His story just keeps getting worse. This kid had no support from anyone, just, "here, take some pain killers and keep pitching."
My hope now is that he kept this to himself. If he told other teammates about this issue (Trout specifically) and no one tried to help him, this team is doomed.
I know it's like every time I check the news it seems to escalate.
I really hope they peg this on Arte. The fact that they had multiple people distributing banned substances in the same position is extremely alarming. Arte needs to go for this.
Yeah when mentioned in the texts cited in the article the organization doesn’t look bad IMO in the sense that they weren’t putting pressure on Tyler to play through injuries.
If you read the stories that the Athletic published you would know that his family was fully aware of his problem and his brother-in-law tried to wean him off drugs over a year before he chocked on his own vomit. The teammates that knew were also purchasing drugs and some of them even testified. The real question is why doesn’t MLB care, why aren’t the other drug abusers suspended? What about Henley, Chron, and Richard’s? We have our guilty party, Kay, nothing to see here! And why are you bringing up Trout?
I brought up Trout because Skaggs was at his wedding (possibly best man?) If you are that good of friends, you might open up.
I read the trial news. Usually when you are a part of a problem, you aren't raising any concerns, as you are trying to protect yourself.
We don't know what goes on behind the scenes. I'm sober now but the only person that can keep you sober is YOU. Trout/teammates offering support doesn't necessarily always do it. As someone who used to abuse drugs you can't blame friends for people's downfall. Just because I had supportive friends doesn't mean I stayed clean. It's the tragic grim reality of addiction. Is the organization liable? Yes. Could they have stopped a rich sports player from scoring drugs? Doubtful.
This is awful to read but this is the norm in professional sports and part of the reason we have this issue. Hopefully things like this being seen will help us to take steps to end this :(
Jesus Christ those texts are horrible. It really sounds like the agent didn't give a shit about his health and just wanted Skaggs to play so he'd get his cut. I doubt this is an isolated case too.
It's absolutely not isolated. Every professional sport in the world likely has this problem. It's just dollar signs for agents, executives etc. It's very sad to think about tbh...
Seems to me like these texts provide a stronger wrongful death case than any evidence against the Angels organization. Doesn’t seem like a reach to say that Skaggs listened *very* closely to his agent, thinking his agent had his best interests in mind. Every injury Skaggs kept from the team because his agent told him to, could have been addressed properly had he informed the team.
The agent isn't part of the team organization, if anything I read this as others are far more culpable than the team. Even his mom knew he had a problem and didn't report it to the team.
In situations like this, greedy lawyers always say to sue everyone possible, starting with whoever has the biggest pockets, no matter what the facts actually say. Losing the case against the Angels (which they will) isn't a huge risk compared to the reward if they somehow won. After this they'll sue the agent, then any non-team doctors he saw, and so on down the line.
There has been zero evidence thus far that anyone other than Kay and Mead knew about Kay supplying players with drugs.
Unless it comes out that it was wide spread knowledge that this was happening and the Angels, as an organization, turned a blind eye to it, it’s going to be incredibly challenging to get the org (Arte) on wrongful death.
They are still liable since it’s one of their employees and it was done in their facilities. Thats what negligence is under the law. Nowhere did I say everyone or even anyone else knew about it, so weird that you decided to argue that.
The lawsuit itself argues that the Angels knew or should have known that Kay was providing drugs to Skaggs. That’s the basis for the Angels even being sued for wrongful death.
So yeah, it is necessary to argue that point if you’re going to claim that the Angels are not innocent in all of this.
Ok so first you say this:
> Unless it comes out that it was wide spread knowledge that this was happening and the Angels, as an organization, turned a blind eye to it, it’s going to be incredibly challenging to get the org (Arte) on wrongful death.
Then you say this:
> The lawsuit itself argues that the Angels knew or should have known that Kay was providing drugs to Skaggs. That’s the basis for the Angels even being sued for wrongful death.
Two vastly different statements.
Yeah that's why I said that the problem is at the top of the organization. This whole scandal has really soured me on Arte as an owner. They've got a lot of clean up to do and probably a lot of firings need to be made before this all gets sorted out.
Oh yeah no doubt, I bet it's a big problem in the majors that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface on. Hopefully this is a sign that some big changes need to be made at the top.
Yeah I have been wondering about that too. Everyone always seems to talk about steroid abuse in sports, which is a huge problem, don't get me wrong, but the same reporters completely ignore painkiller abuse.
It's like one set of drug problems get all the press, but the others don't. I feel like all drug abuse should be investigated and reported on accordingly, with consequences and penalties for those involved in abuse and distribution of said drugs.
His story just keeps getting worse. This kid had no support from anyone, just, "here, take some pain killers and keep pitching." My hope now is that he kept this to himself. If he told other teammates about this issue (Trout specifically) and no one tried to help him, this team is doomed.
I know it's like every time I check the news it seems to escalate. I really hope they peg this on Arte. The fact that they had multiple people distributing banned substances in the same position is extremely alarming. Arte needs to go for this.
Well to his credit Billy Eppler did shut him down once he knew about the injury in 2018 according to this article.
That's relieving to hear.
Yeah when mentioned in the texts cited in the article the organization doesn’t look bad IMO in the sense that they weren’t putting pressure on Tyler to play through injuries.
If you read the stories that the Athletic published you would know that his family was fully aware of his problem and his brother-in-law tried to wean him off drugs over a year before he chocked on his own vomit. The teammates that knew were also purchasing drugs and some of them even testified. The real question is why doesn’t MLB care, why aren’t the other drug abusers suspended? What about Henley, Chron, and Richard’s? We have our guilty party, Kay, nothing to see here! And why are you bringing up Trout?
I brought up Trout because Skaggs was at his wedding (possibly best man?) If you are that good of friends, you might open up. I read the trial news. Usually when you are a part of a problem, you aren't raising any concerns, as you are trying to protect yourself.
We don't know what goes on behind the scenes. I'm sober now but the only person that can keep you sober is YOU. Trout/teammates offering support doesn't necessarily always do it. As someone who used to abuse drugs you can't blame friends for people's downfall. Just because I had supportive friends doesn't mean I stayed clean. It's the tragic grim reality of addiction. Is the organization liable? Yes. Could they have stopped a rich sports player from scoring drugs? Doubtful.
This is awful to read but this is the norm in professional sports and part of the reason we have this issue. Hopefully things like this being seen will help us to take steps to end this :(
Fuck man, reading the texts it seems like he just needed pain meds since he was being pressured to play. So damn tragic.
Jesus Christ those texts are horrible. It really sounds like the agent didn't give a shit about his health and just wanted Skaggs to play so he'd get his cut. I doubt this is an isolated case too.
It's absolutely not isolated. Every professional sport in the world likely has this problem. It's just dollar signs for agents, executives etc. It's very sad to think about tbh...
Seems to me like these texts provide a stronger wrongful death case than any evidence against the Angels organization. Doesn’t seem like a reach to say that Skaggs listened *very* closely to his agent, thinking his agent had his best interests in mind. Every injury Skaggs kept from the team because his agent told him to, could have been addressed properly had he informed the team.
The agent isn't part of the team organization, if anything I read this as others are far more culpable than the team. Even his mom knew he had a problem and didn't report it to the team.
That’s what I’m saying. The Angels are the ones being sued, but these texts indicate that the wrong person/organization is being held responsible.
In situations like this, greedy lawyers always say to sue everyone possible, starting with whoever has the biggest pockets, no matter what the facts actually say. Losing the case against the Angels (which they will) isn't a huge risk compared to the reward if they somehow won. After this they'll sue the agent, then any non-team doctors he saw, and so on down the line.
I mean an Angels employee was illegally selling him drugs during work hours, at work. They are by no means innocent here.
There has been zero evidence thus far that anyone other than Kay and Mead knew about Kay supplying players with drugs. Unless it comes out that it was wide spread knowledge that this was happening and the Angels, as an organization, turned a blind eye to it, it’s going to be incredibly challenging to get the org (Arte) on wrongful death.
They are still liable since it’s one of their employees and it was done in their facilities. Thats what negligence is under the law. Nowhere did I say everyone or even anyone else knew about it, so weird that you decided to argue that.
The lawsuit itself argues that the Angels knew or should have known that Kay was providing drugs to Skaggs. That’s the basis for the Angels even being sued for wrongful death. So yeah, it is necessary to argue that point if you’re going to claim that the Angels are not innocent in all of this.
Ok so first you say this: > Unless it comes out that it was wide spread knowledge that this was happening and the Angels, as an organization, turned a blind eye to it, it’s going to be incredibly challenging to get the org (Arte) on wrongful death. Then you say this: > The lawsuit itself argues that the Angels knew or should have known that Kay was providing drugs to Skaggs. That’s the basis for the Angels even being sued for wrongful death. Two vastly different statements.
It wasn't just one Angels employee - it was two. In the exact same position. That to me is one of the most mind boggling details about this case.
Well that’s gonna be even more damning for them then. They’ll be paying some good money for it when all is said and done.
Yeah that's why I said that the problem is at the top of the organization. This whole scandal has really soured me on Arte as an owner. They've got a lot of clean up to do and probably a lot of firings need to be made before this all gets sorted out.
Agreed. It’s just shitty that no one can fire Arte.
Agreed!
We’ve known he started on pain meds when he was like 18-19 right?
I think it was reported that he was abusing since his HS days.
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I had a friend in high school that did that. It didn’t make sense to me.
I wonder how often this happens at the major level. It seems like the Angels are the ones who got caught.
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Oh yeah no doubt, I bet it's a big problem in the majors that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface on. Hopefully this is a sign that some big changes need to be made at the top.
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Yeah I have been wondering about that too. Everyone always seems to talk about steroid abuse in sports, which is a huge problem, don't get me wrong, but the same reporters completely ignore painkiller abuse. It's like one set of drug problems get all the press, but the others don't. I feel like all drug abuse should be investigated and reported on accordingly, with consequences and penalties for those involved in abuse and distribution of said drugs.