The whole making accusations and then it being debunked reminds me of the semi-recent Michael Jackson doc Leaving Neverland. Lots of smoke but no actual fire. At least not yet, but hopefully not at all.
That was a great summary. With 1000s of tweets to weed through, that was very helpful. Thanks for all this.
MLB execs reportedly think buzzing bandages may have been used to relay pitches The latest wrinkle comes from Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Sherman hears Astros players may have worn a buzzer device on their body to help relay signs. From Sherman: In recent days I have had scouts and executives talk to me about a variety of methods they think have been or could be employed, such as a realistic-looking electronic bandage placed on a player's body that buzzes in real time to signal what is coming — one buzz for a fastball, for example — if the surveillance determines what type of pitching is coming. One person I spoke to has ties to the Astros and said he already had spoken to MLB's investigators.
Weren’t other teams already fined for cheating? Cora and Beltran both ironically work for teams that were fined for cheating.
The emails involved scouts using binoculars to look out for signs. There are no rules preventing that nor does it guarantee any sort of success given how often paranoid teams are with the Astros. You've also pretty much resigned yourself to whatever the media story has told you about the sign relays... and you're probably one of the 3 people here who bought the dude's t-shirt as he's trying to profit off of this. He's now thinking they were using thumb buzzers (see above post)... and you're worshipping his word as gospel. Good for you. I will also say, your knowledge about sleeping with strippers speaks volumes to some of your over-dramatic posts lately... In the end, the Astros may or not have been doing some version of sign relaying 3 years ago, with little to evidence it ever went beyond the early parts of that season. The videos popped up because somebody went back retro-actively to look for them, not because anybody noticed it at the time. It was still always a possibility their past antics would get out from a disgruntled former team member, hence why it will always be looked at as a miscalculation... but lets not pretend they're out looking to get caught. It took a confession. Lastly, this story was always set to run regardless of Osuna/Taubmann. You're just really being dramatic if you think it only came out because of that negative press.
Nobody has much released data/evidence other than the trash can sounding videos... and even those were only from select games. They could have used a combination of one of the CF camera feeds on home plate (just zoomed in) or their own stationary camera. And I doubt any of it was needed if they had a man on second base, as they'd just relay what they felt were the signs in real time.
Next they'll accuse them of having the contact lenses like they have in Mission Impossible... that can read messages and take pictures with them. I know when one of the players lost a contact this year, they seemed to make a big deal of it... "maybe that's what this was!" (Jomboy shoutout there).
Media has been looking at Astros for a while on this issue. I'm not sure the Taubman issue didn't make it easier for the media to get information such as the email from the executive to a scout. Granted, it could have just been certain players/people getting frustrated about losing to the Astros for a while, and the breaking point on snitching coincided around the same time.
Maybe. I just don't think they gathered all this information and interviews... and then verified all of it with independent sources... in just 1-2 weeks after game 6, especially since most of those writers were also covering the actual WS. Also, their award voting was very skewed to be anti-Astros, hinting of something permeating their minds prior. They've likely been sitting on this for awhile. I think the timing for after the season was always going to be the case... would have been even more awkward if they released it if and after the Astros actually won game 7. Definitely can't say it wouldn't have left a bitter taste and cast a huge shadow over their recent win. In fact, I bet the Athletic was secretly hoping to release the bombshell in part of that because it would immediately create doubt over their most recent win.
Of course, they (and a lot of other writers) were working on this for a while as the Astros stealing signs anecdotes have been out there for a while. I doubt they sat on credible evidence as they wouldn't want to be beat to this story. There is a very good chance they got the evidence they needed to go from unpublished (anecdotes) to published (confirmed) after the Taubman outburst. On the voting, did the Athletic not have AL Cy Young and ROY votes? I don't see voting for Trout as skewed...it is what I would expect from the Athletic even if Bregman played for the Yankees.
In that case, there has to be another possible source/leak... likely a current reporter. I think it’s too well organized of a story that takes months (not days) of fact checking to run something of this magnitude. then again, the same publication broke the San Diego to London story that was found to be hearsay.
If I had to guess the ultimate punishment, I think all things considered, were likely looking at the heftiest fine levied, loss of 2-3 draft picks, and around 30 games suspension for Hinch and Luhnow. We won’t get the 2017 WS rescinded (even thought it has been in the eyes of stupid fans—screw them and their confirmation bias), and the notion that Hinch or Luhnow get banned is nothing short of laughable conjecture.
Possibly. As I said, I expect they were working on it for a while like several other news outlets. That article doesn't get published without the Fiers quotes. I suspect they ran article shortly after getting Fiers to snitch or getting someone to corroborate what Fiers said if they didn't want to go with just Fiers's quotes. CWS part would sound like sour grapes without Fiers comments. My guess would be Rosenthall had CWS piece, but needed Drellich to bring him Fiers/corroboration to get article published. Whether Fiers or corroborator was influenced by Taubman issue, I wouldn't know, but I highly doubt the Athletic sat on this story once they were confident in either Fiers's statement or the corroboration of Fiers.
