2K21 - Houston Astros

[Teenwolf]

I found this video clip of the Astros stealing signs pretty interesting. Looks like straight up cheating to me.

[Hornsby]

[Sour Masher]

I imagine there will be serious consequences for this. Should be anyway. I'm surprised it took this long for this to come to light.

[TranaGreg]

I find this thing really bizarre. Players get traded and released - of course this was going to come out. Unless they had seriously legaled this over with NDAs ... which would present its own questions. I'm looking forward to seeing more details on the whole thing.

[Teenwolf]

I would LOVE to hear the thoughts of a former Astros executive from the 2017 team. If only someone like that posted on RJ...

[TranaGreg]

I would LOVE to hear the thoughts of a former Astros executive from the 2017 team. If only someone like that posted on RJ...

yeah, but the chances of that happening are about as good as the chances of Bernie ... oh wait, never mind ...

[onejayhawk]

I would LOVE to hear the thoughts of a former Astros executive from the 2017 team. If only someone like that posted on RJ...

who did not have restrictive NDAs in place.

Perhaps there isn't, but it would be indiscreet.

J

[Ken]

I would LOVE to hear the thoughts of a former Astros executive from the 2017 team. If only someone like that posted on RJ...

This is why we can't have nice things

[the heat]

I don't know why MLB can't use electronic technology on the field.
Give the catcher & pitcher ear pieces, let the dugout call the pitches...done. It works in football for calling plays.

That'll reduce mound visits from the catcher & from the dugout.

I don't see a downside.

[madducks]

I don't know why MLB can't use electronic technology on the field.
Give the catcher & pitcher ear pieces, let the dugout call the pitches...done. It works in football for calling plays.

That'll reduce mound visits from the catcher & from the dugout.

I don't see a downside.

I think that most pitchers and catchers can call a better game than the manager or pitching coach. I also believe that most mound visits are just a stalling tactic to give the bullpen pitcher more time to warm up.

[Teenwolf]

I don't know why MLB can't use electronic technology on the field.
Give the catcher & pitcher ear pieces, let the dugout call the pitches...done. It works in football for calling plays.

That'll reduce mound visits from the catcher & from the dugout.

I don't see a downside.

I don't see it reducing mound visits at all, as the impact of mound visits are primarily pitcher rest, and strategizing. There will still be an advantage to utilizing mound visits from both catcher and manager.

I would say give pitcher and catcher headset mics to call the game, continue to enforce mound visit limits, and make the managers continue using signs.

The cheating would be prevented by headsets, unless there was some way they could be hacked. With so many examples of sign stealing and cheating at this point, the blue Jay's man in white, the Yankees had some accusation against them, Red Sox and apple watches, the Astros... it runs deep and needs to be addressed.

[Teenwolf]

The evidence appears to be substantial.

Man, I was able to forgive baseball for the steroid thing. I felt that the pressure they were under to perform made them do something that they saw as making people happy... I dunno. I just came to see it as "it is what is is", a product of the 90's. I wasn't willing to kill my nostalgia for the steroid era I grew up on. Now I'm a cynical adult and I think this is beyond traditional sign stealing, and beyond moral justification.

This level of cheating, and the magnitude that it skewed the results is staggering. It's like if the Patriots had played with those deflated balls on their own plays in every single home game instead of that one Super Bowl. Crazy stuff.

[Teenwolf]

Holy shit! Kevin Goldstein, say it ain't so! Apparently he was the scouting executive who threw out the initial center field camera idea, apparently to mixed response among the Astros scouting department.

I used to love the hell out of the old Baseball Prospectus podcast with Kevin Goldstein and Jason Grey. So funny and endearing, and insightful commentary. I guess he found the new moneyball, and it was banging on a trashcan. I'm sure his commentary in a documentary on the topic would be fascinating.

At the end of the day, cheating has a long standing tradition in baseball. Pine tar, vaseline, sandpaper, steroids, corked bats, sign stealing, it's all kind of "whatever you can get away with". Just like with steroids, until the rules drastically change you won't see the cheating disappear. I think this case is significant enough that they need to take those steps.

[madducks]

[revo]

Wowza - AJ Hinch & Jeff Luhnow each suspended for an entire year!

The Astros also will lose their 1st and 2nd rd picks in '20 and '21 and be fined $5m.

Former exec Brandon Taubman, who was fired in a separate scandal after screaming at female journalists "Thank God we got Osuna," was permanently banned from MLB.