Upton's had 5 years in the bigs already, there's no "bust potential".

He could always get implants.

As someone who voted for Obama, I find it sad and strange that a player would get flack for tweeting a political opinion, even a foolish political opinion.

An ordinary person would catch flack for something like that. Happens on Facebook every day. Why should a player be any different?

Catch flack from your friends and peers and such? Sure.

Catch flack from your employer? I don't doubt that some employers will pull #### like that, but they shouldn't. And for the vast majority of rich people with fancy jobs, their employers won't do a thing. If this is actually Arizona's problem (if there is a problem in the first place), it's both weird and dumb.

One other note on Bauer's politics vis-a-vis that of the Diamondbacks' ownership - they probably overlap considerably. Both Kendrick and the previous owner Colangelo are closely tied to the Republican party. That said, Kendrick previously remarked of Bauer:
"He is the employee ... in an employer/employee situation it's incumbent on the employee to make adjustments to satisfy the needs of the employer. I hope and trust that that will occur."

Can anyone tell me what Towers is trying to accomplish with this stuff?

To be fair, it isn't like Towers is out there making these announcements. I'm sure he would rather trade Bauer in secret, but apparently his office has some leaks.

One other note on Bauer's politics vis-a-vis that of the Diamondbacks' ownership - they probably overlap considerably. Both Kendrick and the previous owner Colangelo are closely tied to the Republican party. That said, Kendrick previously remarked of Bauer:

I was going to say, this is Arizona. It's not like he made these comments in San Francisco or something. Regardless, nowhere does it say in the article that he's in trouble b/c of his political tweets - it's just speculation we've generated and are running with. It's probably vastly more that he refuses to pitch the way they want, even after having lots of trouble in his first go in the bigs this year. And that he won't shut up about refusing to pitch the way they want.

Pure speculation on my point, but Bauer seems like the kind of kid who is probably pretty intelligent, but seems to be lacking the experience/wisdom/people skills as of yet to know how to use his intelligence to his best advantage and not come off as a mouthy little kid. They should trade him to the A's for a selection of middle relievers.

It's probably vastly more that he refuses to pitch the way they want, even after having lots of trouble in his first go in the bigs this year. And that he won't shut up about refusing to pitch the way they want.

This.

I also note that Crasnick refers to Bauer falling out of favor with some people in the organization, with no indication of who those people might be.

-- MWE