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MLB announces Astros penalties


Jose Abreu

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6 hours ago, Quin said:

Depending on what MLB finds, Hinch and Lunhow should probably be banned, especially when you take into consideration how much worse this is for the sport compared to Pete Rose or the Black Sox.

As for the players, that's gonna be trickier. What works in favor of that argument is that supposedly, some players declined the help. Redditors went through the game Farquhar caught the Astros in and the players that got trash can bangs included Bregman, Correa, Altuve, Beltran, Gattis, and Springer. 

Wait...are you saying this is worse than throwing a World Series?

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4 minutes ago, Quin said:

At this point, over the course of three seasons? Yah. Especially with the 2017 World Series now in question.

No way, there is still an unknown. The quality of the pitch, the location, that they only get signs for one pitch.

That's way different than a predetermined outcome.

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7 minutes ago, bmags said:

No way, there is still an unknown. The quality of the pitch, the location, that they only get signs for one pitch.

That's way different than a predetermined outcome.

Thousands of pitches*

I'm thinking of the draft standings this affected, teams that might have missed the playoffs due to this, playoff outcomes altered, players who might have missed bonuses based on performance, rookies who got shelled through no fault of their own (like Fiers brought up), and the fact that this was organization sanctioned, not 7 players + 1 illiterate one who performed anyway.

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28 minutes ago, bmags said:

No way, there is still an unknown. The quality of the pitch, the location, that they only get signs for one pitch.

That's way different than a predetermined outcome.

It's actually more than 1 pitch.

They were doing 2 knocks for changeup

1 knock for breaking ball

No knocks for FB

They essentially removed half of the offensive side of the game.  This is just what we know after less than a day.  I am SURE they had a system on the road too.

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1 hour ago, bmags said:

Wait...are you saying this is worse than throwing a World Series?

You're right. Throwing the World Series is worse. But cheating to take away from the honesty of the sport is serious. I'm not naïve. There's always a certain amount of cheating in sports, but there has to be limits.  Fans need to know games are as honest as possible. 

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34 minutes ago, BackDoorBreach said:

It's actually more than 1 pitch.

They were doing 2 knocks for changeup

1 knock for breaking ball

No knocks for FB

They essentially removed half of the offensive side of the game.  This is just what we know after less than a day.  I am SURE they had a system on the road too.

Thanks, missed this.

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12 minutes ago, NWINFan said:

You're right. Throwing the World Series is worse. But cheating to take away from the honesty of the sport is serious. I'm not naïve. There's always a certain amount of cheating in sports, but there has to be limits.  Fans need to know games are as honest as possible. 

To be clear, I think it's serious too. I have been saying that we could expect a punishment as serious as Atlanta received.

Frankly, it's hard to see how that would not serve as a precedent, because while serious in itself in that it may have seriously injured some other teams international pools - it's hard to believe that if they find Luhnow knew of this system (har har) that he wouldn't be in deep. I think it may be very likely he is forced out of baseball. That's a big deal.

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29 minutes ago, bmags said:

To be clear, I think it's serious too. I have been saying that we could expect a punishment as serious as Atlanta received.

Frankly, it's hard to see how that would not serve as a precedent, because while serious in itself in that it may have seriously injured some other teams international pools - it's hard to believe that if they find Luhnow knew of this system (har har) that he wouldn't be in deep. I think it may be very likely he is forced out of baseball. That's a big deal.

Luhnow could go from guy who was burned by someone caught hacking into his system to a guy who allowed his organization to cheat electronically and got caught.   Crazy swing in a decade 

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Some of the 1919 White Sox players were offered bribes by gamblers to "throw" the Series.

In contrast, the alleged Houston scheme may have involved individuals other than the players..perhaps even those that were within the Houston organization.

Any cheating is unacceptable, but I have to say, the covert use of technology to fool fans brings cheating to another level. 

I think that MLB should take steps to prevent electronic surveillance and communications to pitchers and catchers during at bats, in whatever form.

On a somewhat unrelated issue, I am in favor of transitioning to some form of electronic strike zone to take the home plate umpire out of every ball and strike call. It seems crazy to me that we have replay review of selected calls on the field  but home plate umpires are calling balls and strikes on pitches that are arguably one inch inside or outside the strike zone.   IMO, it  seems humanly impossible for a home plate umpire to gauge whether a sinker dives down prior to crossing the plate or not.

 

 

Edited by tray
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Talk about amazing timing. One of two teams that would be an annual threat to the Sox rise in the AL (yankees other obviously) is going to potentially get penalized and will be under the radar in a MAJOR way the next season or two. I would imagine the team BA goes down at least 10% next season and Free Agents are definitely going to think twice about going there if they care about the optics. While I doubt MLB comes down too hard, this can only help out the Sox over the next 3-4 competitive seasons.

Also...Screw the Astros - glad they lost this season and I have lost massive respect for their success. 

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Many fans like to look at MLB in a idealized way. Players are supposed to love the game, and it is supposed to be pure competition. The industry loves to push that image, too. Unlike the 1919 Black Sox scandal, this new scandal should mean a real investigation and real action.

Astro fans had to put up with years of losing, and now they have this. This was just stupid. Houston had a talented team; I don't know how much of this cheating helped them in the long run. Heads should roll.

 

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3 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

Luhnow could go from guy who was burned by someone caught hacking into his system to a guy who allowed his organization to cheat electronically and got caught.   Crazy swing in a decade 

Yep, good point.

 

Also they should give the white sox all the astros draft picks.

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44 minutes ago, scs787 said:

What's kind of ironic is the Astros had a much better road record than home record. Shitty business that they obviously didn't need to be doing. 

We dont know what else they were doing. Obviously they arent banging trashcans and whistling on the road, but im sure they were exploring other options to cheat.

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This is bad. I'm one of the hosts in Houston on the Astros' flagship station, Sports Talk 790's morning show. I went off today about how bad this is and it's bullshit. Astros fans all say the same dumb shit. I don't like this at all. If the White Sox did this I'd be tearing them apart. Astros fans are just making stupid excuses or acting like it doesn't matter. 

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53 minutes ago, wsox05 said:

This is bad. I'm one of the hosts in Houston on the Astros' flagship station, Sports Talk 790's morning show. I went off today about how bad this is and it's bullshit. Astros fans all say the same dumb shit. I don't like this at all. If the White Sox did this I'd be tearing them apart. Astros fans are just making stupid excuses or acting like it doesn't matter. 

What do you expect from a fanbase that called Lunhow a genious for acquiring a wife beater? Or how they gave Guerriel a standing ovation after his Darvish taunting and racist comments? They are the worst, not sure if its a geolocation thing or what.

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