Houston Astros scandal

[pinstripers]

MLB punishments for #astros: One-year suspensions for GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch. Loss of 1st/2nd round picks in 2020 and ’21. $5M fine.

[pinstripers]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28476780/astros-jeff-luhnow-aj-hinch-fired-sign-stealing

[Cdizzle]

So, no significant punishment. That's a deterrent to cheat to zero MLB franchises.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

So, no significant punishment. That's a deterrent to cheat to zero MLB franchises.

Two 1 year suspensions for key personnel in the organization
Loss of 1st/2nd round draft picks the next two years
Former employee on the "ineligible list"

Seems pretty significant to me. That just IMO.


The icing on the cake is when they both got fired 15 minutes after the suspensions were announced.

[Cdizzle]

Two 1 year suspensions for key personnel in the organization
Loss of 1st/2nd round draft picks the next two years
Former employee on the "ineligible list"

Seems pretty significant to me. That just IMO.


The icing on the cake is when they both got fired 15 minutes after the suspensions were announced.

I agree they didn't do nothing. I just feel like every franchise would trade these punishments for a WS title in a heartbeat. Nobody gives a crap who your manager was.

[pinstripers]

Seems to me that it is very significant.........but it's not enough

[1972Shocker]

Not sure I totally understand everything about this but it seems to me the most guilty parties skated without any accountability. And why would Houston not be required to vacate their 2017 World Series title and every player and coach that knew about this required to return their World Series financial shares and rings.

Not sure I agree with Cdizzle that there was no significant punishments but it does seem like they were perhaps not properly directed and perhaps not broad enough.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

I see where youre coming from. From that perspective, youre not wrong from a suspension risk/reward. IMO I think the cheater stigma is enough to to make the suspension “Enough” however I wont argue about any pessimism because... you’re probably right in the long run.

On my phone and dont want to be bothered quoting.

MLB stated they went after people of authority specifically rather than specific individuals (Like the players doing the actual relaying)

Personally, Im cool with that. I think of it more like Manfred is sending a message to teams that hes holding those responsible for “clubhouse culture” to the fire on it.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Of course whether thats true or not, remains to be seen

[Cdizzle]

"It will scare employees of MLB teams from cheating, at least for a while," one high-ranking executive said, "and the man who owns the team gets to enjoy his ring. He gets off lightly and can start with a clean slate."

This refrain was common inside the game, and it came with a question that was rhetorical-but-not-really, one that illustrated how Jim Crane won the day that his franchise lost. How many owners in baseball would trade $5 million, four high draft picks and the firing of their GM and manager in exchange for a World Series title?

Twenty-five? Twenty-eight? All 30? "I don't know that I would," one team president said, "but I don't know that I wouldn't." It was an honest answer. The decisions made in search of championships, in service of winning, are complicated. Right and wrong blur. It's why Manfred chafes at the complaints of owners. How many are being honest about what they'd do in that same scenario?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28477741/why-anger-boiling-scenes-houston-astros-sign-stealing-punishments

I guess I'm just too much as a pessimist, as ASM pointed out. I can't imagine a single owner wouldn't make that trade in a heartbeat. This article did provide a little interesting insight into what Manfred was navigating though.

[Kung Wu]

How many owners in baseball would trade $5 million, four high draft picks and the firing of their GM and manager in exchange for a World Series title?

A World Series?!? I'd fire their asses and throw them under the bus and then run over them and then back up and run over them again for a World Series!! The average baseball team is worth over $1.5 BILLION. Think what a championship would do to your valuation! Hell the players share way more than $5m just for winning the darn thing. You gotta drop all the way down to the 12th highest paid player on the Houston Astros to find an annual salary at or below $5m. $5m is chump change in this business. And screw the draft picks, use the windfall to buy more proven talent.

Not only would you run those two guys over, you would pay $2m each in bonuses to their replacements just so you can do it all over again to THE NEW GUYS -- but with a slightly less guilty conscience! Lets go!

[Shox The Revenant]

So it wasn't Yu Darvish tipping his pitches in the NLCS. Makes sense now.

[Kung Wu]

FWIW I went all-in on a bluff with my integrity back in the 2016 election when I voted for Trump, and got lucky that nobody had a better hand. So while I still have it, I am not beyond putting my entire life's worth of integrity into the pot from time to time.

Houston's valuation has gone from $800 Million in 2015 to $1.8 Billion today.

$5m and ruin a couple careers? Cheap!!

[pinstripers]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28482487

[pogo]

In an interview I believe EW said that sign stealing was rampant in college ball. Will the recent ruling by mlb have any affect on ncaa scrutiny of this or can we just assume that the ncaa will be right on top of it like they always are.