Astros Get the Signs of Suspension

[G-Fafif]

Hinch and Luhnow suspended for a year for their role in Houston's 2017 sign-stealing escapade. Cora to get something, too, for having coached the system in question.



No players, including Beltran, will be hit, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

[G-Fafif]

From the Athletic:

The penalties, according to sources with knowledge of Manfred's decision, include: • A one-year suspension for general manager Jeff Luhnow. • A one-year suspension for manager A.J. Hinch. • The forfeitures of first- and second-round draft picks in both 2020 and '21. • A fine of $5 million, the maximum allowed under MLB's constitution. • The placement of former Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman on baseball's ineligible list. On Nov. 12, The Athletic reported that the Astros stole signs during regular-season home games in 2017 with the aid of a center-field camera. The next day, The Athletic reported that Alex Cora, the team's bench coach at the time, was a mastermind of the team's sign-stealing scheme. Discipline for Cora will be determined after baseball completes its investigation of the Red Sox for separate sign-stealing allegations that occurred while Cora was the team's manager in 2018, as reported by The Athletic last week. No players were disciplined. MLB instead chose to issue penalties to those who were in positions of authority.

[LWFS]

I mean, it's not undeserved, but... yeesh. 4 top picks is MASSIVE. That's like a fine of tens-- or even hundreds-- of millions, potentially.



Given that precedent... you can't suspend Cora for LESS than a season now, can you?

[kcmets]

[FIMG=600]http://kcmets.com/CPF/bastards.jpg[/FIMG]

Them bastards at MLB hit us hard, George... HARD!!!

[seawolf17]

Alex Cora is going to get the hammer dropped on him in a serious way.

[G-Fafif]

Jim Crane has fired Hinch and Luhnow.

[Frayed Knot]

BAM!!!!

[LWFS]

Probably best for all the baseball people that the Nats took the Series last year, no?

[G-Fafif]

Playing in Washington allowed Nationals to become very familiar with ethically ambiguous behavior.

[smg58]

Wow, I figured they'd get a week. I have no problem with dropping the hammer, but the league had better be prepared to follow through if the situation turns out not to be unique.

[Frayed Knot]

=smg58 post_id=29629 time=1578948685 user_id=62]
Wow, I figured they'd get a week.

[bmfc1]

Carlos Beltran is the only player mentioned in the report. And he's all ours!

[Ceetar]

=G-Fafif post_id=29628 time=1578948482 user_id=55]
Playing in Washington allowed Nationals to become very familiar with ethically ambiguous behavior.

[nymr83]

I would have been fine with even more punishments, but this is fine. MLB flat out wrote a memo to the teams saying not to do exactly this and they kept doing it, they should have taken a page out of the NCAA punishment book with programs found to be flagrantly violating the rules and said "no postseason for 5 years"!

[bmfc1]

The Astros lost their 1st 2 draft picks for this draft and the next draft. They were supposed to pick 30th (last) in the 1st round so the 2d round starts one pick earlier this year (the Mets pick 19th).

[Guest 41Forever]

Interesting about Hinch, per Verducci:

Manfred hit Hinch with the third-longest suspension of a manager in baseball history. Only Pete Rose, banned in 1989 for life for gambling received a longer punishment. MLB found that while Hinch did not participate in or condone the infractions, it disciplined him for failing to stop them in a timely manner. The Astros stole signs for three months in the 2017 regular season before Hinch at least twice explicitly made known to the players he disapproved of the behavior by breaking the television monitor.

[Edgy MD]

The Mets really dodged some bullets in this. Not only has Carlos Beltran (so far) escaped punishment, but they also had long seen Alex Cora as managerial material and interviewed him before the Red Sox hired him. In fact, I think he and Mickey were hired on the same day.



Is this going to end up tainting the 2017 Astros championship and the 2018 Sox championship?



More importantly, I realize that in the age of President Trump, nobody has more than 10 minutes of foresight, but how do they not expect something like this to get out? Players' loyalties and interests change all the time.

[Ceetar]

my guess that they just figured since everyone does it no one would really make a big deal or a big punishment of it, much like amphetamines, or pine tar, or pretending to, or purposely getting hit by, baseballs to get one base.

[Edgy MD]

If everyone is doing it — and maybe they are — wouldn't this investigation have uncovered evidence to that effect? Dozens of players were interviewed. Wouldn't somebody have said, "And you should see what goes on in Arizona! Holy shit with those guys!"?

[Frayed Knot]

my guess that they just figured since everyone does it no one would really make a big deal or a big punishment of it, much like amphetamines, or pine tar, or pretending to, or purposely getting hit by, baseballs to get one base.

Except that this went WAY beyond any of those.

If a sport doesn't have its integrity then it has nothing, or it simply becomes a spectacle like WWE or a vehicle for gambling like, well, football*. And baseball doesn't lend itself very well to being a spectacle

or as a gambling sport.

As Al Davis used to say in a voice that betrayed his native Brooklyn: 'The opposing Quarterback must go down and he must go down hard'. Well the perpetrators of this scheme, as well as those

in charge who did nothing to stop it, must go down and they must go down hard.













Not that I think the NFL is corrupt or anything, although I'm always amazed by the number of football fans who believe it IS and yet continue to watch, follow, AND gamble on it anyway.

[Edgy MD]

So is José Altuve — who always seems to know what pitch is coming — still one of the best players on the planet?

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: If everyone is doing it — and maybe they are — wouldn't this investigation have uncovered evidence to that effect? Dozens of players were interviewed. Wouldn't somebody have said, "And you should see what goes on in Arizona! Holy shit with those guys!"?

that wasn't the focus of the investigation.



Logan Morrison did name other teams.

[LWFS]

When this happened a few years ago with the Sawx, the commish spelled out the exact nature of the violation, and heavily implied that the next violation involving technological aid would carry grave, GRAVE consequences, didn't he? So... why on earth would one expect a slap on the wrist here?



Cora installed the monitors in the dugout twice, once after Hinch pretty explicitly expressed displeasure with the move. So... wouldn't Cora's actions merit at LEAST a year of unpaid vacay here?

[smg58]

I have to think that Cora is getting at least two years out of this. Probably more, since he is more directly guilty than Hinch and has done it for two teams.



The onus is now on managers and GMs to out anybody they know is doing this. That is probably the only way to enforce this, but their jobs just got a lot harder.



So what do we do with Beltran, knowing he was a willing and active participant in this?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Beltran was unqualified to be a manager even without this scandal, so I think the Mets will leave him in place.

[seawolf17]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Beltran was unqualified to be a manager even without this scandal, so I think the Mets will leave him in place.

Exactly. Dealing with some of the shitheads in our fan base (present company excluded, natch) is punishment enough.


=Ceetar post_id=29638 time=1578962819 user_id=102]
my guess that they just figured since everyone does it no one would really make a big deal or a big punishment of it, much like amphetamines, or pine tar, or pretending to, or purposely getting hit by, baseballs to get one base.

[smg58]

I'm not sure winning Ottoneu once qualifies me...

[Ceetar]

Regardless, the commissioner seems to want to pretend he's "resolved" this by telling other teams to stop talking about it. lalala nothing to see here, we made a big show of punishing the Astros and now it's all fine.



Also lots of national/local "reporters" chomping at the bit to harass Carlos Beltran about this.

[kcmets]

Boiled down timeline of the cheating scandal https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/How-the-Astros-cheating-scandal-played-out-14972308.php?cmpid=chronstrrpchere.

[Vic Sage]

=smg58 post_id=29663 time=1579014258 user_id=62]
I'm not sure winning Ottoneu once qualifies me...