Spoiler Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney – now teammates with Stassi – ripped into his division rivals, saying: “They sure as [heck] need to do more than what they already did. That was terrible. I understand they are going to go get their (stuff) in order and they are going to have their thing to say, and they are going to hide behind the commissioner’s report and whatever. But I don’t think that’s good enough.” Meanwhile, Phillies reliever David Robertson opined, “It’s a disgrace what they’ve done and they’re going to have to live with it and everyone knows.” “I got roughed up in Game 6,” he said. “And I felt like in that game I threw as well as I’ve ever thrown in my entire life. I had some pitches that got hit that I was a little shocked by and some pitches that didn’t get swung at that I was a little shocked by. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about what we know now. But it all comes together now and, you know, I’m upset about it, that’s for sure.”
My first reaction to the accusation of cheating in November was to think "sour grapes" from the other MLB teams. My second reaction when the MLB ruling broke was sadness and a bit of embarrassment that my "guys" did this. My most recent reaction to the entire spectacle is astonishment that MLB, its writers and the fans of other teams are being THIS vicious and demeaning towards Houston while ignoring the obvious signs that many other teams have also cheated in similar fashion. It smacks of fake outrage and overreaction far out of the range of reasonableness. Sign stealing has been going on since baseball has had signs. You're telling me that because technology got involved (almost assuredly by more than one team) that solely our team deserves scorn, anger and derision? Bullshit. I was just re discovering my love of MLB baseball over the last 10-15 years. This whole mess has ruined it. I will follow the Astros and PRAY they demolish the league and sweep the playoffs next year as the biggest F>>K YOU ever to the league, its fans, and its writers. Beyond that, I have zero interest in the MLB product. If Houston and its fans have to put up with this over the top fake whining and finger pointing, I'd just as soon watch paint dry than watch their product. I'll stick to Minor leagues and Legion ball.
So now if you ever had a bad game against the Astros it’s because you were a victim of sign stealing. Shut the **** up.
Spoiler When Chris Archer returned to his hotel room in Houston after a puzzling start against the Astros on Aug. 1, 2017, his cell phone buzzed with a FaceTime call from an Astros player. Archer answered. “Dude, you’ve got good ****,” the Astro told him. “You were just tipping.” Archer had pitched into the seventh inning that night in a 6-4 Rays win, but on a few swings it seemed like the Astros hitters knew what pitch was coming. It turns out, they did. The player on FaceTime, whose name Archer won’t disclose, had his answer: He was tipping his pitches. It was fixable. At the time, Archer bought that explanation. Now, he knows it was a lie. He wasn’t tipping. The Astros were stealing his signs and smacking a trash can. “It’s pretty messed up,” Archer told The Athletic this week. “The whole thing is messed up.” Later, he added, “It sucks when you dedicate your whole life to something, and somebody’s out there doing some shady **** like that.” For Archer, it’s personal. “You heard some rumors,” he said, “but I don’t think anybody expected it to be to that extent, especially when you know these dudes on a personal level. You’ve talked to them. You’ve gone to dinners with them. You’ve even been on the same team with some of them — Team USA and stuff. FaceTimed with them throughout the season and offseason. Texted with them. Whatever. “And then to find out, I was a part of them being successful. It was definitely disheartening. It’s bad for the game. They set out the punishments, and it is what it is at this point. I guess it’s time for everybody to move on.” Archer won’t name names. He did say one of the players he’s referring to is one of the Astros’ top two players. (For what it’s worth, Archer played alongside Alex Bregman on Team USA in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.) Archer said he learned of the Astros sign-stealing system in 2018, more than a year before former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers confirmed the trash-can scheme to The Athletic. Archer immediately thought of his start Aug. 1, 2017, and the swings he saw — specifically from Beltrán. (Coincidentally, Fiers, the whistleblower, started that game for the Astros.) “I remember the whole thing,” Archer said. When Archer took the mound at Minute Maid Park that night, he didn’t hear the thumps of the trash can. But they were there. Astros fan Tony Adams has logged every audible bang during Astros 2017 home games, and there were 39 bangs in the Aug. 1 game — 21 while Archer was pitching. The system was simple. The Astros watched catcher Jesús Sucre’s signs on a live feed in the tunnel between the dugout and clubhouse, then relayed that to the hitter: no bangs for a fastball, one for a breaking ball, two for a changeup. During the game Archer started, there were 10 bangs while Beltrán was at bat. Beltrán’s first at-bat went slider (bang), changeup (two bangs), changeup (two bangs), slider (bang), fastball (no bang). Beltrán ripped the fastball, but the first baseman fielded it for a ground-out. It was Beltrán’s second at-bat that sticks with Archer. Archer started him off with two fastballs (no bangs) and got two strikes. Then Archer tried a backdoor slider. Beltrán heard a bang and laid off, taking a ball just off the plate away. Archer went back to the fastball. No bang. Archer reached back and sizzled a 96 mph heater at the top of the strike zone. “A fastball up here,” Archer said, putting his right hand at chest level. Beltrán was all over it. The baseball was scorched. It landed in the right-field bleachers. Archer spun and showed his disbelief. “I had looked at a lot of film,” Archer said. “Obviously, Beltrán is a great hitter. But we know strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think he’s ever hit two or three balls out of the strike zone at that velocity and pulled it for a home run. He wasn’t defensive.” Two batters later, Bregman blasted an 0-1 slider into the left-field seats. “Archer’s not going to be happy about it, pouting a little bit by dropping his glove,” Astros color analyst Geoff Blum said on the broadcast, “but welcome to Minute Maid Park and the Crawford Crushers.” Crushers. Trash-can bangers. Whatever. Starting with May 28, 2017, the game the banging became more frequent, according to Adams’ tracker, the Astros had a .289/.350/.481 slash line and .831 OPS at Minute Maid Park. (The league-average home slash line in 2017 was .255/.327/.439, a .767 OPS.) Archer allowed four runs in six-plus innings and won, just a small data point in his second All-Star season. But, win or lose, it was an unfair fight. “I gave up a few extra runs, I feel, strictly because they knew what was coming,” Archer said. “Whether it allowed them to take pitches and get into a good count, or they actually hit the ball for extra bases or out of the ballpark. “It was frustrating.” After the trash-can scheme entered the mainstream this offseason, Archer started to see clips from that start on social media. He saw Beltrán’s homer and single off him in that game. The replay is on YouTube. Archer didn’t watch it. “I already knew,” he said. Archer was mad, and he grew even more upset when the punishments were doled out and no current Astros players apologized. “The people who were receiving bangs, the people standing at the plate, haven’t addressed it at all,” Archer said, shrugging slightly. “Spring training starts soon, so hopefully they get time and a chance to (apologize). “I hope that people can look at it and put themselves in that situation, saying, ‘I’ve dedicated two decades of my life to this job. And these people were able to win a championship or get to the highest pinnacle by cheating.’” Archer said, “It sucks that there’s no repercussions for the players. But that’s what they agreed on.” He takes little solace in knowing he wasn’t tipping his pitches. “It’s weird,” Archer added, “because a lot of those guys have really good reputations. All of them do. But they’re willing to do anything to win.”
It is most amazing to me how the is no outcry for apologies and press conferences for Boston. Mookie Betts put up one the best WAR seasons ever enroute to an MVP while cheatin at home AND on the road. But nobody cares. Cora, who was instrumental in setting our scheme up just suddenly decided to scale back on the cheating enroute to 108 wins as a rookie manager. It blows my mind how this is playing out.
Is it too much to ask for a Bregman “**** you Tyler” and then a mic drop? I’d be satisfied with that.
Pretty shitty if Bregman called Archer and told him he was tipping. If he wanted to be a good friend he could have just told him “you need to change your signs even when nobody is on base”, or otherwise said nothing at all. Telling him he was tipping when he wasn’t was like the worst thing he could have done.
Good thread on Altuve: I’m nervously excited to see how the Astros handle today. Casual reminder that people believe what they want to believe regardless of facts or evidence presented to them. Today won’t change the public narrative at all, but I’m curious to see how we attack it. I hope we fall on the 2017 sword but standfast and reassure everyone that the buzzer thing is ludicrous.
Good on them for apologizing. And also good on them for not catering to the media with some over-the-top BS apology. They apologized. They said they know they were wrong. And they said they're focused on 2020. The media will hate it. So be it.
Seriously, what else could they do at this point? They apologized. Time to move on. While I'm disappointed in them and what happened, all these whiny b****es like Bauer and that no-name schmuck that's suing the team just need to shut the entire f*** up already. The Astros didn't ruin their careers or anything else. Quit your whining already.
There is nothing the Astros can say or do at this point that will make the fans, media, and players around MLB get off their back. The Astros could give up the championship, and give back their rings and it still wouldn’t be enough. The media and fans are going to try and make life difficult for the Astros all season long. The Astros just have to move forward and play ball.
