The Guardians pitchers sure can throw

[Chad ochoseis]

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/guardians-pitchers-emmanuel-clase-and-luis-ortiz-are-indicted-on-gambling-charges

Closer Emmanuel Clase and meh starter Luis Ortiz indicted on gambling charges, including intentionally throwing out of the strike zone to fix the outcomes of proposition bets.

Indictment is in federal court in New York. Don't know why there and not Ohio, but apparently the Eastern District of New York has been aggressive in pursuing illegal sports gambling.

[metirish]

I guess this is the year for athletes to get caught up on gambling

[Lefty Specialist]

Being able to bet on the outcome of a pitch is just an open invitation to this sort of thing.

[Centerfield]

How much can they be paid that this is worthwhile? Craziness.

[Edgy MD]

Enough, I guess. Especially if you are (1) a fringy figure like Ortiz, unsure if you are cashing your last MLB paycheck, (2) deep in the hole yourself (or perhaps your cousin or friend is) from some wagering, or (3) have gangsters making implicit or explicit threats against your family, here in the US or back in the Dominican. It is a primary storyline all through the history of boxing.

The greater question to me is how MLB is ignoring that the call is coming from inside their own house, and we are supposed to ignore it all with them.

[Frayed Knot]

The thing is, the fact that sports gambling is now legal and open makes this sort of thing even less likely to conceal.

The gambling houses report 'unusual' patterns to whatever commission oversees their operations as a way of protecting themselves and their industry and something like abnormally heavy action on something trivial like a first pitch of a game practically screams 'fix'. So in order for the pitchers (or their cousins or deadbeat brother-in-law or whoever) to make any substantial money on this they either have to bet a lot of cash in one spot (something a smart house would likely reject) or make identical bets in multiple places, both of which would set off red flags and point the finger directly at the player(s) involved.

Gamblers tend to make all kinds of excuses as to why what they're doing is OK. Hoopsters aren't fixing the results of games, they're merely making sure the margin of victory remains within a certain range, so no harm. Pete Rose only bet on his team to win and that's a good thing, right!?!

It wouldn't surprise me if neither of these pitchers had much (if anything) riding on these events. They were just helping out a friend or two and those friends would never tell their friends until it set off a chain reaction which would make storing a live elephant in the living room easier to conceal.

[Gwreck]

The greater question to me is how MLB is ignoring that the call is coming from inside their own house, and we are supposed to ignore it all with them.

 

I am not a Manfred fan here (and he’s made some dumb comments about gambling recently) but where is it that MLB ignored this issue? The reporting is that they (1) suspended the pitchers while an investigation was pending (2) and shared information with the prosecutors. That sure seems like what they’re supposed to do, no?

[Edgy MD]

They supported the liberalization of legalized gambling and inviting it into the game while ignoring that this was going to be the obvious outcome.

[Fman99]

They supported the liberalization of legalized gambling and inviting it into the game while ignoring that this was going to be the obvious outcome.

 

Yep. Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas

[Centerfield]

This is the regime that allowed ads on uniforms and the ridiculous ad on the post season helmets.

They were never going to be disciplined enough to turn down the riches of legalized betting.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Just a hunch, but I suspect these two are not the only ones who were doing this. And I would not be surprised if they know if other players, and will start talking to prosecutors.

[Edgy MD]

It takes a lot of faith to believe MLB's biggest star was as a clear as all that from the gambling scandal that engulfed his interpreter/assistant/buddy.

[Frayed Knot]

How much can they be paid that this is worthwhile? Craziness.

 

"Neither Clase nor Ortiz pitched after July, when both were placed on paid leave after the league launched an investigation into whether they were predetermining pitches. By that point, the operation had allegedly netted its co-conspirators more than $450,000 in winnings since May 2023. Clase and Ortiz appear to have received only a small cut of that profit."

Excerpted from an article in The Athletic

[Centerfield]

Why make millions legally when you have a chance to make the thousands illegally

[Gwreck]

They were never going to be disciplined enough to turn down the riches of legalized betting.

 

Agreed 100%. But…while that may make MLB hypocritical if it was going to now complain about the negative effects of gambling…I’m not as sure that MLB owns the blame for this incident.

Did they actively try to have the laws changed to legalize the gambling? Not really. Were there scandals involving players when you could only legally gamble in NV? Yes. Does MLB have the harshest possible penalty (lifetime ban) for gambling infractions? It does. Should gambling on sports be illegal? Ehhhh…

[Benjamin Grimm]

MLB certainly plays a part in promoting gambling, from the advertising they accept to the discussion of betting odds during game broadcasts and pre-game shows.

They're embracing it, rather than distancing themselves, so they're a least partially to blame.

[MFS62]

The one thing about this that gets me is the prop bets such as "the first pitch will be a strike".

Sometimes it seems that a pitcher can't always throw a strike when they want to. How can someone place money on a pitcher being able to do such a thing?

It would seem better to place money on the first pitch being a ball(which is easier to throw).

'Tis a puzzlement.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

The one thing about this that gets me is the prop bets such as "the first pitch will be a strike".

Sometimes it seems that a pitcher can't always throw a strike when they want to. How can someone place money on a pitcher being able to do such a thing?

 

That's why they call it gambling.

You can prop bet almost anything. Hell, the coin flip to start a football game has been bet on for decades.

 

It would seem better to place money on the first pitch being a ball(which is easier to throw).

 

People can and people do. In fact that's mostly how Clase and the other guy (Ortiz) were operating. They'd agree with their 'partners' which pitch(es) they'd throw Out of the strike zone (because that's controllable*) and the partners would make a bet with that prior/insider knowledge for which the pitchers would (allegedly) got a slice of the winnings. The total amount this gang won ran into the hundred$ of thousand$ which, if the gov't can make their case, is a fraud on the houses where they placed the bets which carries potentially long prison sentences.

Not coincidentally, I read an article yesterday about how betting houses are going to curtail single pitch bets moving forward as a result of being burned in this case and who knows how many others. It's blow to them since prop bets, like all bets but, I believe, to a great degree w/props, favor the house. The commercials that now saturate televised sporting events are heavy with enticements to place not simple W/L or O/U bets but in-game prop bets in conjunction with 'parlays' (betting on multiple things all of which need to hit) on those props. They gleefully tell you about increased winnings with these combos but somehow neglect to mention the multiplier effect of parlays severely decreases the odds of getting a win. Parlasy suckers are some of the house's best customers, and by best I mean most common losers particularly since, unlike W/L, O/U type bets, you can bet numerous prop bets throughout the entire game. Ball/Strike?, Pass/Run?, 3-pt shot or Two?

* Well, not always controllable. One of the instances cited with Clase on the mound was when he threw a ball in the dirt vs LAD's Andy Pages, Pages swung at it anyway so the gang lost money on that particular 'sure thing'. And not only does the gov't have evidence that that pitch was heavily bet but also texts between Clase and one of his guys after teh game talked about how they took a bath on that one due to the unexpected swing.

[MFS62]

I saw that, too. But since I haven't gambled on sports since super Bowl III, those new kinds of bets boggle my mind.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Those kinds of bets always theoretically existed since all you need to place a bet is someone on the other end willing to agree to take it. But what's "new" about them is the ability and frequency with which they can be placed in the internet era. Fans can now sit at home with a phone in their hands and bet on Every Single AB in a game as well as on individual pitches within those ABs; literally hundreds of bets per game.

Gambling houses like that because, as mentioned above, prop bets are a meaty part of their business. And the sports leagues are embracing them because it gives incentives for fans to watch games even when it involves teams in which they have no particular interest. MLB and the NBA have seen what the gambling incentive has meant to the NFL over the last five or six decades -- football fans will watch any game regardless of who's involved and gambling has always been a huge part of that -- and so they want to get a taste of it for themselves. Except now both sports have been bitten by the (thoroughly predictable) dark side of it all.

[Edgy MD]

Did they actively try to have the laws changed to legalize the gambling? Not really.

 

They very much did. Actively so — most notably, but not exclusively, throwing their weight behind California’s Proposition 27. Manfred had always been pushing to go this way.

[Gwreck]

They very much did. Actively so — most notably, but not exclusively, throwing their weight behind California’s Proposition 27. Manfred had always been pushing to go this way.

 

Wasn’t the 2018 Supreme Court case which opened Pandora’s box a suit by New Jersey against MLB (and the other major leagues plus the NCAA)?

I’m fully aware that MLB’s stance has changed somewhat after the Supreme Court decided Murphy but MLB was not on the side of legalizing betting nationwide in the first instance. MLB seeking to get their share of the money once that change in the law occured is…not exactly indefensible.

And, while it’s a bit beside the point, didn’t California Proposition 27 get defeated by something like a 4-to-1 margin?

[Edgy MD]

Well, I guess I don't see it the same way. To my observation, MLB and the NBA stopped fighting legalized gambling to protect the integrity of their sports, and pivoted over a number of years to fighting to make sure they got their piece of the pie, and the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was just the hostage they helped hold.

They initially supported the defense of the law, but as the suit played out across six years, they were lobbying for the expansion of legalized sports gambling in a bunch of states.

MLB likes gambling, and they dig crypto too. Cheesy, cheesy MLB. They are rolling in it.

[Edgy MD]

“I get death threats all the time — every day. It’s not anything that every baseball player doesn’t deal with all the time. Like, ‘You cost me my parlay, I hope your family dies.’”

— Ryne Stanek

[The Hot Corner]

“I get death threats all the time — every day. It’s not anything that every baseball player doesn’t deal with all the time. Like, ‘You cost me my parlay, I hope your family dies.’”

— Ryne Stanek

 

It just shows how sick and twisted our world has become.

[Edgy MD]

Breaking news out there reporting bettors fixing "dozens" of NCAA men's basketball and Chinese Basketball League games.

The scandal is hitting in the home boroughs as at least one of the players implicated is or was a Fordham Ram.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6973903/2026/01/15/ncaa-college-basketball-gambling-investigation-charges/