Alex Verdugo, new Red Sox star!

nolasoxfan

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I’m having a really hard time digesting the fact that this guy will wear a Red Sox uniform, never mind that he was the return for Mookie Betts. Honestly, I’m speechless...
 

LogansDad

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Nov 15, 2006
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Anything I can say about how this makes me feel about the trade trivializes what that girl went through. That story is gross, and I can only hope that in the years since she has been able to find a way to get some kind of joy out of life. I can't cheer for someone who would be involved in something like that.
 

Marciano490

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I guess any time you can give up your competitive and moral high ground in one move, you gotta pull the trigger.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Not to be that guy but what exactly did Verdugo do? It looks like Baldwin and the 2 girls are the terrible people. I don't know all the details though so I could easily be missing something.
 

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
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Not to be that guy but what exactly did Verdugo do? It looks like Baldwin and the 2 girls are the terrible people. I don't know all the details though so I could easily be missing something.
i mean other than stand there in a hotel room while a 17 year old girl was beaten and sexually assaulted?
 

mikeford

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Not to be that guy but what exactly did Verdugo do? It looks like Baldwin and the 2 girls are the terrible people. I don't know all the details though so I could easily be missing something.
Didn't report a violent assault and a sexual assault to the cops, for one
 

DeadlySplitter

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hopefully the Sox did their due diligence. character is important in Boston, see AGon and Crawford, Carl.

hopefully it's just a bout of immaturity.

Alex Verdugo, OF
Age: 23

A longtime top prospect, Verdugo got tastes of the majors in 2017 and 2018 before getting a more substantive opportunity in 2019. He took advantage, batting .294/.342/.475 with 22 doubles, 12 home runs and 44 RBIs in 106 games before going down with a season-ending back injury. Verdugo has a smooth, sweet lefthanded swing that stays in the hitting zone for a long time and drives the ball to all fields. He rarely strikes out, makes hard contact and altogether projects as a potential .300 hitter with 20-home run power. Verdugo is a capable defender at all three outfield positions and has a cannon for an arm that led to six outfield assists in only 97 games in the field last year. While Verdugo’s talent is undeniable, his maturity and effort have long drawn scorn from coaches, scouts and even his own teammates, such as when Rich Hill harangued him in full view of reporters in the clubhouse. Verdugo will replace Betts as the Red Sox’s everyday right fielder, and his makeup will be put to the test in Boston.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/dodgers-get-their-man-acquire-mookie-betts-from-red-sox-in-three-team-deal/
 

bohous

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i mean other than stand there in a hotel room while a 17 year old girl was beaten and sexually assaulted?
The story also suggested one of the players (not clear which of the two) recorded a video of the beating and posted it on social media.
 

Marciano490

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I mean, any time you invite an underage runaway to party with you in a hotel room, you kind of own what comes next.
 

PseuFighter

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i can't believe this is what we get in return. tone deaf extraordinarie, especially in 2020, to get this in exchange for mookie. i shouldn't be, from a "let's try not to make the pr fallout worse" point of view, i'm pretty surprised.

if it's true, i really don't want to root for this.
 

cornwalls@6

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Whenever the press conference occurs, Henry, Werner, Bloom, and Kennedy need to be aggressively questioned about this, and whether they did all due diligence on this kid. Having an even a peripheral involvement in something that disturbing and disgusting is a major red flag, IMO. And makes shipping out a great player, and by all accounts a good guy, even more questionable. That story is appalling. I hope that poor girl can get some help and healing, but it sure doesn’t appear she will ever get any justice.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Oh come on what the holy fuck...I understand he didn't assault the girl but come on...
If you want to think "positively" maybe he was a very scared and intimated 18/19 year old kid who didn't know what to do.

I'm guessing he was a bit more complicit.
 

Marciano490

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If you want to think "positively" maybe he was a very scared and intimated 18/19 year old kid who didn't know what to do.

I'm guessing he was a bit more complicit.
Intimidated by what? And at 18/19 you don’t know to speak up when your teammate is molesting a girl who’s passed out?

Why can’t we start expecting better from people instead of looking to excuse their behavior?
 

Cesar Crespo

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Intimidated by what? And at 18/19 you don’t know to speak up when your teammate is molesting a girl who’s passed out?

Why can’t we start expecting better from people instead of looking to excuse their behavior?
I don't disagree with anything you are saying. It's like drinking one cup of bleach instead of 2.
 

shaggydog2000

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Intimidated by what? And at 18/19 you don’t know to speak up when your teammate is molesting a girl who’s passed out?

Why can’t we start expecting better from people instead of looking to excuse their behavior?
According to that article, he wasn't in the room while the girl was being molested. But he was when the girl was throwing up and getting assaulted, so he owns that part.
 

Bigpupp

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Jun 8, 2008
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Intimidated by what? And at 18/19 you don’t know to speak up when your teammate is molesting a girl who’s passed out?

Why can’t we start expecting better from people instead of looking to excuse their behavior?
Quoting the part of the article Shaggy is referring to.
She was passing out during the act. He gave up trying when the rest of the group re-entered the room, perhaps, she said, out of frustration.
 

Marciano490

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Ok. My bad. He left his teammate alone with the blackout minor. I hope he’s turned into a great guy and knows better now.

I’ll add that sentence about him giving up trying when the rest of the group came back, leaves a lot of open space between he gave up as soon as the door cracked and he was observed and chastised by Verdugo and the other women.
 
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shepard50

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Nick Francona (Tito's son) seems like a very high integrity guy who got screwed in all of this for trying to do the right thing, at the time and after.
 

johnnywayback

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The baseball merits of the trade notwithstanding, Verdugo deserves to have that story permanently attached to his reputation and Sox management deserves to get asked about it. One would hope that the Dodgers, and now the Red Sox, saw enough remorse and growth to give them confidence that it was a single horrific error in judgment rather than a reflection of his true character. Not much else you can say about it.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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What a fucking world. This story is so depraved. Two “older women” pick up a runaway and bring her to a Hampton Inn to be assaulted by baseball players and then decide to beat the shit out of her?

I mean, sexual assault wasn’t enough?

The Verdugo part is awful. Fuck him. I know this is a Red Sox board and that is the main point at the moment. But I also can’t get past the point about pretending to befriend a troubled woman — girl actually I guess — and then beating her up.

So many questions. Was Verdugo an associate of the “older women”? Is this a guy who likes to hang with women that pick up runaway kids to beat the shit out of them? What the fuck am I reading?
 

Cesar Crespo

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Dec 22, 2002
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What a fucking world. This story is so depraved. Two “older women” pick up a runaway and bring her to a Hampton Inn to be assaulted by baseball players and then decide to beat the shit out of her?

I mean, sexual assault wasn’t enough?

The Verdugo part is awful. Fuck him. I know this is a Red Sox board and that is the main point at the moment. But I also can’t get past the point about pretending to befriend a troubled woman — girl actually I guess — and then beating her up.

So many questions. Was Verdugo an associate of the “older women”? Is this a guy who likes to hang with women that pick up runaway kids to beat the shit out of them? What the fuck am I reading?
It's possible he didn't know she was a runaway or 17 years old. He was only 18 himself. Doesn't excuse anything because he's still watching an assault and did nothing and may have even recorded it. We aren't sure if it was him or Baldwin.
 

E5 Yaz

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That article just ruined Gabe Kapler for me.
Then read the part about his comments on his "foundation" website

Enter the San Francisco Giants, who yesterday officially announced Gabe Kapler as their new manager. Kapler, of course, used to helm the Phillies. But before then, when he worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he swept under the rugevidence of assault against women by Dodgers minor leaguers Alex Verdugo, James Baldwin, Luis Rodriguez, and Julio Urías, all part of his evident belief that sexual assault and intimate partner violence are learning experiences for men, rather than crimes largely perpetrated against women and non-men.
That’s not idle speculation, either; on Kapler’s foundation website, he calls women and children “feeble,” yet paradoxically argues that “Children too should be part of the enforcement against domestic violence.” To Kapler, domestic violence is purely a problem of heterosexual couples, and calls victims of intimate partner violence “pitiful.”
In other words, Gabe Kapler thinks straight women are “feeble” and “pitiful,” and intimate partner violence doesn’t exist outside of heterosexual marriage.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/55256/short-relief-schools-out/
 

Marciano490

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It’s disappointing this is Bloom’s first major move. I don’t want to be the Chiefs or Astros or Yankees.

And, no I’m not naive enough to think the 4 Boston teams are free of bad people who have done bad things, and I certainly rooted for Aaron Hernandez until I found out he was a murderous psychopath, but there’s something different about obtaining or retaining players when there’s a public record of their misconduct.
 

Darnell's Son

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According to that article, he wasn't in the room while the girl was being molested. But he was when the girl was throwing up and getting assaulted, so he owns that part.
Wait... wait... wait... whoa, wait....

I can't...whoa....

What the fuck is the point of your post?

He only has to own the "assault" and vomiting? I don't, I can't... whoa.

I mean, I assume her clothes were, at best, askew, so, to be in that room, you gotta know what just either happened, or almost happened.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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This thread is a good barometer of peoples actual outrage vs faux outrage.

If he ends up a good baseball player, how many of the indignant posters will celebrate his homeruns or big hits?

Let's all hope he sucks, for morality sake.
 

Cokes311

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Apr 10, 2008
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A fun thing that just happened is that I called out @redsoxstats on twitter for trying to find upside on this POS and he blocked me and deleted the tweet

Goddamn coward
 

santadevil

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A fun thing that just happened is that I called out @redsoxstats on twitter for trying to find upside on this POS and he blocked me and deleted the tweet

Goddamn coward
What does that have to do with this thread?

edit/ I guess what I'm asking is what did you ask?
Exactly what you posted?
 

Cokes311

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Apr 10, 2008
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What does that have to do with this thread?

edit/ I guess what I'm asking is what did you ask?
Exactly what you posted?
Oh, I suppose at this later hour I could have been clearer. He posted about Verdugo's arm

I said "it's hard to care because he's a piece of shit off the field"

A few people replied to me and asked what I was talking about, but @redsoxstats blocked me and deleted the clip of Verdugo's admittedly impressive arm. i replied to those who replied to me with the SI article and the Dodgers After Dark article.
 

czar

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Aside from the aforementioned issue, there has been a great deal of chatter in prospect circles re: Verdugo's work ethic and effort level.

For all of Verdugo’s talent, concerns about his makeup have followed him since before he was drafted, with Keith Law (then of ESPN) noting questions about his level of motivation circa 2014, and the Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2018 writing, “Verdugo’s skills are undeniable, but criticism of his effort level and maturity have plagued him since his amateur days and were again prevalent in 2017,” referring, at the very least, to a dressing-down the rookie received from Rich Hill upon showing up to the ballpark late after oversleeping. In their 2019 edition, BA wrote, “Verdugo stays dialed in at the plate, but an indifferent attitude affects the rest of his game,” and noted lapses in his focus afield as well as a “slow motor” that “shows up on the bases, frustrating teammates and coaches alike,” while in their write up of the Dodgers system last year, Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel noted that “part of the reason teams have been asking for other Dodgers prospects in trades is due to some past off-field stuff.”
Fangraphs
 

cornwalls@6

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This thread is a good barometer of peoples actual outrage vs faux outrage.

If he ends up a good baseball player, how many of the indignant posters will celebrate his homeruns or big hits?

Let's all hope he sucks, for morality sake.
Or it’s a barometer of how much some dudes still don’t give a fuck about this issue at all, as long as they’re entertained by their favorite team. Or how some dudes like to let everyone know how cynical and knowing they are, while still not giving a fuck about rape/ sexual assault.