It's been over a week since Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich blew the lid off Major League Baseball by publishing a report about the Houston Astros using a sophisticated system to steal signs from the catcher and a not so sophisticated way or relaying the signs to the hitter during the 2017 regular season. If you haven't yet go to the Athletic and read their reporting, they have a follow up story about telling their scouts to film signs when they are in opposing stadiums. After reading the article for on twitter and find @jomboy as he breaks down the at bat in 2017 that Rosenthal and Drellich use as a testimony from former White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar. The video is very damning. Since then there have been a few questions about the practice and I figured why not give my view on a couple parts of this. I haven't done much research aside from reading the original article and watching a couple ABs from Astros hitters from 2017 where you can hear the banging before a home run.
First question: Is it cheating? Yes, in my opinion it's cheating. You got a runner on 2nd, he picks up the signs and relays them to the hitter, that's gamesmenship, you put a camera in CF and have a guy bang a garbage can with no runners on base that's cheating. Sign stealing by humans is as old as baseball and part of the game. What the Astros did is over the line, you can't have that kind of system in place. An employee sitting there banging a garbage can watching a monitor in real time is cheating beyond cheating. The signs from a catcher to a pitcher are important for many reasons and one of the biggest is player and umpire safety, if a catcher isn't sure what pitch is coming he's in danger. Every watched a video of a catcher crossed up, it usually doesn't end well. Anyway so signs are a necessity and aren't going away. They must be protected, especially in this era where MLB limits how many times a catcher can talk to a pitcher in the middle of an inning.
Second question: Are the Astros the lone offenders? I doubt they are, but the Astros are maybe the most hated franchise in baseball at the moment and other clubs are willing to line up and speak out against their actions. The Astros from office isn't well liked for some of their practices (see ex: Osuna, Roberto) and I think other clubs were willing to let their players put their names on this report with repercussion just to make the Astros look bad. I'm not sure who else could have been doing it and I doubt we'll ever find out, the Red Sox were fined after 2017 for using Apple Watches to communicate during the game. One of my favorite games is wondering who is the worst team from 2017 to use this cheating method, like if the Giants or Tigers cheated their way to 64-98 records how funny would that be? Anyway I'm sure this story is far from over so in due time another team or 3 will be named.
Third question: What should be done? This is wear this get tough, what can MLB do to the Astros or any other club found to be cheating to this magnitude. The Red Sox were fined in 2017. Early word is the Astros could be fined 2 million dollars and draft picks, honestly drop in the bucket. 2 million is nothing to these teams, so I think MLB has to come down hard. They can't take the World Series title away, they aren't the NCAA. I think they have to come down on the faces of the franchise and I propose, 200 game suspension for AJ Hinch (the manager) and 3 year ban for Jeffrey Luhnow (the general manager). MLB has to show they take this seriously much like the NFL came down on the Saints after bounty gate. Hinch was feet away from the garbage can so you know he was aware of the system, and Luhnow is in charge of everything so he had to approve the scheme. I don't think you can go after the players but you can make an example of the team, and hopefully put an end to this.
That's it for this one, I'm looking forward to seeing what MLB does and if they find out more than the initial report. Either way it's a bad look for baseball and not what you want in the off season news cycle. Let me know your thoughts on twitter @derekbredeson or drop a comment. Hoping to keep doing a couple of these a month.
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