Apologies for the lack of posts last week. Life stuff happened, work was busy, and it was nice to get a mental reset here. All I know is I’m happy to be back in the swing of things. Lots of interesting (if not great for the sport) things happened last week, and we need to talk about them.

Tucupita Marcano Banned for Life for Betting on Baseball

First the Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara situation, and now even more scandal with MLB and gambling. This time, it revolves around a few minor league players including a few notable names who have made appearances in the majors over the past few years. Biggest of all, however, was San Diego Padres player Tucupita Marcano, who has now been banned from baseball for life for betting on his team’s games while he was with the Pirates. He’s one of five players to face punishment for betting on baseball.

MLB’s investigation revealed that Marcano had placed 387 baseball-related bets – 231 of which involved MLB games – totaling $150,000, including the $87,319 that went towards major league bets. 25 of his bets directly involved the Pirates. He notably did this across two stretches of time in 2022 and 2023 when he was on the injured list with Pittsburgh, though it’s not like that makes it much better. Thankfully, nothing in the investigation indicated that Marcano altered, or attempted to alter, the outcome of games in favor of his bets.

The ban makes Marcano the 25th person in the history of the league to get the baseball death penalty. The last person to warrant such a punishment was former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa, who got caught hacking into the Houston Astros database and eventually pleaded guilty to five criminal charges. Obviously, though, Marcano’s case more directly parallels that of Pete Rose, who similarly got the lifetime ban hammer for betting on Reds games.

Lighter one-year bans were also handed down to Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly, Padres minor league pitcher Jay Groome, Philadelphia Phillies minor league infielder José Rodríguez, and Arizona Diamondbacks minor league pitcher Andrew Saalfrank. You might recognize that last name in particular because Saalfrank was a key piece to the Diamondbacks bullpen that helped them get to the World Series. In the postseason, he pitched to a solid 3.18 ERA in 11 games, including three scoreless appearances against the eventual champion Rangers. Their sentences are more lenient since they didn’t bet on their teams’ games, but it’s still a big no-no.

Sadly, I fear that, with the proliferation of sports gambling throughout the league, there are only going to be more cases like Marcano, Saalfrank, Kelly, Groome, and Rodriguez’s. Speaking of Ohtani and Mizuhara…

Ippei Mizuhara Pleads Guilty to Bank, Tax Fraud Charges, MLB Ends Probe

A few major updates came down in the case of Ohtani’s former interpreter. We’ve talked about this case before, and I suspect this will be the last time barring some insane new development. I’ll keep this relatively brief since this whole scandal has been covered to no end.

Ippei Mizuhara, as expected, has officially pled guilty to bank and fraud charges after admitting to stealing nearly $17 million from his former employer and confidant. The next step for him will be a sentencing hearing on October 25, where he’ll face up to 33 years in prison for his actions. This comes at the end of a long, exhausting, and initially confusing situation that rocked the sport and raised eyebrows after Mizuhara lied and implicated Ohtani in helping him pay off his gambling debts to an illegal betting operation back in March.

The verdict also marked the end of MLB’s investigation into the matter. Both the federal and league sides of things have come away with the conclusion that Ohtani is the victim in this case, finding no indication that he was aware of Mizuhara’s situation in their text messages and other communications. This has undoubtedly been a troubling situation for everyone involved, considering the uniquely close relationship between the Dodgers star and Mizuhara. He released a statement after the matter was settled, saying:

“Now that the investigation has been completed, this full admission of guilt has brought important closure to me and my family. I want to sincerely thank the authorities for finishing their thorough and effective investigation so quickly and uncovering all of the evidence. This has been a uniquely challenging time, so I am especially grateful for my support team — my family, agent, agency, lawyers, and advisors along with the entire Dodger organization, who showed endless support throughout this process. It’s time to close this chapter, move on and continue to focus on playing and winning ballgames.

-Shohei Ohtani, via MLB.com

White Sox Set and End Historic Losing Streak

The vibes continue to be quite foul for the Chicago White Sox. We’ve previously discussed how bad they began the year, but things only continue to get worse on the South Side. They currently sit at a dreadful 17-51 with no other team in the same zip code. If they were hoping to avoid a historically bad season this year, they’re not doing a great job thus far.

While we won’t know until the season ends if they’ll set a new record for ineptitude, they have set a personal worst mark of late. After being swept in a pair of close games to their crosstown rival Cubs and getting blown out by the Red Sox on Thursday last week, Pedro Grifol’s squad had a 14-game losing streak, the longest ever recorded by the franchise since its inception in 1894. Fittingly, they lost that last game 14-2, giving up an eye-popping 24 hits in the process.

The silver lining to that unfortunate history, of course, is that the losing streak didn’t last long beyond that. The Sox quickly bounced back and battered their Red counterparts 7-2 on Friday on the back of a dominant performance by Garrett Crochet. Then they won again on Saturday, breaking a long drought without consecutive wins. That was immediately followed by a pair of losses, but hey, take the wins where you can get them. White Sox fans have every right to be outraged by how this season has gone, and it’s only likely to get worse as Chris Getz inevitably hits the bright red sell button. Hey, at least Drew Thorpe is up now.

Tarik Skubal Continues to Ascend

Baseball has seen some dazzling pitching performances early this year, yet, in the American League specifically, few pitchers have dominated to quite the degree of Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. He currently sits with a 1.92 ERA, behind only Tanner Houck (1.91), Reynaldo López (1.86), and Ranger Suárez (1.81), while his expected ERA of 2.44 ranks below only Crochet (2.31). Last week, he only continued to add to his dazzling year by holding the Rangers to one run over six innings and blanking the Brewers through 6 2/3 innings with 10 strikeouts.

Skubal has evolved into an ace since coming up in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. 2022 in particular marked a major step forward for him thanks to his ability to limit home runs on fly balls and keep a lot more pitches on the ground. Unfortunately, both that season and his 2023 campaign were marred by a flexor tendon surgery that cost him over ten months of recovery time. Barring another disaster, 2024 looks to be the year he finally steps into the spotlight as one of the league’s brightest talents.

In every facet of pitching right now, Skubal ranks as elite. Pairing 10.85 strikeouts per nine with only 1.69 walks, he’s not giving up much contact or base runners. When batters are making contact, it’s crummy, with an average exit velocity of 87.3 mph against him. Oh yeah, and his fastball is averaging a higher number on the radar gun than ever at 96.6 mph. Keep an eye on Skubal. Even though the Tigers are a middling 32-35 right now, he’s an exciting watch every time he takes the mound.

Weekly Weird: Tommy Pham’s Fixin’ for a Fight

Let’s come back to the White Sox for the Weekly Weird. The worst team in the league also had the wackiest moment of the week when Tommy Pham decided to speak out after the White Sox dropped Sunday’s game 6-3 against the Brewers.

For context, Pham was thrown out at the plate in the eighth inning after a strong throw from Christian Yelich to catcher William Contreras. Pham, as he pointed out, was easily out, Contreras properly set up to make the tag, and everyone went about their day as if a normal baseball play just happened… Except they didn’t. Contreras was apparently mad that Pham didn’t seem to attempt to avoid running into him. Whatever the younger Contreras brother said, Pham. Was. PISSED. He was so mad, in fact, that his teammates and coaches had to come out and calm him down, and even that barely did anything.

Pham was still mad coming out to play his position on the field. When asked about the incident, he didn’t mince words either. It’s not often you hear a player who is so ready to fight, but Pham made it clear he’s always ready to throw down with some colorful language mixed in.