the cheating thread

How many bench-clearing brawls for the Astros this year? Assume teams will be coming for them.

yep it's gonna be a long year for Houston

lol

The Houston Astros and their 'handling' of the sign-stealing scandal has led some SoCal Little League groups to ban the team from their names. Like in Long Beach: 'Parents are disgusted ... with the Astros and their lack of ownership and accountability.' https://t.co/Ox49MKZjNP

— Brian Martin (@TheBMartin) February 14, 2020

The internet is undefeated...🤣💀 pic.twitter.com/uIj1wt1W3w

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) February 14, 2020

disappointing they don't play the Dodgers in the regular season but they do have a September series at Yankees Stadium which is probably gonna get pretty rowdy

I mean every Yankees fan probably believes 100% that the ALCS walkoff vs. Chapman was illegitimate

I was referring to the question about Crane taking personal responsibility for any of this. Whether he knew about the cheating or not, Manfred let him off the hook, and he can claim that the guilty parties have been punished. There's not a single owner in baseball that would admit to anything more if placed on the same situation.

The fact that he botched his message during his press conference is another thing entirely.

Fresh walk up music for Jose

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0P6zEU_G9v4

this is really not going well. manfred was super pissy today about media reporting on it

The Braves' organist can be pretty sassy with opposing-player walkup music -- last time I saw them it was against the Astros and he used both "It's a Small World" and the Muppet Show theme for Altuve. My money's on heavy use of "Bang the Drum All Day" when they play in September.

Only caught tweets of like every manfred answer at the press conference but every single one makes him sound like more of a scumbag

What a slippery little weasel

Selig was a different sort of transparent weasel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3LM2iQ8p7A

Carlos Correa has the Jesus lines^

I never in a million years thought I would ever miss Commissioner Bud Selig.

To be clear, I don't miss Commissioner Bud Selig. But I'm not sure he could have handled this crisis any worse.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) February 16, 2020

lol astros

Astros pitcher Francis Martes suspended 162 games without pay after testing positive for Boldenone, a performance-enhancing drug. He was previously suspended for a similar violation in March.

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) February 17, 2020

Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis has joined the chorus blasting the Houston Astros over their sign-stealing scandal, telling reporters "every single guy over there needs a beating."

"It's anger," Markakis told reporters of his reaction to the Astros' scandal and the ensuing response. "I feel like every single guy over there needs a beating. It's wrong. They're messing with people's careers."

Markakis did not elaborate on what would constitute a "beating." At least two pitchers have indicated that they would consider throwing at Astros batters, and William Hill sportsbook set an over/under of 83.5 for Houston hit-by-pitches in 2020, a number that would rank as one of the 10 highest in the previous five seasons.

that would be a fun over to put your entire life savings on

lol now lebron is weighing in

Love this Justin Turner quote: “Calling the World Series trophy a piece of metal, I mean, I don’t know if the commissioner has ever won anything in his life. Maybe he hasn’t. But the reason every guy is in this room, the reason every guy is working out all offseason and showing up to camp early and putting in all the time and effort is specifically for that trophy, which, by the way, is called the Commissioner’s Trophy. So for him to devalue it the way he did yesterday tells me how out of touch he is with the players in this game. At this point, the only thing devaluing that trophy is that it says ‘Commissioner’ on it.”

it's pretty crazy to see baseball players talking like this about the league, never seen that before

good turner quote.

i think the players' outspokenness is a combo of (obviously) the scale of what the astros did and their idiotic communications to the public afterward, the upcoming bargaining agreement negotiations, and (going out on a limb here) possibly a greater level of awareness of labor issues in general.

it is pretty wild

KM otm, i think it's just that teams work very hard to implement systems of signals and strategy and even when guys uh "organically" or "artisanally" try to steal a sign here and there they'll get a ball in and high next time up. or god forbid a guy should try to break up a no hitter with a certain type of hit.

also for the Astros to have a team-wide communications system means the gloves are really off now. other teams feel like they were totally duped by these guys.

it's not the conspiracy, it's the coverup

i think it was turner who also mentioned that a) teams having to constantly change signs/have meetings creates pace-of-play issues much bigger than intentional walks, and b) being a pitcher who ends up standing 55 feet away from a hitter who knows what's coming is fucking dangerous

when will the first Astros beanball game occur? Do they play Saturday?

does it count as a beanball if someone in the stands threw it?

home saturday vs the nats
split squad at the nats on sunday
full squad at the tigers on monday

interestingly they do not play the yankees -- guess the atlantic/gulf coasts are largely separate

i missed this

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28730745/frustration-mounts-rob-manfred-edict-protect-astros-beanballs

Some organizations might be aided by their own limitations. The video room at Oakland Coliseum resides a significant distance from the dugout, former Athletics pitcher Brett Anderson mentioned.

“I know the A’s weren’t cheating,” said Anderson, who signed with Milwaukee this winter. “Because, one, I don’t know if they could afford it. And to relay from fucking 300 yards away in the video room? What were we going to do, get some vendor to throw some popcorn up in the air, or something? It’s too fucking far to relay something.”

Anderson joked the only way for Oakland to communicate would be through the ballpark’s decaying infrastructure. “The lights go out, it’s a curveball,” Anderson said. “If there’s a sewage backup, it’s a fastball.”

haha that rules

Off-topic but it was SO WEIRD when both Anderson AND Trevor Cahill came back to the A’s in ‘18

lol xp

eat shit papi

Papi on Mike Fiers: "Why didn't you talk about it during the season when it was going on? Why didn't you say, I don't want to be no part of it? So you're looking like a snitch. Why do you have to talk about it after? Why did nobody say anything while it was going on?"

— Ian Browne (@IanMBrowne) February 20, 2020

stfu & go drink a milkshake papi

papi was a juicer so he's got to stand his ground

he does love baseball cards, though. he loves to sit at the kitchen table by himself and dream of baseball cards.

I agree with this take

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2020/2/26/21153495/houston-astros-sign-stealing-scandal-baseball-fan-interest

We are hooting and hollering every time a new baseball player goes in on the Astros. We are eager to debate which teams will bring down baseball’s newest menace. Why do you think my editor asked me, a football writer, to write about baseball? Because we can’t stop clicking on articles about baseball!

yeah 100% cosigned here too

no, this is not baseball itself

Baseball now has a team that everybody hates, and what a blessing it is.

i've found the seething bloodlust of the fans on reddit twitter etc mostly irritating and the opposing players leaning into it strikes me as empty theatrics. maybe i'm cynical but i'll never assume a pro athlete is above cheating to get an edge. one of the cool things about wrestling is that if you pay enough attention to all the behind the scenes bullshit you come to learn that even the most beloved faces are complete pieces of shit.

Listen the Red Sox are genuinely evil but I’m not sure I’d go so far as to label them baseball’s Cowboys

don't you have a gio urshela votive candle to be lighting

I probably should be tbh

hviii, u root for baseball's 1977 Oakland Raiders

righteous

BREAKING: #RedSox penalties:

*Loss of 2020 2nd-round pick.

*Ban of replay operator J.T. Watkins through 2020 playoffs and from doing same job in ‘21.

*Ban of Alex Cora through ‘20 playoffs, but only for conduct with #Astros.

Story with @EvanDrellich: https://t.co/6Ysn9hsRFa

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 22, 2020

"2020 playoffs"

what a joke

ya, that's pathetic.