Alex Verdugo, new Red Sox star!

tims4wins

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Jul 15, 2005
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Honest question, do we know the nature of why Verdugo posted the video? Like was it accompanied by “lol check out this slut getting beat up”?
 

Plympton91

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Oct 19, 2008
12,408
So we trade Mookie Betts, a guy who could be the face of MLB - and now probably will be in LA - for a guy who was party to a heinous sexual assault. Making excuses for his part in the event is beyond my scope. Trading for him? I don't even begin to get it.
Except he wasn’t party to a heinous sexual assault. Even the victim places him outside the room when it happened. If you believe Nick Francona, he may have videoed a cat fight between 3 girls he barely knew.
 

Marciano490

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Nov 4, 2007
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Yeah, and if he did that’s not how a hero like you would react I guess. If he’d gone in and physically wrestled the girls off the younger one, they probably would have accused him of assaulting them and then all the the noise in this thread would be about how he hit two poor defenseless women.

He didn’t rape anybody. He didn’t hit anybody. He was a drunk teenager at a hotel party who reacted poorly. Let’s professionally execute him, right?

He should have done what Urias did and just leave.
Don’t let your moral and physical cowardice be a touchstone for how society as a whole should view events like this. Of course, you equated this to a “hook up,” so it seems like your entire view on these matters is retrograde.
 

Plympton91

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Oct 19, 2008
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Francona said it was his understanding that Verdugo was the one who taped the beating and posted it to Snapchat.

That is either true or it isn’t. If true it goes beyond young and dumb or general douchebaggery and also doesn’t require too much of a leap to assume a worse role. He wasn’t just walking by the motel room door when a fight broke broke out.

If Francona is wrong then there is room for more nuance.

But that is where I am at, at least. The Francona claim took this out of the general blog vagueness for me. That and the fact that he appears to have been mentioned in the police report. Or at least there are indications he was.
You mean the police report where no charges were filed against anyone, right?
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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Except he wasn’t party to a heinous sexual assault. Even the victim places him outside the room when it happened. If you believe Nick Francona, he may have videoed a cat fight between 3 girls he barely knew.
You’re just inventing a narrative you like. “Cat fight”? For fuck’s sake.

Edit: And only one was a “girl.”
 

twibnotes

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Jul 16, 2005
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I can’t imagine the Red Sox did not explore Verdugo’s role in the incident(s) that night. It will be interesting to see how the front office responds to the inevitable media inquiries.

Fact is, Chaim et al now far more than we do.
 

Plympton91

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Oct 19, 2008
12,408
Don’t let your moral and physical cowardice be a touchstone for how society as a whole should view events like this. Of course, you equated this to a “hook up,” so it seems like your entire view on these matters is retrograde.
No, I didn’t equate it. I said if you ignored two drunk acquaintances heading off into a room at an underage drinking party you’re closer to your view of Verdugo than you think. By the standard you yourself and most colleges these days set, a drunk girl cannot consent to sex. So anytime you let a drunk girl out of your sight, you’re complicit in anything bad that happened to her.

And my moral and physical stones never got tested in one of these situations. Because until I was 21, I was Urias. When the alcohol showed up, I left.
 
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Plympton91

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Oct 19, 2008
12,408
You’re just inventing a narrative you like. “Cat fight”? For fuck’s sake.

Edit: And only one was a “girl.”
oh really? Have you found a source that confirmed the ages of the “older women.” The victim of the assault was 17, and was lured by the two “older girls” to the event. That means “older” could be 18; I believe there was reference to them being “a few years older.” So perhaps 19 or 20 is a better guess. But that’s all we have, a guess.

Like I said Baldwin and these two older girls are the people who should be getting the lion’s share of scorn for that evening. Nobody else is even close.
 

shepard50

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You mean the police report where no charges were filed against anyone, right?
You really need to read the background on this. This is not a catfight or high spirited youth having a bit of fun.

From The Ringer article (my bold):

In late February 2015, Gabe Kapler, then the Dodgers’ director of player development, received two emails: The first came from a woman who told him that her 17-year-old granddaughter had been beaten up in the Arizona hotel room of one of Kapler’s players the night before. Another email from the girl herself, reiterating the story, followed soon after. The girl had been drinking with two Dodgers minor leaguers and two other women at the Glendale Hampton Inn when the two women beat her up. One of the players was passed out drunk, and the other, instead of intervening, recorded video of the attack and uploaded it to Snapchat.
Rather than reporting the incident to police, Kapler attempted to set up a dinner between the 17-year-old and his two players, according to The Washington Post. “This dinner is our initiative,” Kapler wrote to the grandmother in an email. “We will ensure [the girl’s] safety. We believe we can teach valuable lessons to all involved through this method of follow up.”
About a week later, according to the Post’s report, the girl told police that one of the Dodgers players sexually assaulted her before she was beaten. Kapler, who’s now entering his second season as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, told the Post he was not aware of the alleged sexual assault when he tried to arrange the sit-down between the players and the girl, a claim he repeated in a post on his own personal blog published on Saturday.

...
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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oh really? Have you found a source that confirmed the ages of the “older women.” The victim of the assault was 17. That means “older” could be 18; I believe there was reference to them being “a few years older.” So perhaps 19 or 20 is a better guess. But that’s all we have, a guess.
Female adults are generally called “women.”

At least for the last 40 years or so pretty unanimously.
 

Plympton91

bubble burster
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Oct 19, 2008
12,408
You really need to read the background on this. This is not a catfight or high spirited youth having a bit of fun.

From The Ringer article (my bold):
I’ve read the article twice. The alleged sexual assault was Baldwin while Verdugo was not in the room. We should not even be discussing it.

The two girls beat up the younger girl. Verdugo is alleged by Nick Francona to maybe have been the one who taped it. A hero would have jumped into the fray. We don’t require people to be heroes.

The piece of evidence that would change my mind would be if Verdugo was the one who provided the alcohol.
 

Marciano490

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Nov 4, 2007
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No, I didn’t equate it. I said if you ignored two drunk acquaintances heading off into a room at an underage drinking party you’re closer to your view of Verdugo than you think. By the standard you yourself and most colleges these days set, a drunk girl cannot consent to sex. So anytime you let a drunk girl out of your sight, you’re complicit in anything bad that happened to her.

And my moral and physical stones never got tested in one of these situations. Because until I was 21, I was Urias. When the alcohol showed up, I left.
Oh right. I forgot all your “won’t someone think of the poor confused boys” posts in the affirmative consent threads.

Your language here - cat fight, hook up - shows what and how you see this situation.
 

mauidano

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I think we have some qualified people on our team that can guide Verdugo in a positive direction. He’s not gonna get a whole of leeway if he doesn’t hustle or produce either. His reputation has preceded him. Hope he matures as a man and a ball player in Boston. He surely won’t fly under any radars.
 

shepard50

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Nov 18, 2006
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I’ve read the article twice. The alleged sexual assault was Baldwin while Verdugo was not in the room. We should not even be discussing it.

The two girls beat up the younger girl. Verdugo is alleged by Nick Francona to maybe have been the one who taped it. A hero would have jumped into the fray. We don’t require people to be heroes.

The piece of evidence that would change my mind would be if Verdugo was the one who provided the alcohol.
Your threshold for hero is what many of the rest of us would call either basic decency or even responsibility.

Also the players did provide the alcohol.

In the only reported email to Kapler from the girl, reported by the WP, she writes, “The boys [players] got me drunk, and the girls beat me up. [Your player] videotaped it all.”
And Verdugo was in the hotel room, though he may have been in the bathroom with the other women, at the time of the assault.

That's not exactly not present.

And I don't need to convince you. This is the kind of shit that will come up again later and we will see these times (of team and MLB cover ups) as barbaric and unforgivable.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Sep 9, 2008
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I don’t see anyone acting like an adult in this story. Except maybe Urias.
You’ve called women “girls” now twice. Given that this isn’t an episode of Mad Men you really are not doing much to dispel the suggestion above that you hold retrograde views, as the rest of your language tends to suggest.

I get it. You want Verdugo to just have been young and dumb and in the wrong place at the wrong time so you can happily root for him. Do what you need to do. But it would probably just be easier for you to say “I just don’t give a shit,” because the stuff you‘re offering that has been good enough to convince yourself isn’t very convincing.

Is it possible that he was largely blameless? Sure. Whatever. To declare it a fact? Come on. Just say “I don’t want think too hard about it” and move along while others discuss it.
 

high cheese

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Nov 5, 2001
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Unbelievable that people are defending and excusing his involvement - maybe some of the articles at the beginning of the thread would be enlightening.

Absurd.
 

dhappy42

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Oct 27, 2013
15,725
Michigan
I think we have some qualified people on our team that can guide Verdugo in a positive direction. He’s not gonna get a whole of leeway if he doesn’t hustle or produce either. His reputation has preceded him. Hope he matures as a man and a ball player in Boston. He surely won’t fly under any radars.
The spring training assault happened four or five years ago. Hopefully, he's matured a bit since then.
 

Rovin Romine

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Those are the legal definitions of harassment, not necessarily online harassment, in particular of a minor. This is a relatively new (sub?)-field of law, and case law obviously can become precedent. Of course, IANAL.
So, which criminal statue in AZ, exactly, do you think Verdugo violated?
 

SouthernBoSox

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Jul 23, 2005
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This thread is going absolutely no where.

The Dodgers did zero investigation.

The authorities did zero instigation due to the victims lack of cooperation.

It appears Verduga had no involvement with sexual assault. It appears Verduga didn’t physically assault anyone. He might have recorded the assault. He might have provided alcohol.

People can form their own opinions about Verduga. But we aren’t going to gain any new information and all this is going to be is a pissing match due to the total lack of information.
 

lexrageorge

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Jul 31, 2007
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Unbelievable that people are defending and excusing his involvement - maybe some of the articles at the beginning of the thread would be enlightening.

Absurd.
Here's what we know: Verdugo wasn't present when the sexual assault occurred. From the Ringer article, it seems Kapler didn't know anything about it either when the incident was reported to him by the victim's grandmother.

Either prior or after that, the victim got into a fight with 2 other young women, which made the young woman a victim of a battery, and which was eventually reported to Kapler by the victim's grandmother. From what we know, Verdugo wasn't involved in the fight at all. He probably reacted like most drunken late teens would when seeing women fight while drunk, and "watched the show". That's hardly indefensible.

He may have videotaped it, and may have posted it on line. That's not defensible. But it hardly seems like an offense worthy of kicking him off the team.
 

EnochRoot

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Feb 7, 2020
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So, which criminal statue in AZ, exactly, do you think Verdugo violated?
I'm saying it's not cut and dry that the person who submitted the video of a teenager being assaulted to a social media site would not meet the culpability of an online harassment charge*. Frankly, I think conditions surpass the lower levels of intent to harass, humiliate and otherwise distress the victim when he (who?) uploaded the content. That in itself was another level to abuse she suffered. Obviously, we don't even know who posted the video, and the reason we do not know is not because it's lost to history, it's because the adults in the room (figuratively, not literally of course) made sure of that.

* Set aside the heinous nature of the assault. Laws vary state to state as to the legality of recording others without their permission. It gets dicier it the video captured audio of the event. Then there's the expectation of privacy. This was in a hotel room, which perhaps would not be considered a public place. Then you have to factor intent. Hell, there's a reason business owners have signs up that state the perimeter is being watched by video cameras.

For the record, this is the first I've been made aware of how much a grade A douchebag Gabe Kapler is. Y-I-K-E-S.
 
Jul 5, 2018
430
This thread is going absolutely no where.

The Dodgers did zero investigation.

The authorities did zero instigation due to the victims lack of cooperation.

It appears Verduga had no involvement with sexual assault. It appears Verduga didn’t physically assault anyone. He might have recorded the assault. He might have provided alcohol.

People can form their own opinions about Verduga. But we aren’t going to gain any new information and all this is going to be is a pissing match due to the total lack of information.
I'm not sure what investigation the Dodgers could have conducted. They had no access to the women that assaulted the girl and it didn't sound as if the victim wanted to meet with Kapler. Baldwin had been advised by an attorney not to discuss the incident, so that leaves Verdugo. Truthful or not, he was going to have a different story.

If the Dodgers had a video that confirmed the girl's accusation against Verdugo, they would have had a stronger case for taking action against Verdugo. Without the video, an e-mail just isn't enough to justify doing so.
 

CR67dream

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This thread is going absolutely no where.

The Dodgers did zero investigation.

The authorities did zero instigation due to the victims lack of cooperation.

It appears Verduga had no involvement with sexual assault. It appears Verduga didn’t physically assault anyone. He might have recorded the assault. He might have provided alcohol.

People can form their own opinions about Verduga. But we aren’t going to gain any new information and all this is going to be is a pissing match due to the total lack of information.
Yeah, that's about it in a nutshell. I think everyone has had a chance to argue their points, and we're going in a circle. It's time for everyone to take a deep breath. We're not going to keep going round and round on this. This applies to everyone, wherever you personally fall on the situation. If you want to have a knock down drag out, or continue to repeat yourself, take it to PM, or really anywhere but here.
 

SoxRoxCT27

New Member
Oct 31, 2013
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Obviously i don't post all that much, and while i completely understand that Verdugos actions were immature and douche-y,
amplified, or not by alchohol. But there's something about the "coverage" that is borderline ridiculous.
You/they are all talking about "filming" and/or "videotaping" like he put up some hollywood production.

Back then when this happened, Snapchat allowed you to post a TEN SECOND video. TEN SECONDS.

Again, douche-y.

But again, (allegedly) a TEN SECOND snapchat, from a drunk idiot.

For that, all this fauxtrage?

Should or would a more mature, more honorable person have intervened if the woman was in actual danger?

Sure.

Snapchat is now 60 seconds, but back then, 10.
 

Devizier

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This discussion reminds me a bit of the Carl Everett acquisition all those years ago. As folks recall, he came with some serious baggage:

Allegations that the Everetts were abusing at least one of their children surfaced last week after child care workers in the Mets' family room at Shea Stadium noticed bruises on 5-year-old Shawna. She and Carl, 4, were taken to Long Island Jewish Medical Center. Although the boy had no bruises, both children were placed in foster care by the city's Administration for Children's Services.
At yesterday's hearing, Berman said his decision was based on the testimony of child care workers, pictures that showed the girl's bruises and the Everetts' own testimony to the police that they used a belt to discipline their children.

According to testimony, in two examinations last week several doctors found bruises on Shawna's face, including both cheeks and her right ear; a scab, apparently from an abrasion, over her right eye, and marks on her left shoulder, between both shoulder blades and on her thigh.
It merits mentioning that at the Carl was not directly implicated in the beating that caused him to lose custody of his children; that was his wife, Linda. But, where there's smoke, there's fire.
Not many details have yet been made available, but Everett was accused of assaulting and injuring an unidentified family member, and was eventually taken into police custody. The 40-year-old has six children and has been married to his current wife for close to 20 years.
Also, this.
Retired outfielder Carl Everett is in big trouble: he was arrested last night on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with a witness. The details, according to the police report, are that he pointed a gun at his wife’s head and then broke two cell phones when she attempted to call 9-1-1.
I hope, hope, hope, that I'm wrong to be wary of Verdugo, but there's certainly reason for concern.
 

Rovin Romine

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Depending on jurisdiction, posting a video of someone being beaten can be construed as a form of cyberbullying, online harassment, etc.

ETA: Cyberbullying laws by State (AZ is a criminal-liability state)
I'm saying it's not cut and dry that the person who submitted the video of a teenager being assaulted to a social media site would not meet the culpability of an online harassment charge.
OK. Get back to us when you actually have something.
 

CR67dream

blue devils forevah!
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Obviously i don't post all that much, and while i completely understand that Verdugos actions were immature and douche-y,
amplified, or not by alchohol. But there's something about the "coverage" that is borderline ridiculous.
You/they are all talking about "filming" and/or "videotaping" like he put up some hollywood production.

Back then when this happened, Snapchat allowed you to post a TEN SECOND video. TEN SECONDS.

Again, douche-y.

But again, (allegedly) a TEN SECOND snapchat, from a drunk idiot.

For that, all this fauxtrage?

Should or would a more mature, more honorable person have intervened if the woman was in actual danger?

Sure.

Snapchat is now 60 seconds, but back then, 10.
You may have missed what I posted above, but we're not going to keep going round and round and arguing with each other. It's useless at this point. After he's introduced and more details emerge I'm sure they'll be plenty new to talk about. Right now it's pointless regurgitation.

And fauxtrage? That's straight-up baiting and not gonna fly.
 

EnochRoot

New Member
Feb 7, 2020
90
Baltimore, MD
I'm not being sarcastic. Really do post again if you find something that's relevant.
Yeah I thought about how that came out. I'm too old for sounding like that.

I'm sure this story will blow up some now that he's headed east where everybody lives nearly on top of one another, and some legal minds will become motivated to write some thoughts elsewhere on the web.
 

JimD

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Nov 29, 2001
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You may have missed what I posted above, but we're not going to keep going round and round and arguing with each other. It's useless at this point. After he's introduced and more details emerge I'm sure they'll be plenty new to talk about. Right now it's pointless regurgitation.
I'm not sure that there will be more details. Unless that Snapchat video surfaces and it is damning, or something else credible that proves he or others lied about his involvement, this matter is likely to blow over unless Verdugo turns out to be a partier or does something else douchey to bring it up again. I really hope that for his own sake that he has grown up and that he gets better guidance from his new Red Sox teammates than he did supposedly from the Dodgers (besides Rich Hill I guess).
 

HomeRunBaker

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Jan 15, 2004
30,096
They could have spent months defining "policies and protocols" and they still wouldn't have anticipated that a player might record a video of two women beating up a teenager.

What should Kapler have done?
Just catching up on this thread but there is a real easy answer that I haven’t seen mentioned. It’s one that any supervisor is hired to follow. Kapler should have done exactly what his company protocol is in this situation to start which why by all accounts he did. Once he’s completed this job IF he is then not satisfied with how his company handled it from here then it is up to him to decide what is most important to him......his job or his moral compass.

This latter part is what should be debated imo as “passing the buck” initially may very well be a required part of his employment contract.
 
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Savin Hillbilly

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Jul 10, 2007
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The wrong side of the bridge....
Obviously i don't post all that much, and while i completely understand that Verdugos actions were immature and douche-y,
amplified, or not by alchohol. But there's something about the "coverage" that is borderline ridiculous.
You/they are all talking about "filming" and/or "videotaping" like he put up some hollywood production.

Back then when this happened, Snapchat allowed you to post a TEN SECOND video. TEN SECONDS.

Again, douche-y.

But again, (allegedly) a TEN SECOND snapchat, from a drunk idiot.

For that, all this fauxtrage?

Should or would a more mature, more honorable person have intervened if the woman was in actual danger?

Sure.

Snapchat is now 60 seconds, but back then, 10.
First of all, what on earth does the length of the video have to do with anything?!?

Second, "douche-y" is not the right word. "Sociopathic" is. When someone is being physically abused in my presence, I can think of three possible responses that are consistent with human empathy: one brave one and two cowardly ones.

A: Brave response: intervene.
B: Cowardly response 1: sit in a corner of the room looking down at the carpet muttering to myself "oh god why don't they stop I should really do something about this I'm such a shitty person".
C: Cowardly response 2: get the hell out of there so I don't have to deal with these fucking horrible people anymore.

Then there's Verdugo's alleged response:

D: Treat the beating as entertainment to be captured for social media.

Obviously B and C are not responses we would admire anyone for, but they're at least human. We are not all equally gifted with courage, nor is any of us consistently brave in all situations. D is something altogether different.
 
Feb 7, 2020
1
Long-term and part-time lurker here. I felt compelled to post over this issue. I dislike the trade largely over Verdugo. I don’t want a player like him on the team. It’s not about how good he’ll be and if his back is healthy, although I have my concerns about the latter. That the Red Sox considered Verdugo as a centerpiece of the deal speaks volumes about the lack of character of Henry and Bloom. I would not want to work with someone who did what Verdugo did, assuming he was the one who videotaped the assault. And I certainly wouldn’t hire him.

I was the person who asked the question in the Fangraphs chat. I think the issue is if anything underreported in the trade analysis. The assault and sexual assault did happen, and the Dodgers were more concerned with protecting themselves than helping a victim. Kapler was the agent of the Dodgers acting on the recommendation of their legal and human resources departments. I view his actions as those of the team. Was this the source of the personality conflict between Kapler and Francona that cost Francona his job? That’s my guess.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19353967/nick-francona-alleges-firing-los-angeles-dodgers-was-discriminatory
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-investigating-dodgers-alleged-discrimination-termination-war-veteran-nick-francona-173420143.html

And who oversaw the team’s baseball operations at the time? Andrew Friedman. Given his position, he should share the blame for the Dodgers’ handling of the sexual assault, along with Kapler. MLB let the Dodgers, Kapler, and Friedman off the hook. It’s outrageous that Gabe Kapler has a job today and Alex Cora doesn’t, and it should be an embarrassment for baseball, but unfortunately, it is not. Instead, the Dodgers and Friedman are being held up as the model organization by writers.

Once how the Dodgers handled the sexual assault came to light, MLB should have investigated the team. Kapler and Friedman both should have been suspended for their actions (Kapler for life), and the Dodgers as an organization monetary and draft penalties. They received no punishment for actions that were far worse than what the Houston Astros did.
 

reggiecleveland

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I have to say the invented scenarios by different people, from different angles, are poor form.

There just isn't enough info to know where on the major dumbass<<<<>>>>Hitler scale he falls. We will never resolve the question, no matter how much we write about it online. Suffice to say it is at best disappointing Mookie was traded for a guy somewhere on that scale.
 
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Jul 5, 2018
430
Long-term and part-time lurker here. I felt compelled to post over this issue. I dislike the trade largely over Verdugo. I don’t want a player like him on the team. It’s not about how good he’ll be and if his back is healthy, although I have my concerns about the latter. That the Red Sox considered Verdugo as a centerpiece of the deal speaks volumes about the lack of character of Henry and Bloom. I would not want to work with someone who did what Verdugo did, assuming he was the one who videotaped the assault. And I certainly wouldn’t hire him.

I was the person who asked the question in the Fangraphs chat. I think the issue is if anything underreported in the trade analysis. The assault and sexual assault did happen, and the Dodgers were more concerned with protecting themselves than helping a victim. Kapler was the agent of the Dodgers acting on the recommendation of their legal and human resources departments. I view his actions as those of the team. Was this the source of the personality conflict between Kapler and Francona that cost Francona his job? That’s my guess.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19353967/nick-francona-alleges-firing-los-angeles-dodgers-was-discriminatory
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-investigating-dodgers-alleged-discrimination-termination-war-veteran-nick-francona-173420143.html

And who oversaw the team’s baseball operations at the time? Andrew Friedman. Given his position, he should share the blame for the Dodgers’ handling of the sexual assault, along with Kapler. MLB let the Dodgers, Kapler, and Friedman off the hook. It’s outrageous that Gabe Kapler has a job today and Alex Cora doesn’t, and it should be an embarrassment for baseball, but unfortunately, it is not. Instead, the Dodgers and Friedman are being held up as the model organization by writers.

Once how the Dodgers handled the sexual assault came to light, MLB should have investigated the team. Kapler and Friedman both should have been suspended for their actions (Kapler for life), and the Dodgers as an organization monetary and draft penalties. They received no punishment for actions that were far worse than what the Houston Astros did.

The sexual assault was reported to the police and any investigation regarding that was not the responsibility of the Dodgers.

No one is "King" in MLB. Kapler had rights and there wasn't anywhere near enough evidence to take such drastic action. Even if the recording was available, it would be difficult to argue whether it would trigger the "Good Citizen" clause contained in MLB employee contracts. Kind of similar to whether asking a foreign leader to smear a political opponent, meets the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors".
 

Doc Zero

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"Cat fight" qualifies as gendered language in general, but given the context, it's especially heinous.
 

dhappy42

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Oct 27, 2013
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Long-term and part-time lurker here. I felt compelled to post over this issue. I dislike the trade largely over Verdugo. I don’t want a player like him on the team. It’s not about how good he’ll be and if his back is healthy, although I have my concerns about the latter. That the Red Sox considered Verdugo as a centerpiece of the deal speaks volumes about the lack of character of Henry and Bloom.
I assume Henry and Bloom have a lot more information about Verdugo's involvement in the 2015 incident, and his subsequent behavior, than we do. It's impossible for me to judge their decision-making without knowing what they know.
I would not want to work with someone who did what Verdugo did, assuming he was the one who videotaped the assault. And I certainly wouldn’t hire him.
Do any of us actually know what Verdugo did or didn't do? Even if as you and I both assume, Verdugo did record the assault -- the two women beating up the 17-year-old victim -- "assault" and "beat up" could describe anything from drunken roughhousing to a brutal beat-down. I'd need to see the video or hear a reliable description of it to determine how poor Verdugo's judgement was. Quiroli's article says the victim suffered a black eye and bruises, but we have no idea when that happened -- before, during or after the taping. If I were Bloom, I'd want to know how Verdugo behaved afterwards and how much he's matured since then. There's a big difference between 18 and 23.

Quiroli's article criticizes the Dodgers for failing to immediately report the fight to MLB, as required by the league's Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Policy. But the fight supposedly didn't involve players, so it'd have been odd to do so.According to the SI article, it wasn't until a week later, when she was arrested for shoplifting, that the victim told police about the sexual assault by Baldwin. Police investigated Baldwin, but notably not Verdugo, and no charges were filed "in part because the alleged victim did not wish to cooperate." The Dodgers apparently failed at that point to notify the MLB.
The assault and sexual assault did happen, and the Dodgers were more concerned with protecting themselves than helping a victim.
I'm not saying the Dodgers handled this properly, but how should the Dodgers have helped the victim? By reporting the fight to the MLB and police after the call from the girl's grandmother? The police knew about the sexual assault before the Dodgers did.
 
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A Bad Man

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Dec 12, 2016
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I'm just a lurker with no credentials whatsoever, but perhaps it would make sense to split this thread into two - one concerning the Verdugo incident, and one concerning Verdugo's baseball performance. These two are importantly related, to be sure, but I would like to see some discussion of Verdugo's projectability, approach, etc.
 
Jul 5, 2018
430
It seems that the Verdugo video story has run its course here on SOSH. One of the posters commented that it was a hot topic on sports talk radio in Boston. Is that still the case?
 

curly2

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Jul 8, 2003
4,887
Sorry, posted about the back injury in the wrong Verdugo thread. Moved it there.
 
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bohous

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Jul 21, 2005
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Framingham
Basically denies that he “took part” in the sexual assault or beating. Nothing here addresses the reports that he recorded and posted the video of the beating on Snapchat.


edit:
This article has the entire exchange with reporters and no paywall.
I'm glad it was addressed and he said more or less what he needed to say. But IMO, his responses were still a bit tone def. Lots of complaining about how hard it's been on him and his reputation without mention of the victim. Leans hard on the fact that no charges were filed against him.

He does say...
If I was around for anything that had happened, I would’ve put a stop to it. I would’ve helped out. I would’ve done something.
Still unspecific if he's talking about just the part with Baldwin when he was out of the room. Nobody seemed to push him on multiple reports indicating he recorded and posted the video.
 
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Earthbound64

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SoSH Member
I would not want to work with someone who did what Verdugo did, assuming he was the one who videotaped the assault
Unless you're self-employed, you almost certainly already work with people who have done far worse. Sexual assault is disturbingly common, and to think that you're insulated from it just because you don't personally know about it is foolish.
 

Savin Hillbilly

loves the secret sauce
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Jul 10, 2007
18,783
The wrong side of the bridge....
I'm glad it was addressed and he said more or less what he needed to say. But IMO, his responses were still a bit tone def. Lots of complaining about how hard it's been on him and his reputation without mention of the victim. Leans hard on the fact that no charges were filed against him.
Yeah, that was the main issue I had with the presser. It's not a particularly good look for someone in that position to talk about their own pain. On the other hand, it may be unrealistic to expect a young athlete to have that kind of perspective. I'm sure being involved in an incident like that, whatever your own role in it, is painful, and realizing that it looks self-centered to talk about this when your pain pales in comparison to the victim's requires a certain level of awareness that not everybody gets to at the same pace (and pro athletes, I would guess, slower than the average person).
 

Plympton91

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Oct 19, 2008
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i picked up on the “Had I been there I would have done something” line as well.

The allegations of what happened that night are awful. There were no witnesses to the sexual assault, so the police failing to press charges without cooperation of the victim, while very unfortunate, is par for the course.

There were supposedly multiple witnesses to the beating, including the videographer. The police would not have needed cooperation from the victim if other folks would testify to the older females beating up the younger one. The videographer in particular with have reason to cooperate, and hold the older females accountable. Yet, no charges were filed in relation to that either. Hmm.