It’s pretty clear the Astros cheated. It’s also evident that it’s a league wide issue. You can’t run an operation this wide open, with players moving in and out during free agency, and not know that it’s just how baseball operates. I’m ok with fans checking out because they oppose this morally, but it’s part of the game.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...ewed-as-part-of-astros-sign-stealing-scandal/ The league's Department of Investigation (DOI) will speak with current and former Astros employees, including players, sources said. To interview players, MLB first must notify the players' union. Union officials routinely sit in on such interviews, acting as representatives for the players. The league has already begun reaching out to people connected to the 2017 Astros, sources said. Before deciding on any potential penalties, baseball would need to determine if the Astros violated major league rules and whether the on-field personnel who stole signs acted with the knowledge and approval of the front office or operated on their own. "At this time MLB and the Astros are conducting an investigation," Cora told reporters, including the Boston Globe's Peter Abraham, on Thursday morning. "It would be irresponsible on my part to comment while it's going on."
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...s-red-sox-sign-stealing-investigation-expands Major League Baseball's investigation into illegal sign stealing is expected to expand beyond the 2017 Houston Astros and look into whether other teams, including the 2019 Astros, used technology to aid hitters, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN. The fallout from former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers telling The Athletic that the 2017 Astros used a center-field camera feed in a monitor near the dugout to steal and relay signs has rocked the sport and brought into question the methods used by people involved in at least the last three World Series, sources said. The initial stages of the investigation already have begun, sources said, with league personnel contacting people from both the Astros and Boston Red Sox organizations on Wednesday. The league is attempting to cull tangible evidence from the widespread paranoia of front offices and teams around the game about others cheating and has indicated it will consider levying long suspensions against interviewees who are found to have lied, according to sources. While there is considerable crossover between the 2017 and 2019 Astros teams, multiple witnesses who were not with the 2017 team are expected to be interviewed, sources said. Among those the league plans to interview in its investigation are Astros manager AJ Hinch, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran, according to sources. The three were part of the 2017 Astros championship team -- Hinch the manager, Cora the bench coach and Beltran a player. Their involvement in the investigation was first reported by The Athletic. MLB, sources told ESPN, spoke Wednesday with former Astros bullpen coach Craig Bjornson, who joined the Red Sox with Cora in 2018, the year they won a World Series. MLB also intends to interview former Astros assistant general manager Brandon Taubman, though he has retained a lawyer through whom he is communicating, according to sources. The penalties for illegal activity are determined by commissioner Rob Manfred, though if the league can prove wrongdoing, the severity could be unlike anything seen in the sport's recent history, sources said.
Seems like it’s generally acceptable to steal signs, but using technology to do so crosses the line. The Astros should be fined and rules should be implemented so that it doesn’t happen again in the future and that should be the end of it. Hopefully MLB won’t make Houston an example though. I could see the league coming down hard after the assistant GM fiasco and all the other bad press lately.
The heaviest penalty assessed to a team during Manfred's tenure was a $2 million fine and the forfeiture of two top draft picks by the St. Louis Cardinals in January 2017 for a scheme in which they stole scouting information from the Astros' computerized database. The Cardinals' scouting director, Chris Correa, was banned for life from the sport and went to prison. Former Atlanta Braves general manager John Coppolella was banned 10 months later for lying about the team's circumvention of international signing rules. The Red Sox in 2016 were barred from signing international players for a year after running afoul of the signing-bonus statutes. Different league but... On September 13, for the "use of equipment to videotape an opposing team’s offensive or defensive signals," Belichick was officially fined $500,000 — the largest fine ever imposed on a coach in the league's then-87-year history, and the maximum permitted under league rules. The Patriots were also fined $250,000, and stripped of their first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft; if the Patriots had missed the playoffs, they would have forfeited their second- and third-round selections instead. Goodell said that he fined the Patriots as a team because Belichick is effectively the team's general manager as well as head coach, and exercises so much control over the Patriots' on-field operations that "his actions and decisions are properly attributed to the club." Goodell considered suspending Belichick, but decided that taking away draft picks would be more severe in the long run. The NFL handed down one of its harshest punishments when Sean Payton was suspended for one year without pay, for his involvement in the team's bounty program. GM Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games and former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is out indefinitely. The Saints were also fined $500,000 and forfeited second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 NFL Drafts. So in the end, probably fines, possible suspensions and loss of draft picks.
Pretty remarkable to me that the Astros could be suspected so heavily around baseball, yet still managed to hide a camera in center field. It definitely happened, but how often is kind of up in the air.
I'm still not sure how only one opposing pitcher was able to pick up on this. Wouldn't it be completely obvious to any opposing pitcher to hear those drum beats whenever he's about to throw off-speed and then not hear it when he throws a fastball? This one opposing relief pitcher discovered it in a single at-bat. Yet, none of the others had any idea? That at least tells me that it couldn't have happened for every player in every at-bat.
shouldn't mean ****, just some BS posted in an article. 2017 the Red Sox were also caught and were fined. They also fined the Yankees for doing it in 2016. The precedence here is a fine. That's it. That's all. Unless they have proof of the Astros doing it in 2018 and 2019 then really, that's all they can and should do. A fine. Because that's the precedent they set for it at the time.
They don't think draft picks, fines, and suspensions will cover it? It needs to effect them in the W column? Whatever. I think it really depends on how much the other players talk, and I have a feeling they will get Beltran, Cora, and Taubman to talk with immunity. If they rat out the astros then they will not face any suspensions or fines. Baseball will get what they want and stop the Astros juggernaut.
I don't care if the Astros get punished. I care if the Astros are the only ones punished. The article states this is a league-wide issue (although the headline does its best to hide that) and they even mention that Beltran learned these techniques with a prior team. I wonder if all of these Yankees fans talking mess on Twitter will put two-and-two together that Beltran was with the Yankees both before and after the Astros.
It means that even though they found out that the Yankees were cheating in 2017 by using cameras to steal signs and leveed a fine on them, they're going to treat the Astros different because they aren't the leagues crown jewel.
Is it possible the Astros will not be punished? Reading this article from February suggests that MLB would punish teams for breaking the rules in 2019 and beyond. MLB had a chance to punish the Astros before the new rule and chose not to pursue it. http://www.si.com/mlb/2019/02/19/major-league-baseball-sign-stealing-rule-change
