It's crazy how many people in this thread are in denial. They cheated. The title doesn't really count. The players should all be banned for life. Simple as that.
Basically throws Beltran under the bus. Thought this was the most interesting part. Both McCann and Beltrán played for the Yankees during the 2014, ’15 and ’16 seasons before joining the Astros in ’17. But it was Beltrán who, according to multiple sources, told the Astros that their sign-stealing methods were “behind the times.” During the season, small groups of Astros discussed their misgivings. McCann at one point approached Beltrán and asked him to stop, two members of the 2017 team said. “He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody,” one of the team members said. “Where do you go if you’re a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, ‘We’re doing this’? What do you do?”
Both McCann and Beltrán played for the Yankees during the 2014, ’15 and ’16 seasons before joining the Astros in ’17. But it was Beltrán who, according to multiple sources, told the Astros that their sign-stealing methods were “behind the times.” During the season, small groups of Astros discussed their misgivings. McCann at one point approached Beltrán and asked him to stop, two members of the 2017 team said. “He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody,” one of the team members said. “Where do you go if you’re a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, ‘We’re doing this’? What do you do?” Beltrán did not respond to a request for comment. Half a dozen members of the 2017 team interviewed by The Athletic for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity. ... Even for the Astros’ players, things are clearer in hindsight. Nearly three years after the fact, some say they were uncomfortable with the trash-can banging system. Some members of the 2017 team, however, do not recall players dissenting at the time. “No one ever said anything about how they didn’t agree with the system,” one team member said. “They loved hitting with the system.” ... Beltrán retired after the 2017 season, a World Series champion for the first time. Less than two months later, he returned to one of his former teams, the Yankees, as a special advisor to general manager Brian Cashman. By that point, paranoia about illegal sign stealing had reached a fever pitch around the league. A good portion of that paranoia was directed at the Astros, and the Yankees already held suspicions about their seven-game loss to Houston in the 2017 American League Championship Series. Manfred’s report later made clear that the Astros used both the video replay room and the monitor next to the dugout to decode signs during the 2017 postseason. One Yankees official said whenever he would ask what the Astros “were doing down there,” Beltrán would chuckle and say, “Nothing no one else is doing.” Two other former Yankees with the Astros, McCann and Joe Espada, who took over for Cora as bench coach in ’18, essentially would say the same in casual conversations with their former club. But Beltrán, according to one team source, divulged particulars of the Astros’ scheme to certain low-level Yankees officials, providing confirmation the team was justified in ramping up its efforts to combat sign stealing. True to his reputation as a savvy observer of the game, Beltrán also astonished the Yankees with his ability to determine through video — legally — which of their prospects were tipping pitches. While his information proved useful, his overall impact was minimal, some with the team say.
Bull ****. Everyone wanted Beltran at the end of his career and after he retired because he was incredibly good at cheating. The Yankees didn't just hire him to hire him.......... Luhnow did not say how great a leader he was for nothing....... and the Mets didn't decide to get him because he was a big name. A lot of teams were cheating........ the teams that cared were cheating. Some of the teams like the Tigers just really didn't care.
Charlie and Marwin do not want deal with the fall out so they have spoken now to distance themselves. Look at the comments of Musgrove...... look at the comments of Beltran. Look at the history of the Dodgers and the Apple watch.... and the Yankees being warned........ and the Red Sox cheating. You certainly are entitled to your opinion on it, but the reality of what was happening isn't quite like it is being portrayed.
According to people at all levels throughout the sport — players, clubhouse staff, scouts and executives — the idea the Astros employed nefarious methods was an open secret. “The whole industry knows they’ve been cheating their a---- off for three or four years,” said an executive from a team that faced the Astros in the playoffs during that span. “Everybody knew it.” Like most of the people interviewed for this story, the executive spoke on condition of anonymity to defy an MLB request that personnel from other teams refrain from speaking freely about the Astros. He estimated “10 to 12” teams had complained to MLB about the Astros over the years. An executive from another team agreed with that number. “It was a big open secret, really big,” said a veteran scout from another team whose coverage included the Astros. “Throughout baseball, throughout the scouting community, for several years, not just starting in 2017. I would say probably 2016, maybe earlier, through [2019], things were going on [with the Astros] that were blatantly against the rules.” “It was all brought up” in the advance reports the scout handed over to his superiors, one AL scout said. “It was as much a part of the report as anything else, because we had to be prepared to counter it, if that were possible. [Use] a bunch of sign systems . . . just any way possible to try to combat an advantage we all knew they had but couldn’t do anything about. It felt helpless. You felt silly almost, sitting there knowing [they were doing something] but having to just put it in a report as if it was a normal thing to contend with. It sucked.” That level of suspicion and frustration began to seep through opposing organizations. One AL executive described meetings of his team’s analytics department. The members were so frazzled before playing Houston that they seemed almost resigned to the idea, as the executive said, that “we can’t beat them if they’re cheating.” The executive said he implored them, in one meeting, to drop the speculation. “Guys,” he said, “we’ve got to get it out of our minds.” Several Dodgers reached out to Washington second baseman Brian Dozier, who had been with Los Angeles the previous year, to say Houston was stealing signs, according to one person with knowledge of the talks. Martinez, according to one person, also reached out to Tony Sipp, a reliever for Houston from 2014 to 2018 who spent the first part of 2019 with Washington. Martinez and Sipp didn’t connect, but Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer took his own steps to track down Sipp. It is standard for pitchers and catchers to switch to a more complex set of signs with runners on second — to prevent the runner from stealing the sign and signaling it to the batter, a practice that for years has been considered acceptable — but Scherzer asked Sipp whether the Nationals needed to be concerned about the Astros even with no runners on base. Sipp said yes, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
