Hilarious Report released the other day. Apparently the Astros have been caught red handed cheating. According to reports the Astros were illegally using video cameras to steal signs throughout the 2017 season including the World Series against the Dodgers.
That’s right, the jig is up and the Astros have been outted. Former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers was one of the whistleblowers. He admitted that he knew of the cheating and once he left town informed his new teammates to be wary when playing in Houston.
According to reports the Astros installed a feed in the dugout from center field cameras to steal signs from the opposing catchers. Then a team employee or players would bang on a trash can in the dugout whenever the opposing pitcher threw a chanegup or offspeed pitch. There was even video proof of the cheating. You can clearly hear two bangs on something (reports indicate a dugout trash can) whenever an offspeed pitch was called for from the opposing team.
Of course the use of technology to steal signs is illegal. The Dodgers were the perfect patsy. The boys in blue, clueless and unaware were taken to the cleaners when they played at Minute Maid Park during the 2017 World Series. Now we know why the Houston batters were so hard to retire during games at minute maid park, they knew what was coming.
Unfortunately cowardly commissioner Rob Manfred will likely not do anything, nor dole out a punishment that fits the crime. what would be the proper punishment should be to take away the Astros championship trophy and denounce their title. Yet we know how this will turn out. They’ll maybe get fined a few million dollars or lose a draft pick or two and meanwhile the cheating will continue in some form or another. Leopards never change their spots, they just adjust to new ways of bending the laws.
This goes to show the Dodgers that not only does being predictable and unaware get you nowhere but that cheaters prosper. So here’s some advice for the Dodgers the next time they reach the World Series or the postseason……JUST CHEAT. Seriously. Cheat, because odds are you will never have to pay the consequences.
Please cheat Dodgers.
No, do NOT cheat! I totally get the impulse to react like this but c’mon Scott!
If every team cheats why would anyone ever watch sports? The results are then meaningless.
The right response is for fans – ALL fans including Astros fans – to clamor HARD for meaningful discipline. Vacate the 2017 Championship. Then take away all player and Astro personnel financial
shares, no pennant, no banners, AND confiscate their draft picks for the coming season, all
of them. I wouldn’t want my team to be known as the modern day 1919 Black Sox. Neither do real Astros fans.
If Kennesaw Mountain Landis hadn’t been draconian after the 1919 scandal baseball might never have recovered even with the coming of Babe Ruth.
Scott was joking. His writing was hard to parse, but he was trying to be sarcastic in the vein of the “fed up” fan.
Cheating will always be part of baseball, as with any other “Game”. There will always be the attempt to steal signs, whether or not it is from the base coach, catcher, or manager from the dugout, or a pitcher tipping pitches. that is all part of the “game”. The real problem is when a team goes above and beyond the human factor, and uses today’s advanced technology to get an unfair advantage.
The problem lays with MLB. “They” knew that cheating was going on, but chose to turn their cheeks and hope that the accusations would disappear….. why did it take two years, and a ballplayer to cave in and tell the truth? It is obvious that MLB sheepishly pretended that it did not happen.
The damage has been done. The players got away with it, stole the WS from the Dodgers. Ruined Darvish’s career. The team and players made their millions, and laughed to the bank. Kudos to the ex-Astro for coming clean, but too little too late.
Another shameful “asterisk” in the MLB record books. The rings and trophy should be taken away, and burned. All guilty conspirators be heavily fined, and suspended from baseball, if not banned. The Owners should be banned from baseball, and the team disbanded.
…. we all know that will never happen. MLB will continue to allow “Cheaters”, as long as they can get away with it, make money. This is way more than just winning a baseball championship, a ring, and trophy. It involves big money, and should be treated as a criminal offense.
It is too bad that Baseball has come to this. I do not know what is worse, “Steroids”, ”PED’s”, or “Egregious Cheating”.
And the result of all this is that MLB and Rob Manfred are just as much to blame for all this as are the Astros. And if nothing is done about this then the integrity of this game goes out the window. Punishment SHOULD FIT THIS CRIME and if not , then I lost all respect for MLB and as the Bible indicates…’woe to the those who put money and greed over doing what is right and good and going by the laws.’
Right Paul,
Just like everything else that goes on in MLB, nothing will be done. If anything, just a slap on the hand, as they did with the Steroid and PED abusers. The culprits will still have their millions, and life fat, dumb, and happy with their pockets full of “Green”. The Fans are once again the innocent victims of a fraud called “Major League Baseball”.
Money and greed have corrupted and destroyed the once great game of baseball.
Great post, and and as they might say,’it’s only cheating if you get caught’. but that too is not right. Yeah, it’s that ‘bottom line’ which dictates and corrupts everything going on in MLB.
Did Bellinger really deserve MVP?
He had a great season, but totally tanked in second half, and in playoffs. A real MVP should have the ability to carry his team through the playoffs, although a lot of his downfall could be attributed to the unstable offensive lineup. When your teammates do not do their job, the opposing pitchers have a distinct advantage. The person in front, as well as following, your big bat have to protect their money-man…. With the lineup changing day-to-day, Bellinger was unable to get the edge on the pitcher, and he ended up picking up some bad habits at the plate, in the process.
IMO, he does not deserve MVP honors. After failing in the playoffs, he should be embarrassed to accept the award.
I mentioned this about the continuous shuffling of lineups and positions during the year as a real problem that would get exposed in October and it did, which explains the early October exit. Roberts was clueless in understanding that the 5th place hitter must be an impact guy to protect Bellinger and often times, he would put Kiki or Beaty or other guys who had NO business batting 5th.
This MVP hits me like the whole Dodgers season hit me, total frustration. How can something that on the surface be exciting yet a closer look at it only yields head scratching and total frustration. The MVP award to Bellinger is really embarrassing, is the league that weak that a player that had a good first half and dismal second half really even be considered in the MVP voting? I think this league is starting to lose me.
True, I hear you.
NL MVP to Bellinger, you and I agree is a joke.
So, what about AL MVP? Trout for the dismal Anaheim Angels?
Don’t get me wrong…. both players, no doubt are very talented players, but did they do enough to help their team reach the ultimate goal? To me, an MVP is a player that can carry his team on his shoulders, and lead them to a championship. Numbers don’t mean squat, if you are sent packing on an early vacation, especially if you totally tank in the second half, or your team does not even make the playoffs. There are other awards that reward players for individual numbers, MVP should not be one of them.
Just as NL Cy Young going to DeGrom? He may be an excellent pitcher, but did he lead his team to a championship? Ryu had a better year, but because he did not have the wins, or innings pitched, he lost the award (no thanks to his teammates’ lack of Run support and pitching relief, and Manager, “Captain Hook’s” premature call the the dismal bull-#&@%-pen).
Awards season was a total disappointment, this year.
Yes Bluefan, both MVP awards are laughable, again, how bad is this league that these two won MVP BY DEFAULT!
The whole cheating scandal with the Astros is another sign of how poorly run this league is, when you throw in very poorly run “reviews” and absolutely nothing being done to deal with umpires and their extremely poor balls and strikes calling, it is really getting quite absurd. The only thing more absurd is fans filling up the stands for this nonsense, what a poor product is now being produced by the MLB.
Well said, True,
It all boils down to “Accountability”. There is absolutely no “accountability“ for cheating, bad umpiring, PED/Steroid use, lackluster performance, domestic violence/abuse, to name a few. MLB fails to maintain the integrity of the game, in favor of billions in revenues. Players get fined (Barely enough to make a dent in their enormous bank accounts), and where does the money go?… right into MLB executive’s pockets. Barely a slap on the hand, or giving in to player/agent outrageous contract demands.
It is appalling.
I have said similar about guys like Trout getting the MVP when he wasn’t even around for a full season AND he not only appears willingly to waste his prime years but obviously his team FAILED to even sniff the PS yet again, amazing. Trout is a great player but MLB treats him as if he is God himself.
MVP is voted on before the playoffs. Had they waited, it might have gone to Rendon. But the writers felt Bellinger contributed enough to get the trophy. The Brewers went on a tear after Yelich went down and nearly made it without him. So, is he the MVP? Rendon clearly was someone the Nats could not have won without. As for the Stros cheating, we all know the people who will end up getting fined or suspended will not be at the top of the food chain. The two people named as the most likely culprits are Beltran and Cora, both now MLB managers. Cora was the coach and according to initial reports, Beltran was struggling and asked for help, so the system was installed. Beltran retired after the series and Cora went to Boston. In my eyes, the blame lies with ownership and the FO. If they approved the subterfuge, they should be the ones getting the punishment. On another topic, Kenta Maeda is unhappy with the way the Dodgers are using him. According to reports, Kenta wants to be a starter period. Part of this has to be because of the incentives written into his deal. The last couple of years he has really had no shot at reaching them. Also according to reports, the Dodgers made an effort to restructure his contract, but they could not reach an agreement. For his part, AF said that if Kenta wants to be in the rotation permanently, he needs to up his game. I think he has a point. Many times when Maeda has started a game I have noticed that he does not attack the strike zone the same way he does when he comes out of the pen. He tends to nibble. And it gets him into trouble.
You are right, Micheal,
Luckily for Bellinger, his petering out in the second half had little impact, because the Dodgers had the West practically won already.
Astros FO should be punished, but probably will not happen. I feel that the team should be fined and possibly disbanded, but you know that is not going to happen. In MLB, you cannot cry over spilled milk. Egregious violations are just swept under the rug, hoping everyone would just forget about it. Shame on MLB. It is very hard to make offenders accountable in the MLB. FO and Owners who condone cheating do not belong in MLB. Players are just big, overpaid babies, who will do anything they can get away with…. childish behavior that will continue, until the guys that sign the paychecks take responsibility for their teams’s actions, and reprimand them when needed. Just like kids…. as long as they can get away with it, they will go as far as they can take it.
You are so right about Maeda. I knew that his incentive ladden contract would soon hit a sore spot, as Kenta’s loss of revenues due his devotion to the team’s wishes, have resulted in nothing more than post season meltdowns. I also think his weaknesses as a starter are primarily due to the team’s lack of support. When a pitcher gets no run support, and the team blows so many scoring opportunities, any pitcher would try to do too much, and end up making mistakes instead of, as you said, attack the batters with his best stuff. When a pitcher tries to do too much, he ends up “throwing” instead of “pitching”. In addition, how many times have the pitchers even outhit the Impotent offense, in desperation of trying to get some offense started? Players from Nippon Baseball League have to learn the hard way, that being a baseball player in America is a different animal. “Me” always trumps “We”. There is no “WE” in American baseball. That is where the game of baseball is lost in America. It is no longer a “Team” sport. You sacrifice, for the good of the team, and you get nothing but criticism in return.
Wish there was an easy answer, but the problems are way to big…. way over our heads, that is for sure. But, as long as the Fans keep turning the turnstiles, there is really no reason why MLB would want, or need to change things.
More and more information coming out about the Astros sign stealing scandal. Now it seems the whole thing was suggested by one of the Stros executives. This kind of crap chaffs my ass. I get so sick and tired of people messing with the game I have loved all my life. And it has been going on for years. All the new stats, PED’s, cheating, unbalanced schedule, the entire thing has taken some of the luster off of the game. The money grabbing owners, no loyalty to an organization, but that is understandable with the money you can earn jumping ship. Going to a game for the most part is out of the question for me, so I enjoy it from my easy chair. And MLB.TV is cheaper than going to a single game. People can spend as much money on a seat for one game as I spend to watch the entire season. At least the Hot Stove keeps us somewhat entertained in the off season. But there is a lot of angst too. Waiting to see if AF does anything to improve the team. Oh well, all will reveal itself before spring training and we will finally have some clue as to what the 2020 version of the Dodgers will look like.
I’m with you Michael…. you’ve seen my rants, I’m sure. Really sad. Baseball was such a great game, but money and greed have destroyed it. I too, just listen…. no TV unless national broadcast. No attending games anymore either, unless I get free tixs.
I’m glad I am not an “enabler”. I refuse to spend my money on such corruption, selfishness, and disregard for the faithful fans.
I do not expect anything dramatic coming out of the Dodger camp this off season. I think it will be business as usual for Friedman. No major additions, some tweaks to the pen and the bench maybe. But nothing earth shattering like Cole or Rendon.