Astros hammered in cheating scandal

[Spider-Dan]

GM's are better than managers IMO, but what good is a championship winning GM and Manager if they got there via cheating?

Pretty sure this is still in the Astros' trophy case.

This isn't the NCAA, where championships get annulled for cheating.  Like I said, I think many teams would happily lose draft picks, $5m, and two members of management if they got a ring in the process.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Pretty sure this is still in the Astros' trophy case.

This isn't the NCAA, where championships get annulled for cheating.  Like I said, I think many teams would happily lose draft picks, $5m, and two members of management if they got a ring in the process.

Oh, I know exactly WHY they cheated. I'm just saying that if I am the owner of the Brewers in 2026 and I need a GM, why would I hire this guy knowing his success came from cheating?

[Spider-Dan]

Winning is winning.  If he cheats again (but you win again) then that's a good deal, and the punishment is insignificant.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Winning is winning.  If he cheats again (but you win again) then that's a good deal, and the punishment is insignificant.

MLB will be wiretapping the next team that hires this guy, so I doubt he can cheat again. Plus, while this was a harsh penalty that will hurt the franchise in the future, the next team that gets caught is going to get obliterated by the league. This won't be the standard punishment for cheating going forward, the next team is going to be decimated to the point no other team will try it. The money means nothing to them, but losing years worth of draft picks and international signings will turn almost any team into the Orioles.

[Spider-Dan]

Unless the league starts cancelling titles, the punishment is meaningless.  There are a bunch of teams that are already the Orioles and have nothing to lose.

[CF DolFan]

Apparently actually cheating to win a championship is much better than gambling on yourself. Like 1 year vs a lifetime. Who knew?

[EDGECRUSHER]

Apparently actually cheating to win a championship is much better than gambling on yourself. Like 1 year vs a lifetime. Who knew?

It's because it was the championship, that's the main issue. If the Tigers were caught doing this, they might've gotten it worse but the fact that every article points to the World Champs cheating makes MLB sick so they want to avoid things like asterisks and stripping of victories.

They should be stripped and have an asterisk but that won't ever happen.

[MaineDolFan]

Boston just fires Alex Cora; that shoe is starting to drop.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Boston just fires Alex Cora; that shoe is starting to drop.

I'm sure they are in contact with MLB and were made aware of what the punishment would be and were "advised" to fire him like the Astros were "advised" to fire their guys.

New thing I am hearing about right now is how Jose Altuve told his teammates not to rip his jersey after his game winning HR off Chapman in the ALCS. With all that we have seen so far, that also looks very sketchy. Like he had a wire or buzzer on him to tell him to wait for the breaking stuff or the fastball. Ken Rosenthal and Michael Kay spoke about it earlier.

[masterfins]

Apparently actually cheating to win a championship is much better than gambling on yourself. Like 1 year vs a lifetime. Who knew?

The MLB is just waiting for Pete Rose to be dead for about five years, THEN they will take him off the ineligible list so that MLB can make money off his corpse.

[BuccaneerBrad]

The MLB is just waiting for Pete Rose to be dead for about five years, THEN they will take him off the ineligible list so that MLB can make money off his corpse.

I agree.   If he never gets his ban lifted before he passes, he will be inducted posthumously by the Veterans Committee.  After all, it was a LIFETIME ban. 

[Tenshot13]

[MaineDolFan]

To SpiderDan's point, the owners are sitting back and really okay with all this.  They can fire people and point fingers and come off clean as a whistle.  They "hired the right people" and are now "disgusted" with the systematic way things were run.  "This is not Houston Astros baseball."  Or, whatever slug line they plug in.  In 2017 the Astros made well over five million in their post season run.  The players are allotted 28 million to distribute, imagine the revenue the team makes?

All this said - I've spoken with a couple of my friends who are still "on the job," there are owners out there who feel Houston got off easy.  Okay, so - what would the right punishment be?  MLB, out of the gate, advised they would not seek punishment in these circumstances for the players, which makes sense.  The franchise lost a very good GM, a very good manager, two first round picks and two second round picks. Currently the Astros have the 6th best farm system in the the majors, their top five prospects may be an impacts as soon as this year.  Baseball draft picks are not the same as football; these picks are leverage and can quietly build, or ruin, your franchise, for a long time.  They also lost bonus pool money for their draft, impacting what they can do in the draft period.  This allows the entire league to leapfrog them.  This also impacts Houston's ability to build and trade and will be felt for years down the road.  Houston built their current team on the farm system and trades, their ability to keep this going is now in peril.

So, yes, I'm sure the ownership group is happy they have a title, along with the money it came with.  I'm also sure they are well aware of the horror show they are now faced with, losing two high level staff members and their farm system put in jeopardy, which is the pipeline to keeping people coming back.  If anyone thinks there wasn't yelling, screaming, pointing fingers, fists through walls and flipping tables when this all went down...I think you'd be mistaken. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Seems like a very dumb scandal as well. 

If you had one guy watching the video that directly communicates with manager you have a shot at getting away with it.  If the entire team is in on you are absolutely guaranteed to get caught.   

[MaineDolFan]

I have no idea how anyone thought this is a good idea.