Astros punishments: Hinch and Luhnow suspended and fired, team loses 1st and 2nd picks in 2020, 2021

JeremyTB

Registered User
Mar 16, 2007
4,997
1,658
What is not getting talked about much is how this is hurting the reputation of the teams who don't cheat. I keep hearing the defense that everybody cheats. No not everybody is cheating, there is no evidence of that. Is it possible there are other teams that do it? maybe, maybe not but to make those accusations with no evidence at all is hurting those out there that play the game clean and fair.
 

Unholy Diver

Registered User
Oct 13, 2002
19,031
2,955
in the midnight sea
VERY different animal.

NCAA doesn't run competitions outside of postseason tournaments.

You're showing a supreme lack of understanding of sports business.


It has happened in European Soccer, Juventus were stripped of titles in 05 & 06 and relegated to the 2nd division, nor sure of any other examples but Juve is a huge club, akin to punishing the Yankees
 

southsideIrish

Registered User
Nov 23, 2019
1,142
578
One of Saturn's moons
What is not getting talked about much is how this is hurting the reputation of the teams who don't cheat. I keep hearing the defense that everybody cheats. No not everybody is cheating, there is no evidence of that. Is it possible there are other teams that do it? maybe, maybe not but to make those accusations with no evidence at all is hurting those out there that play the game clean and fair.

No evidence...yet. But we keep forgetting or choosing to overlook the fact that the original article that exposed Houston clearly has these quotes: "Illegal sign stealing, particularly through advanced technology, is everywhere"; "it's an issue that permates through the whole league" one major league manager said, "electronic sign stealing is not a single team issue", and so on.

There have been accusations going back five years with various teams. The Athletic only went to press with Houston because they had hard information from Fiers. Maybe not everyone is cheating, but it's clear that things like this have been going on. It's disappointing to me that a) MLB didn't give more concrete facts on the Houston thing, i.e. which games or which postseason plays were the result of illegal sign stealing. If they had, I'd be more on board with the title-removing crowd or penalties for individual players. and b) that MLB isn't pushing harder to dig up what else might be out there. It will take the next Fiers to come forward and talk, and someone will, at some point.

I take great pride that my team in 2005 won a clean title, at the end of the steroid era, with teams like NY having multiple confirmed users and winning multiple titles on the backs of those players. Or in 2004 with Boston having guys like Ortiz heavily suspected. Players on the Sox like Konerko and Frank Thomas were also very outspoken against their fellow players who were using, risking the same kind of backlash that Fiers is getting to some degree. There were no reputation issues or anything like that.

Honestly this issue has gotten tiresome, I'm pretty much done commenting on it. I hope this season is a good one and isn't marred by stupid brawls every night or every Houston win or homer being analyzed for an hour on ESPN or the MLB network. I hope baseball does the right thing and finds out who else was doing this, give them similar punishments, sets much harsher punishments for future incidents, and do what they can to make sure this doesn't happen anymore.
 

Ted Hoffman

The other Rick Zombo
Dec 15, 2002
28,857
8,110
I don't know what to make of Verlander anymore. Everything that he said he despised before joining the Astros sure went out the window once he got there.
It's almost like winning changes people or something. Or like winning is more important than having integrity for some.

While that would be lovely, it would really be bad for the sport with players playing half-assed because they have no reason to play for.

No home field advantage regardless of the record would be a nice punishment.
Take it a step back and say "no postseason home games at all and no share of the postseason gate."

NCAA doesn't run competitions outside of postseason tournaments.
There's a semi-truthful comment here about the NCAA not being able to run anything, but then again it's just stating the obvious.
 

IU Hawks fan

They call me IU
Dec 30, 2008
28,516
2,813
NW Burbs
Eh, that was a missed breaking ball. Wish we had the gun on that, probably was in the high 70s to mid 80s I would guess.

If you're going to plunk someone, you're not waiting to do it on 3-2.
 

Muston Atthews

Bunch of Bangerz
Jul 2, 2009
32,642
5,008
Toronto, Ontario
Eh, that was a missed breaking ball. Wish we had the gun on that, probably was in the high 70s to mid 80s I would guess.

If you're going to plunk someone, you're not waiting to do it on 3-2.

Depends how Manfred handles the plunkings. If I’m a pitcher I bean them every time I plan on pitching around them with 3 balls. 3-1, 3-2 runner on second, just bean them
 

kingsholygrail

Almost there.. 38-22-11
Sponsor
Dec 21, 2006
81,012
15,150
Derpifornia
Depends how Manfred handles the plunkings. If I’m a pitcher I bean them every time I plan on pitching around them with 3 balls. 3-1, 3-2 runner on second, just bean them
Heard on the local news an internal memo has already gone out warning teams about intentionally hitting players.
 

Neutrinos

Registered User
Sep 23, 2016
8,587
3,597
While that would be lovely, it would really be bad for the sport with players playing half-assed because they have no reason to play for.

No home field advantage regardless of the record would be a nice punishment.

No home playoff games period for the next decade
 

JeremyTB

Registered User
Mar 16, 2007
4,997
1,658
The Astros organization and it's players are largely responsible for this not going away anytime soon. No remourse at all, still pretty arrogant. And they still haven't uttered the words "We cheated" And they continue to say the results would have been the same. This on top of zero punishment being handed to the players. So tell me again why the fans and non Astros should just move on and get over it?
 

Dr Pepper

Registered User
Dec 9, 2005
70,347
15,497
Sunny Etobicoke
Heard on the local news an internal memo has already gone out warning teams about intentionally hitting players.

Yeah, and the league threatened fines to any player who delayed the game by stepping out of the batter's box to adjust their gloves. Didn't stop anyone from doing it, and I doubt this latest memo will do much either. Astros are going to get plunked all season long, and rightfully so.

The Astros organization and it's players are largely responsible for this not going away anytime soon. No remourse at all, still pretty arrogant. And they still haven't uttered the words "We cheated" And they continue to say the results would have been the same. This on top of zero punishment being handed to the players. So tell me again why the fans and non Astros should just move on and get over it?

MLB shares some of the blame, for their limp-wristed excuse for punishment.

STILL waiting on the verdict for the 2018 Red Sox, too. Not sure what the holdup is there. :dunno:
 
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