So all we have to do is throw him a curveball? I want the Stros to pump this before the 1st inning, every home game:
That Bellinger quote seems lowkey fake lol account that posted it doesn't look legit but with his batting average I'm sure CC's not worried
i am concerned about this. Astros are going to want to go out and prove they can win without trash can ball. Which they can. But will they try so hard that they end up pressing? Then stats start sliding leading to more pressing all the while the media and other players saying “See see see”. then again upper deck Alvarez wasn’t part of 2017 so maybe they will be fine. Ha.
Even if the boys rake again this year and win 100 games people will think they came up with another way to cheat. Really, no one here should care about any of the noise outside of Houston.
Manfred needs to speak up now. His investigation continues to be questioned, which led to much of Correa's response yesterday. He needs to remind everyone that MLB had personnel in the dugouts and replay rooms during the 2019 playoffs. The buzzer accusations are ridiculous and they mostly caught fire after a fake twitter account went viral.
Bobby Valentine Chimes in... https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sp...m_brand=the-new-yorker&utm_social-type=earned Valentine told me. When I asked what he thought about the sign-stealing scandal, he said, “It’s the same thought that I have when I’m on a highway, and I’m in the lane where everyone’s going eighty-two miles an hour, and then the guy in front of me gets pulled over. I think, Jeez, is he just unlucky? Everyone else was going eighty-two.” Had he been managing the Astros, he said, he wouldn’t have stopped the espionage.
MLB doctors baseball, they are in the fix. A lot higher home run total than the year before which reminds me of Brady Anderson (illegal substance) getting 50+ HRs in 1 season. The Astros did MLB a favor now everyone outside Houston want to see them get beat and they want to watch it. Rating for Stros games will be very high. The croonies at ESPN should have the Stros every Sunday, they would have the best ratings of MLB every Sundays. Dodgers vs Astros 2020, will have higher rating than the World Series. They should have Joe Buck and John Smoltz to call the series. A lot of owners and fans should thank Manfred because he is making baseball fun again. More people will watch baseball because we are the evil empire. If Mike Trout says something, I'd pay attention. Even if most kids idol say something, I still wear my Stros. I believe, in the end when it is all said and done like 10 years from now, all the hatred will be gone, but it will be memorized. Crane will buy some Dodgers players to the Stros maybe Belly. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28714873/mlb-commissioner-rob-manfred-defends-punishment-astros
Manfred interview, he f'd us. While he feels confident about the buzzer part of the investigation, he's not 100% certain they didn't. Queue the meme, "So you're telling me there's a chance" That's all the media and players need to keep this going.
Oh my! Context! Something I always wondered about with this is the sheer amount of noise/bangs/noise at a ballpark. To a hammer everything looks like a nail. To an Astros hater everything sounds like a bang and looks like a buzzer.
What a ****ing joke. I’m doubling down on going heel personally. That prick wants nothing more than it to be an isolated incident and to have the Astros take the brunt of this for the league. The Astros need to come out publicly and flat out say this is league wide, don’t beat around the bush with it.
Manfred: What challenges did you face in the investigation? The single biggest challenge in the investigation and it applies to us and even law enforcement where they have much greater powers than we have. You need someone to corroborate with you. Someone to give you factual information. The challenge here is everyone who knew the real facts about what was going on was within that cone of silence in the dugout & clubhouse. I don't absolve the players of responsibility. In their comments, at least some of them, they understand they have a fundamental obligation to play within the rules and I don't think any of them feel like they have been absolved, frankly. One of the most important things that has to happen in order to put this episode, people will never forget about it but to move on from it is for the entire organization starting from the top - owner all the way through the players - to accept responsibility and to apologize not only to their fans but to fans across the other 29 teams. It's hard to deny the fact that's gonna be an ongoing process here. It didn't get done the other day. Most people would describe it as an "epic failure". How would you describe it? It was not successful. What follows to that? Are you involved with the follow-up to the way it was handled? Whatever a team does, for better or for worse, I feel it's part of the responsibility of my position. We'll continue to work with the Astros to help them put this behind them. In the time that has gone by, some players have been out individually. I think they did a much better job in terms of taking responsibility & expressing remorse. That process will continue. You send the message that this is wrong, you cheated and the perception of many out there is several of the Astros, especially at the higher levels don't necessarily seem to be expressing that. I'd say this to you: their intentions may be different than the way it came off. I understand the reaction to the press conference and I think that the organization, the Astros, the individual players almost immediately realized the need to do more and that's why you've seen players out there talking about this individually. How would you describe the investigation of the buzzer? How deep did that go? The buzzer allegations, the file, the tape & everything, we were fully aware of that when we were working our way through the investigation. In a way, the piece that no one appreciates is we found no evidence, not a single witness who could corroborate that there were buzzers being used during the 2019 season or were doing anything inappropriate during the 2019 season. Given that the players told us chapter & verse about 2017 and chapter & verse about 2018, it does give some credibility to the denials about use of buzzers in 2019. Can I tell you 100% certain that it didn't happen? No. You can never know that. People tell you what they tell you. I will tell you the evidence on this issue was as consistent in the direction that nothing was going on as the evidence was consistent in the direction that there was inappropriate behavior in '17 and '18. What type of consideration have you given to stripping the World Series title? Well in the context of my original decision, it was something we talked about & analyzed extensively. How did you land on the decision you landed on? I landed on it really several thoughts. Number one, it has never happened in baseball. I am a believer in the idea that precedent matters and when you deviate from it, you have to have a really good reason to do that. Number two, I thought the report gave people a really transparent account of what went on. That we put people in position to make their own judgement about the behavior that went on. That has certainly happened over the last month. The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems a futile act. People are always know there was something about the 2017 World Series that was different and they'll know that because whether we made every decision right or wrong, we undertook a really thorough investigation and had the intestinal fortitude to put out there the facts we found even though they weren't pretty. You have little leaguers in California & I'm sure around the country who will not use the name Astros. What impact does that message send to you? For me personally, one of the most troubling pieces of all this was the message that we sent to young people about the game. I do believe that our game is special in that it teaches values to young people that serve them well, whether they become baseball players or not. When you hold that belief & see what happened here, you have to accept the fact this was a step back for us, one we'll have to work really, really hard to correct.
Media hacks gonna hack. Passan: Saturday, it was bad tattoos. Sunday, the commissioner will talk and try to explain how this all unfolded on his watch. Monday, if it came out that the Astros used furtive earpieces or Bluetooth buzzers or a robust artificial-intelligence operation to gain an advantage, it would surprise absolutely nobody.
Ridiculous effort, Manfred. You're the commissioner. You have a chance to speak decisively...all you had to say was something like, "We conducted an extensive investigation and reported our findings. In light of that, it would be irresponsible and reckless to suggest that buzzers were used by the Astros at any point." That's how you put a period on the end of a sentence when the reputation of the league and your own investigation are on the line. Geez.