Luhnow and Hinch fired by Astros; Cora Out in Boston, Beltran Out in NY

[craigharmann]

I don't really care about the cheating at all, but I'm absolutely devastated if this means Trevor Bauer was actually right about something

 

I'm still thinking the "buzzer" thing is fake though.

 

Agreed. Trevor Bauer is a moron, and yes, the "buzzer" thing is fake. As said by MLB.

[MrTPlush]

I don't really care about the cheating at all, but I'm absolutely devastated if this means Trevor Bauer was actually right about something

 

I'm still thinking the "buzzer" thing is fake though.

 

Agreed. Trevor Bauer is a moron, and yes, the "buzzer" thing is fake. As said by MLB.

 

This isn't true, they simply found no evidence of it. Which is very far from saying it is fake in an investigation greatly aided by what players were willing to tell them.

[tmwiese55]

Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet but a couple things that wires and things under the jersey are legit for would be when players are "miked up" for the game and body sensor information tracking stuff. Just things that have popped in my head as people on twitter try to obsess over small budges in guys jerseys. Obviously, they've never seen the Curb "pants tent" episode either

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Why would a buzzer need wires? LOL There would be absolutely no reason to wear a wire to operate wireless technology. The photos of Bergman are pretty obviously confetti and his necklace.

[MrTPlush]

I am really just hoping my favorite Astro is not involved in any capacity...Orbit.

[wntrtxn21]

Why would a buzzer need wires? LOL There would be absolutely no reason to wear a wire to operate wireless technology. The photos of Bergman are pretty obviously confetti and his necklace.

 

Great point! It puts the senseless rumor to bed for good.

[homer]

Why would a buzzer need wires? LOL There would be absolutely no reason to wear a wire to operate wireless technology. The photos of Bergman are pretty obviously confetti and his necklace.

 

depends on the wireless technology. I use wireless microphones all the time. The mic is on a wire connected to the receiver.

[TURBO]

The photos of Bergman are pretty obviously confetti and his necklace.

 

Obviously? I wouldn't go that far.

 

To me, it is obviously a wire taped down. It doesn't even look debatable.

 

For a necklace, it's too thin.

 

The tape is skin tone, which would make sense, all the better to hide it.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

The photos of Bergman are pretty obviously confetti and his necklace.

 

Obviously? I wouldn't go that far.

 

To me, it is obviously a wire taped down. It doesn't even look debatable.

 

For a necklace, it's too thin.

 

The tape is skin tone, which would make sense, all the better to hide it.

 

It isn't skin tone. It's gold. Look at some of the other photos. It is 100% obvious when you see the additional pics.

 

Pretty solid evidence:

[xisxisxis]

The photos of Bergman are pretty obviously confetti and his necklace.

 

Obviously? I wouldn't go that far.

 

To me, it is obviously a wire taped down. It doesn't even look debatable.

 

For a necklace, it's too thin.

 

The tape is skin tone, which would make sense, all the better to hide it.

 

It isn't skin tone. It's gold. Look at some of the other photos. It is 100% obvious when you see the additional pics.

 

Pretty solid evidence:

Yeah the GIF on that link indicates it's gold confetti. The thin "wire" is a necklace he has on. you can see it moving around in the GIF when he removes the confetti.

[HarveysWBs]

Back and to the left, back and to the left.

 

January is such a brutal month for baseball, we’ll do anything for news. One month until spring training!

[RollieTime]

I wonder what this will do to offensive statistics this year. With everyone paranoid about sign stealing and complaints about the juiced ball, it could be an ugly year for offense in MLB.

 

This is what I’m going to be watching as well. Astros went from a team that went from striking out the most in the league or close to it, to striking out the absolute least the last few seasons. And that change basically happened overnight. I know they made personnel changes along the way, but it’s something I am going to keep a close eye on.

 

Just look at the Red Sox when they could no longer use that video monitor after the season they won the World Series. They didn’t even make the postseason this past year. Pretty telling in my opinion.

 

Could you explain why the Sox weren't allowed to use the monitor last season? I haven't heard or seen that yet. I agree it seems very telling though. Thanks in advance.

 

After the 2018 season, MLB started mandating league personnel to monitor the video replay room during the game to prevent teams from being able to watch the monitor and decode the signs since it was the only video feed not on a delay.

 

This also brings me around to my own personal opinion that MLB knew this was going on and did nothing about it in terms of doing a proper investigation, handing out suspensions, or making it public until they were forced to by Fiers. Which is disappointing that Manfred tried to just sweep it under the rug.

 

He can’t get out of the commissioner’s chair fast enough.

[3and2Fastball]

It’s interesting being in mid January, and 3 teams need to hire managers. I wonder if Ron Washington will land with one of them.

[Oxy]

Pat Murphy was previously a finalist for the Mets job, no? CC has been doing this long enough now that he should be fine, but he sure leaned on Murphy his first coupla years, and it would be no fun to lose your security/comfort blanket.

[bill hAll Star]

My question is if the Astros were able to implement this stuff on the road.

 

Altuve's 2 insane batting average seasons involved him hitting much, much better on the road. Until I understand that one, I'm at "hold" on this theory.

[craigharmann]

My question is if the Astros were able to implement this stuff on the road.

 

Altuve's 2 insane batting average seasons involved him hitting much, much better on the road. Until I understand that one, I'm at "hold" on this theory.

 

The splits of 2017 for the Astros were crazy. I live in Houston. They were a far better road team than a home team, where they were "cheating". For what it's worth.

[homer]

My question is if the Astros were able to implement this stuff on the road.

 

Altuve's 2 insane batting average seasons involved him hitting much, much better on the road. Until I understand that one, I'm at "hold" on this theory.

 

The splits of 2017 for the Astros were crazy. I live in Houston. They were a far better road team than a home team, where they were "cheating". For what it's worth.

 

Why did you put cheating in quotes? They admitted to cheating.

[LouisEly]

This quote from Fiers was in the MJS article but apparently was in the original article in The Athletic:

 

"I just want the game to be cleaned up a little bit because there are guys who are losing their jobs because they're going in there not knowing. Young guys getting hit around in the first couple of innings starting a game, and then they get sent down. It's (B.S.) on that end. It's ruining jobs for younger guys. The guys who know are more prepared. But most people don't. That's why I told my team. We had a lot of young guys with Detroit (in 2018) trying to make a name and establish themselves. I wanted to help them out and say, "Hey, this stuff really does go on. Just be prepared."

 

What I infer from it is that he told his teammates first, not the Athletic. If true, Mendoza's claims don't hold any water and she's in a deeper hole.

 

Now, cue the conspiracy theories that this was orchestrated by the marginal veterans who were losing their jobs to younger, cheaper players.

 

And as for Fiers keeping his World Series share, I'm sure he had a lot of medical bills to pay for what his mother went through when Fiers was early in his career and not making much money. He didn't deserve that, so as far as I'm concerned he can keep his WS share as reimbursement for everything he went through with her. I'm sure that stress contributed to his poor performance in 2013 and getting sent down to the minors, which also cost him a lot of money in major league salary.

[tmwiese55]

Yea, but what about the ring?

 

Great post Louis. Once someone tells his new team of 25-35 people it's only a matter of time until it gets out

[patrickgpe]

It’s interesting being in mid January, and 3 teams need to hire managers. I wonder if Ron Washington will land with one of them.

If i were the astros, I'd let Espada be interim this year and see how it goes.

 

Red Sox could go safe and hire Roenicke, or the flashy, popular hire of Varitek.

 

No ideas what the mets would do, hopefully they don't hire Murphy at this late stage of the winter.

 

Hiring retreads like Washington or Showalter seems like such a bad idea, you might as well just go the interim route this year and relook at it next fall. One guy that is out there unemployed who i think would be a great manager is Loretta.

[3and2Fastball]

I wonder if Roenicke is a safe hire, considering that MLB is still investigating the 2018 Red Sox

[clancyphile]

This quote from Fiers was in the MJS article but apparently was in the original article in The Athletic:

 

"I just want the game to be cleaned up a little bit because there are guys who are losing their jobs because they're going in there not knowing. Young guys getting hit around in the first couple of innings starting a game, and then they get sent down. It's (B.S.) on that end. It's ruining jobs for younger guys. The guys who know are more prepared. But most people don't. That's why I told my team. We had a lot of young guys with Detroit (in 2018) trying to make a name and establish themselves. I wanted to help them out and say, "Hey, this stuff really does go on. Just be prepared."

 

What I infer from it is that he told his teammates first, not the Athletic. If true, Mendoza's claims don't hold any water and she's in a deeper hole.

 

Now, cue the conspiracy theories that this was orchestrated by the marginal veterans who were losing their jobs to younger, cheaper players.

 

And as for Fiers keeping his World Series share, I'm sure he had a lot of medical bills to pay for what his mother went through when Fiers was early in his career and not making much money. He didn't deserve that, so as far as I'm concerned he can keep his WS share as reimbursement for everything he went through with her. I'm sure that stress contributed to his poor performance in 2013 and getting sent down to the minors, which also cost him a lot of money in major league salary.

 

As far as I am concerned, Fiers is a guy who I would seek to bring aboard when he's a free agent after 2020.

[patrickgpe]

I wonder if Roenicke is a safe hire, considering that MLB is still investigating the 2018 Red Sox

 

that is true, i was talking more from a baseball point of view, i have no idea what he was involved with on the cheating front. From his time here, i'd be shocked if he was. Maybe it would be best for these teams to go completely outside the organization which is why these retreads are being interviewed.

[Lathund]

My question is if the Astros were able to implement this stuff on the road.

 

Altuve's 2 insane batting average seasons involved him hitting much, much better on the road. Until I understand that one, I'm at "hold" on this theory.

 

The splits of 2017 for the Astros were crazy. I live in Houston. They were a far better road team than a home team, where they were "cheating". For what it's worth.

 

Thee article linked below discusses the contents of the MLB report, including this regarding the cameras:

 

"The first revelation from MLB’s investigation is that the Astros were employing the live feed from the regular center field camera installed in every ballpark, rather than a custom-installed camera built into Minute Maid for the purposes of signal theft. The source of the camera is important because it means the Astros had the same video feed available on the road as they did at home; their sign-stealing was portable. (The only other element they needed was a way to signal the hitter at the plate, and according to MLB, they tried everything from whistling to yelling to the infamous trash can abuse. They could have employed another method for away games to be a little more discreet.)

 

The portability of the Astros’ scheme helps to shed some light on something I noticed in an article in November: several indicators of their plate discipline performance improved at the same time for both their home and road games, to historic and unprecedented degrees. MLB’s investigation makes no explicit mention of whether the Astros stole signs on the road, but the lack of any need to be at their home ballpark at least opens up that possibility."

 

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/56411/astros-sign-stealing-hinch-luhnow/

 

But I guess your singling out of Mike Fiers makes more sense now that you seemingly don't even seem to believe they're cheating, judging by the quotation marks. I can't quite fathom the reaction that after a big cheating scandal breaks, people are more upset about the person who revealed it than about the cheating. Of course Fiers could have spoken out about it sooner, but to be more upset at him than the people who *didn't speak out at all* is absurd.

[craigharmann]

My question is if the Astros were able to implement this stuff on the road.

 

Altuve's 2 insane batting average seasons involved him hitting much, much better on the road. Until I understand that one, I'm at "hold" on this theory.

 

The splits of 2017 for the Astros were crazy. I live in Houston. They were a far better road team than a home team, where they were "cheating". For what it's worth.

 

Thee article linked below discusses the contents of the MLB report, including this regarding the cameras:

 

"The first revelation from MLB’s investigation is that the Astros were employing the live feed from the regular center field camera installed in every ballpark, rather than a custom-installed camera built into Minute Maid for the purposes of signal theft. The source of the camera is important because it means the Astros had the same video feed available on the road as they did at home; their sign-stealing was portable. (The only other element they needed was a way to signal the hitter at the plate, and according to MLB, they tried everything from whistling to yelling to the infamous trash can abuse. They could have employed another method for away games to be a little more discreet.)

 

The portability of the Astros’ scheme helps to shed some light on something I noticed in an article in November: several indicators of their plate discipline performance improved at the same time for both their home and road games, to historic and unprecedented degrees. MLB’s investigation makes no explicit mention of whether the Astros stole signs on the road, but the lack of any need to be at their home ballpark at least opens up that possibility."

 

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/56411/astros-sign-stealing-hinch-luhnow/

 

But I guess your singling out of Mike Fiers makes more sense now that you seemingly don't even seem to believe they're cheating, judging by the quotation marks. I can't quite fathom the reaction that after a big cheating scandal breaks, people are more upset about the person who revealed it than about the cheating. Of course Fiers could have spoken out about it sooner, but to be more upset at him than the people who *didn't speak out at all* is absurd.

 

 

They cheated, yes. But every team is doing it. This does not solely lie with the Astros. Same as PEDs. There were guys on every team doing it, not just the stars.