Look at Ray Ray Run

I remember saying it would only get worse and some were optimistic. The Bulls were significantly worse than they actually showed early on, and as competition has improved and teams stopped missing countless bunnies things have only gotten worse. The defense is trash and the offense has one + player on the entire unit. Even Lavine still takes a lot of terrible shots, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he's forcing the issue because he's surrounded by garbage. I can't believe anyone thought Lauri was any good, and I don't want to hear about how he's "bounced back." He's a bad defender who can't really finish around the basket in traffic and isn't even a great shooter in the modern game for a big; he's a solid one. White is the one of the worst shooters in the NBA between 14-19 feet, but he's offended that the Bulls asked him to please stop shooting from that distance. This is a common theme too - the organization leadership has no respect amongst the players. The Bulls aren't the only team in the NBA trying to rid the mid-range jumper from all their games, but they're one of the only organizations whose players are not buying in and don't trust the Bulls.

I'd call 50 games significant playing time, FTR. He had been hurt two years in a row post 30.

Two years ago people were asking if Donaldson's career was over. He had to take a pillow contract to hopefully get paid this time around. Nothing that led people to be concerned about donaldson (age and health history) has changed from that question two years ago. Donaldson is an exciting and talented player who is really close to his career cliff. Maybe he is great next year, but I have a feeling this wont age well.

This guy is something else. Love it.

Or if Polanco reverts back, or Garver doesnt duplicate, or Kepler goes back to 20 HR Kepler. I am not sold on the collective career years of the Minnesota Twins last year. I think Cleveland is the team to beat and I think the Twins will be the most disappointing team in MLB this upcoming season. Donaldson and Cruz are old guys who were banged up a lot in their career. One or both can't be counted on for full season. I don't buy the Power Surge 100% from Kepler and Polanco. I could be way off and they could duplicate last year but I'm not betting on it.

The twins had obvious holes in the rotation with a really solid base of position player talent. It's an odd allocation of resources and a poor one for a team that never spends.

That weasel agent and his multiple teams over 100 million.

I mean, he's probably 2.5 wins better than what they would have thrown out there.

Hes 34 years old and has been banged up. They just gave him 4 years. Last year he wasnt worth more than 1 year. I'll go on record to say he has 1 1/2 decent years and 2 1/2 injured or bad. Not sure on the order.

Why?

2 of their wins were by 1 run though. Houston also won in 7 games vs the Yankees in the ALCS.

I can tell you with certainty that it did not have a negative impact on the Astros by any means.

Again, they won in game 7 of the World Series; I have no idea why you continue to insinuate with such certainty that they would have won regardless. The degree by which they became champions was minuscule and any benefit they gained by cheating clearly had an impact on the outcome.

Well actually no, that's not at all what it was. He repeatedly harassed the reporter over the course of the year while she was simply trying to do her job and support a cause she was passionate about. This wasn't some one off situation. Osuna is a piece of garbage who beat his wife; the Astros not only embraced his actions, but attacked those who wanted to remind the world of his actions. Harboring and supporting his actions is every bit as harmful and dangerous as the act itself.

No way. Rosenthal is the one who got to this story in the first place. Rosenthal is the best reporter in all of the athletic world; I give him the nod over Woj. Passan has done a nice job, but he hasn't surpassed the GOAT. He didn't praise Russell's choices, or downplay his actions, as much as he applauded taking accountability and not giving fake ass apologies.

The White Sox need not act naive or oblivious to this - it was not some big secret. Hell, I know about it and knew about it before Bauer said anything. How? Because the data is publicly available. l will say there wasn't a dramatic change in his spin rate in Atlanta, and most Houston pitchers have taken their increased spin rate with them when they went to new teams - meaning they likely took with them their learnings... which is exactly how this shit spreads from team to team. Keuchel isn't screwing anyone over anymore than the Braves screwed Ozzie Albies out of what he's actually worth; or anymore than the current arbitration process screws over young players. I'm not going to cry for ownership groups who have implemented a process that pays you less when you're more valuable. As I said, even if you chose not to cheat on some moralistic ground you will still benefit from cheating if you are a MLB player. It is happening all around you. What we view as an egregious act of cheating may be viewed in the game as common practice. You're asking one man to change a century of culture. You're asking one player to go against something that is better for his families future in the name of alturism. You are then judging a mans leadership under the guise that he didn't throw his entire team under the bus.

That's fine and all, but Balta is better off following another game/sport if he is this angry over every attempt to gain an edge. It's entrenched in the culture of the game, and it's never ever going away.

Balta, I'm going to break some very sad news to you based on how you view people who "cheat" in baseball. Since the beginning of time, a vast majority of players have participated in some form of cheating. The game has been defined by players searching for questionably minute edges that fall within the gray area of legality. Pitchers used to use spit, batters used greenies. Some players corked their bats, while others put a substance on their hat to get a better grip on the baseball. Some players went on to use steroids, while others used video technology to steal signs. One team stole data from another, while another lied about how much they were paying players so they could acquire more of them. The Braves weren't alone in that either as it was a widely known way of skirting the international rules. Some teams even went as far as to pay agents to smuggle players and then give them the upper hand in signing them - using force in SOME cases. Every single era of baseball has had some form of cheating/one-upping to gain a competitive edge. If you told me as a senior in college that if I took steroids, I would have been a guaranteed big leaguer - supporting my family for generations to come via my income - I would have taken steroids I think. I like to tell myself I wouldn't, and for the record I have turned them down when offered but that was because the benefit wasn't guaranteed for me; had I been on the fringe of MLB, I would have absolutely done whatever it took to provide for my family. You view all these things through some moralistic lens, but things are much foggier than the clear choice you are painting this as. Keuchel was provided a tool by the team to increase his production and value; greatly improving his families livelihoods and elongating his career, and from his side of things, everyone was doing it. Veterans, rookies, and coaching staffs were pushing and promoting it. Keuchel did what was not only best for his career and his future, but also what he felt gave him an even playing field with everyone else. This isn't as simplistic as I don't cheat... these aren't decisions you've ever had to make in your life. I am not arguing that breaking the rules is OK, but I am certainly arguing that one voice speaking out against a culture of one-upsmaniship, in which everyone searches for questionable edges over their competition, was not going to change or do anything... and it doesn't make you a poor leader, it just makes you another player in the long line of players who did what they thought they had to do to maintain this life and to maintain this dream.

But where was the line? The perception was others are doing this too, we just have to do it better. The problem with this is it was very clearly cheating, but it fit in that gray area of "well, sign stealing is a part of the game." The pitchers on that team are also likely cheating by putting a substance on the ball to increase their spin rates. Bauer has broken this down, and others have insinuated this is 100% happening... Now similarly to above, illegal substances have been used by pitchers and betters for a century and players like excuse their actions and decisions by saying everyone does it. How can Keuchel or Verlander go to Hinch and say this abuse of sign stealing needs to stop while the pitchers were also cheating in some way?

Yes, and none of them said if Dallas Keuchel told me to stop, I would have stopped right away. Hinch was the boss; Keuchel was just a cog in the wheel and he couldn't make any change and I don't think it would be breaking news that most of the pitchers probably didn't think very highly of their cheating.

Again, a pitcher wasn't going to alter the decision making of 75% of the position players. A pitcher being unhappy with the process wasn't going to change a thing. If you believe the manager was already unhappy (I call BS, but that's what was reported) and he couldn't change it, as the boss, then I have no idea what you think Dallas Keuchel could have done.

Everyone. Knew. If you want to know how frowned upon it is to expose your fellow union brothers, look no further than Trevor Bauer. Bauer is pissed about cheating and has hinted at this for two years but he never ever named names, nor did he ever say what was happening. Guys around the league talk - this wasnt a big secret. Multiple teams, privately accused the Astros of this. Nothing happened. To think Dallas Keuchel could have been the leader of change is incredibly funny to me.

Come on; this is quite the reach. Those experiences and memories with his father were created win or lose, and using the death of some man to garner sympathy is a bit low. Again, speaking up publicly could very well have cost Keuchel or Fiers their MLB careers. There is much greater risk in this than you are proclaiming. Trust within a clubhouse are an integral part of ones team building; teams would rather employee a wife beater than someone who makes private things public. I get that's fucked up, but it's reality.

Fiers spoke up because it was the right thing to do, and I truly believe he saw young guys get destroyed and had watched the Darvish situation unfold and he had enough; sure, them rocking him probably gave him a little boost, but I trust and believe Fiers when he said the reason why he did what he did. Saying he was butthurt is the PR spin the Astros placed on this; similarly to Luhnow trying to blame low level employees. There really is a disconnect and separation between pitchers and position players in baseball. They are operated as two separate units, and anything from workouts/weights to drills are typically done as a unit and not as a full team. A pitcher really wouldn't have much power in this situation; however difficult that is to believe or understand. Also, what would Keuchel or Fiers be capable of doing? Hinch already is claiming he didn't like it (he's full of shit), and if he couldn't stop it despite not liking it as manager, what the fuck is Dallas Keuchel going to do? If you go public as a member of the team mid-season, you get blackballed from the league possibly.

Yeah, Frank wasn't going to out his teammates and he wasn't going to point fingers; he simply told us all that it was a huge issue before anyone else said a thing. Frank couldn't stand that players who were worse than him were putting up better numbers; he wasn't going to name names because these are fellow union members and there is an immense amount of pressure to not throw your fellow union members under the bus.