Balazovic Breaks Jaw in Off Field Altercation

[Vanimal46]

Not smart for a player on the prospect bubble already. This will put him at least a couple weeks behind other pitchers as we ramp up to opening day.

 

[SF Twins Fan]

Pretty disappointing for a guy looking to have a comeback season.

[James]

What an idiot.  It's the start of the season.  You depend on your body to make a living. What were you thinking?

[Doctor Gast]

He has let his team down as well himself.

[High heat]

Standing up talking when he should have been sitting down listening!

[Squirrel]

He had a bad year last year after ranking so high on promise. He needs a turn around year and this is not the way to get it going. Feel for the guy but hope he gets it figured out, on and off the field. Anyone know the context of the altercation?

[Seth Stohs]

Obviously this is very much negative... and from Falvey's quote it doesn't look great. But we don't know the full story. Could be wrong place, wrong time. Could have been trying to help a friend. Could have been anything. 

[Rhino and Compass]

Hey, maybe he took a calculated risk to just take it in the chin, rather than throw hands and break a finger or something.

[David HK]

I'm old enough to remember Dave Boswell... 🤔

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

Obviously this is very much negative... and from Falvey's quote it doesn't look great. But we don't know the full story. Could be wrong place, wrong time. Could have been trying to help a friend. Could have been anything. 

Really hoping its due to a situation wherein he is in the right and not doing something aggressive/dumb/wrong.

[Nine of twelve]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

Really hoping its due to a situation wherein he is in the right and not doing something aggressive/dumb/wrong.

I want to emphasize that if he was in the right I am not blaming the victim. But sometimes even if you are in the right the best thing to do is just to get the hell out of there .

[roger]

Let’s look at the positive side.  He won’t be on the field for what, three weeks.  That means he won’t be out there for a drill next week when he was destined to slip and mess up his knee and miss half of this season.

Other than that, this is damn disappointing.  Did others reading Falvey’s comment get the feeling that they are nearing the end of their patience with this young man?

[Rosterman]

Well, he can hopefully start the season in Florida training camp, maybe advance to AA Wichita, and get at least half-a-season at AAA ball when the minor league free agents shake out. But it is a make-or-break season for him.

 

[ashbury]

Getting your jaws wired shut makes it difficult to maintain sufficient nutrition.  There are a lot of other details to worry about as well.  It's not like he can just work through it on the field while the bones heal.  And it'll put him farther behind than simply coming to camp late.

Mrs Ash had jaw surgery many years ago.  It was a very nerve wracking six weeks of recovery.

[Linus]

Apparently he’s not the brightest bulb on the tree. Your career depends on keeping your body healthy in every way. So you are at a bar and end up in a situation. Bet it wasn’t 6:30 in the evening. Be a professional. 

[CRF]

No matter what the circumstances were...and I'm sure we'll hear exactly what happened soon enough...it's very disappointing. 

[RonCoomersOPS]

Trade him. He might have a great arm, but he's 100% Gardenhire between the ears.

[theBOMisthebomb]

This is from RandBalls Stu, right?

[cHawk]

[Shaitan]

A jock who is quick to resort to violence. Some things never change.

Just kidding. I know nothing about what happened. And I likely never will. 

But the end result is bad news for all parties. Glad it's just a jaw. Hopefully it's live-and-learn.

[tony&rodney]

Well, I immediately thought of Billy Martin, Bob Allison, and Dave Boswell having way too much fun in the wee hours of the morning as young reckless men. Boswell was a really good guy but not especially sophisticated although college educated, which is not a bad thing in any way. He painted houses and garages in the Fall in St. Paul to make a little money before heading back East (Baltimore? - (I'm getting old- is that right?). He threw more than 250 innings and won 20 games if i recall in the magical summer of '69.

The young Balazovic might need to cool it on some level but for a brief wonderful moment he rekindled a memory of a quiet cool dude who fired pitches to memorialize a memory that I will never forget, Dave Boswell. 

Of course, Boswell and Balazovic have nothing in common whatsoever. Balozovic did manage to get his name in the news and on Twins Daily, which has been a real struggle for him in recent times. Sometimes  guy has to get knocked down in oder to get up ( a horrible cliche that comes with an apology). So he gets a bus ticket to Wichita now. Perfect and I'm going to watch him light up some opponents in St. Paul before a July sunrise. Youth.

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, RonCoomersOPS said:

Trade him. He might have a great arm, but he's 100% Gardenhire between the ears.

What does that even mean, "Gardenhire......"?

Dude. Check thyself.

[ToddlerHarmon]

2 hours ago, roger said:

 Did others reading Falvey’s comment get the feeling that they are nearing the end of their patience with this young man?

That is exactly how I read this

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, roger said:

Did others reading Falvey’s comment get the feeling that they are nearing the end of their patience with this young man?

I laughed my ass off at that quote - it was hilarious. I think I heard myself making some type of statement similar to that to my kids and to a number of my players over many decades. It was so parental. 

These young pups sometimes make mistakes. I'm not enamored of violence in any event, yet forgiveness is till a thing. Myself, I'm guessing that Falvey had his say and is thinking that Balazovic will respond well. If somebody comes to work reluctantly and just goes through the motions, it is time for that person to investigate other options for themselves. Sometimes the employer pushes that guy out the door. I don't think Balazovic is done though.

[h2oface]

.

[Beast]

If he said/did something and deserved it, good.  If he stood up to someone who deserved it, good.

Part of the breakdown in civility in today’s society is due to a lack of consequences.  A society where you get punched in the face for being an idiot is a more polite society.  

If you can’t take that heat, don’t enter the kitchen.  Don’t go all bro in some bar somewhere.  Don’t be in a place you shouldn’t be around people you shouldn’t be around.  Simple as that.

Either way, hopefully it’s a reality check and the young man learned a valuable lesson.

If it turns out he was the victim of some crime walking from his car to apartment something, that’s unfortunate and a very tough break.

From a baseball perspective, my expectations were already pretty low.  I’m not sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for him to develop into a high quality MLB starter at this point.  Not really a huge impact on the Twins as a baseball team.

[DJL44]

15 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

Obviously this is very much negative... and from Falvey's quote it doesn't look great. But we don't know the full story. Could be wrong place, wrong time. Could have been trying to help a friend. Could have been anything. 

Could have been, but likely the wrong place was a bar and the wrong time was after midnight.

[DJL44]

54 minutes ago, Beast said:

Part of the breakdown in civility in today’s society is due to a lack of consequences.  A society where you get punched in the face for being an idiot is a more polite society.  

I wouldn't call punching someone for being an idiot "polite", I'd call it assault. The world is full of idiots, you can't go around punching everybody.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 hour ago, Beast said:

If he said/did something and deserved it, good.  If he stood up to someone who deserved it, good.

Part of the breakdown in civility in today’s society is due to a lack of consequences.  A society where you get punched in the face for being an idiot is a more polite society.  

If you can’t take that heat, don’t enter the kitchen.  Don’t go all bro in some bar somewhere.  Don’t be in a place you shouldn’t be around people you shouldn’t be around.  Simple as that.

Either way, hopefully it’s a reality check and the young man learned a valuable lesson.

If it turns out he was the victim of some crime walking from his car to apartment something, that’s unfortunate and a very tough break.

From a baseball perspective, my expectations were already pretty low.  I’m not sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for him to develop into a high quality MLB starter at this point.  Not really a huge impact on the Twins as a baseball team.

Well said, but violence shouldn’t be the answer.

Bottom line, there are consequences for all of our actions, and our society needs to reestablish norms of respect that have shifted away from where I (and many people) believe they should be. As a member of the mod team here at TD, I can tell you we work very hard at keeping that norm on the message boards without resorting to fisticuffs.

this is an easy assumption to jump to, clearly I don’t know what happened, probably won’t ever know, and if I were to find out Jordy Blaze was a victim of unforeseen circumstances, it’s unfortunate, but usually these circumstances are pretty apparent and easily avoided. 

From a baseball perspective, this was a make or break year for Balazovich. I was really hoping for a “make”, but it’s really hard to consume a nutritious athlete’s diet through a straw. Ominous signs…

[terrydactyls]

10 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

 

I was really hoping for a “make”, but it’s really hard to consume a nutritious athlete’s diet through a straw. Ominous signs…

Haven't you ever had a steak/potato/asparagus smoothie?  Yum Yum!  And I always thought Canadians were nicer than Minnesota Nice.