MLB announced that they would be suspending Bauer for what was essentially two years.

Bauer would later appeal and have his suspension reduced from two years to one plus what he had already served after it was decided that he would face no criminal charges.

The Dodgers would go on to release Bauer after the opt-out in his contract came up making him available to be signed by any professional team. There were many MLB teams that could have used Bauer’s pitching every fifth day to help them make playoff runs but no team offered a deal.

Most, if not all, MLB front offices declined to even consider signing him due to the PR nightmare that they would have to brave, and rightfully so. Bauer sat idle for a while posting videos to his YouTube channel, sometimes alongside the “King of JUCO” where he would take part in baseball challenges.

I expected Bauer to continue doing YouTube challenges and never to return to the world of professional baseball. But on Monday, March 13, 2023, it was announced that Bauer had signed a deal worth up to $4 million with the Yokohama BayStars.

Bauer is now eligible to pitch on opening day for the BayStars on March 31.

Bauer isn’t the first disgraced baseball player to find a home in Japan. The most recent example being Addison Russell of Chicago Cubs and Oakland Athletics fame who quietly left MLB after having allegations of domestic assault brought against him. I didn’t anticipate any team picking up Bauer, however, due to the nature of his allegations. Bauer has been out of professional baseball for over a year so we will have to see if he holds up to his former self in Japan or if he even has a place in professional baseball anymore.

Mismanagement and Curses in Dodgers’ Playoff Woes

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By Griffin Olah

October 16, 2019

Griffin is a second-year undergraduate BGSU student from North Ridgeville, Ohio. He is a Sport Management major with a Spanish minor. His primary sports interests are baseball and football, both collegiate and professional, but he is also interested in basketball, MMA, boxing and hockey.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the gold standard for success in the National League in recent years. They’ve been to the World Series in 2017 and 2018, and followed that up with a franchise record 106 wins in 2019. After losing two straight World Series, the Dodgers revamped their roster this past offseason, bringing in outfielder A.J. Pollock, righty reliever Joe Kelly and lefty reliever Adam Kolarek. Walker Buehler turned into a bona-fide ace and star shortstop Corey Seager was back healthy. They were heavy favorites, as usual, going into the postseason, led by the same cast of characters that always got them there: Dave Roberts and Clayton Kershaw.

The NLDS against the Washington Nationals was a roller coaster ride leading to a winner-take-all Game 5 in Los Angeles. Walker Buehler toed the rubber for the Dodgers, and red-hot ace Stephen Strasburg faced him. The Dodgers jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, and Buehler’s gem ended when Roberts lifted him in the 7th with 2 outs. Coming in from the bullpen was none other than three-time Cy Young winner and generational pitcher Clayton Kershaw. 

Kershaw got Adam Eaton out quickly to end the 7th, and then came out for the 8th. The first Nationals’ batter, Anthony Rendon, golfed a down and away pitch over the left field fence. 3-2 Dodgers. Lefty-killer Adam Kolarek sat in the bullpen as Kershaw stared down young phenom Juan Soto. Kolarek had great success against Soto throughout the series, not allowing Soto to reach base. Kershaw stayed on, however, and Soto took him deep to center field. Tie game. 

The entire dynamic of the game changed, and instead of cruising to a win, Kershaw let up two runs and now the Dodgers were fighting for their lives. Kershaw got out of the inning, and Roberts called on Joe Kelly to pitch the 9th. He sat down the Nationals in order, going 1-2-3. The game moved to extra innings, and Joe Kelly came out in the 10th. Joe Kelly. Not Kenley Jansen, one of the league’s premier relievers. Not Kenta Maeda, starter turned playoff reliever who has been lights out all postseason. Joe Kelly, who gave up nine runs in 12 ⅓ innings of multi-inning outings (Baer, 2019). Kelly loaded the bases, and then Howie Kendrick launched a moonshot through the night sky at Chavez Ravine and through the Dodgers’ hearts. A grand slam, game over.

The media looked at this collapse and talked mismanagement immediately. Blame was laid on the shoulders of Dave Roberts for his bullpen mismanagement. Critics pointed to Roberts’ “lack of confidence in the rest of his bullpen” (Baer, 2019, para. 6) as the main reason for the loss. Roberts had one of the best overall bullpens in the league, yet stuck with a starter carrying postseason demons and a reliever who struggled in multi-inning appearances all year. Others looked to the man who let the game get tied in the first place: Clayton Kershaw. It seems every season someone “write[s] about [his postseason] failure” (Baumann, 2019, para. 11). Kershaw is one of the best pitchers in MLB history, and has had his share of success in the postseason. Sure, he hasn’t won a World Series, but he is still one of the best we have ever seen. 

Many in the media want to push the narrative that Clayton Kershaw cannot pitch in the postseason, and this latest collapse is a major piece of evidence to support that point. Where is the talk of his dominant performances, though? Where is the talk surrounding his reign of dominance over the last decade, with only injuries and a few bad starts holding him back? Justin Verlander got shelled by the Rays in the ALDS, but he is still heralded as a great postseason pitcher. Both had bad outings, but only Kershaw’s is considered a problem across his entire career. Kershaw may have had some bad postseason outings, but he is not the reason that the Dodgers’ season came to an untimely close. That is Dave Roberts’ problem.

Dave Roberts severely mismanaged the end of the game, and that’s the main problem. The media likes to focus on a pivotal point in the game that swung the outcome one way or the other, and Kershaw’s meltdown fits the bill. The real issue, though, is Kershaw staying on to face Soto, or Kelly’s second inning of work. There was a capable bullpen, a fact many articles ignore, and Roberts left the game in the hands of two relievers that struggled mightily in the game. Will this mishap cost Roberts his job? No, and it shouldn’t but media members looking for a scapegoat point at both Roberts and Kershaw as the problem, and think they should be removed from the team.

References

Baer, B. (2019, October 10). Dodgers’ NLDS Game 5 loss is on Dave Roberts. NBC Sports. Retrieved from https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/10/10/dodgers-nlds-game-5-loss-is-on-dave-roberts/.

Baumann, M. (2019, October 10). NLDS Game 5: The Clayton Kershaw playoff narrative will never go away. The Ringer. Retrieved from https://www.theringer.com/2019/10/10/20907661/nlds-game-5-nationals-dodgers-clayton-kershaw-playoff-choke.