[NY Times] Cardinals under FBI investigation for hacking Astros

WAAAAY bigger than any other sports story in a long time. I mean, the FBI is investigating, not the commissioner.

 

I mean, it's not FIFA-level of impact, but it's still big.

 

Disagree. The Pats made a modification to a ball which was done regardless of opponent. They didn't specifically target the Colts and their internal information regarding players, strategies, etc. and in doing so break federal law in which the Colts were their targeted victim. I'd maybe agree with you if they had hacked into all teams, but the Astros were absolutely the target of this crime and the only ones who have been wronged.

I'd say it's closer to Spygate, but even that's not anywhere close to egregious as this considering actual laws here were broken.

 

There was a reality show with this exact same scenario. Yes, it's still a crime.

 

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The motivation seems based more on causing public embarrassment to Houston general manager and former Cardinals executive Jeff Luhnow than on gaining any competitive leverage. It’s one thing to steal information. It’s quite another to leak that information and share it with the world, as was done last year, rather than use it surreptitiously.

“The motivation, especially having the information published, seems to have been to embarrass him,” said a source familiar with the investigation.

Said one baseball source not familiar with the investigation, “There are people with the Cardinals who think Luhnow took credit for a lot of the things St. Louis has been doing for years. It wouldn’t be surprising that any chance they would have to embarrass him, they would take it.”

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http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/06/16/cardinals-astros-hacking?xid=si_social[/rQUOTEr]

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As unseemly as the alleged episode feels, the true depths will be revealed once the public better understands the perpetrators. The report said multiple Cardinals officials are the targets of the investigation, though it suggested neither the levels of their involvement nor where they ranked in the hierarchy of the organization.

If this was simply the manifestation of rogue Cardinals analysts, $50,000-a-year guys rummaging through another team’s database for giggles, it’s more a black eye for the Cardinals than a gut shot. Of course, that presupposes that the low-level staffers not only stole the information from the Astros but didn’t reveal the hack to anybody else in the organization. Which is possible, yes, if not altogether likely.

The nightmare for the Cardinals would be if knowledge of the information reached higher levels. The second anybody in any position of power knew of the breach and did not report it to Major League Baseball or authorities, he or she not only would be helping cover up a crime but implicitly endorsing it by continuing to employ those under investigation, which the Cardinals still do.

Should the allegations prove true and the brainchild of a higher-up official, the fallout would be immense. The idea of the Astros falling victim to a Cardinals-sanctioned skunkworks project would make Spygate look like an innocent home video, and MLB would have no choice but to hammer the organization with a penalty unlike any before seen.

The FBI’s investigation began last summer with the leaking of Astros trade talks to a website that allows users to post documents anonymously. The Astros looked into the situation immediately and understood it wasn’t an inside job. “There was no question there’d been a security breach into the database,” said a league source with knowledge of the situation.

Initially, the assumption was that it was a hacker having fun. While the Astros’ security wasn’t strong, the source said, the breach involved more than taking old passwords from Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow’s days as Cardinals farm director and inputting them into a website. The league worried about another data dump. “There was more out there,” the source said, that was not revealed publicly.

The whole episode is, frankly, particularly for the gain. The official familiar with the breach said the data stolen did provide insight to the Astros’ opinions on players and their trade talks but little that would necessarily prove substantive when it comes to competitiveness.

Luhnow was a polarizing figure during his time with the Cardinals and remains so years after leaving the organization for Houston, which he has turned into a playoff contender with a deep farm system. Risking all of what the Cardinals have built for a revenge plot seems silly, but then the entire situation reeks of ridiculousness. Cleveland and Tampa Bay and Boston and the Chicago Cubs and plenty of other teams have proprietary systems. Something allegedly made the woebegone Astros the Cardinals’ targets.

And for it, the organization stands on the precipice of pariahdom. This wouldn’t be cheating in the classic baseball sense. It would be a crime – a literal crime – borne of stupidity and hubris.

The Cardinals can only hope DeWitt, Mozeliak and others were insulated from whatever did happen. Otherwise, this real scandal – bigger than video cameras or deflated footballs – grows epic in nature. It wouldn’t sully what the Cardinals have done on the field, wouldn’t tarnish what they do on it going forward. It would simply show the Cardinal Way isn’t necessarily the right way.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-re...high-investigation-could-reach-191525747.html[/rQUOTEr]

 

Guys on cnbc just called the cardinals pathetic hahahaha

 

Man, they wanted to embarrass luhnow?

He must be a bad breaker-upper. Probably called LaRussa "big head" or something.

On a serious note, there's no way this is a low level employee. They wouldnt risk jail time for possibly embarrassing a former boss.

 

Yes, I know. The other side was arguing that just using an old password on an account they forgot to deactivate should be legal.

According to the SI article, the hack apparently was as simple as former disabled accounts or old passwords.

 

Crazy. Glad it's out in the news. Screw the Cardinals.

 

what if you're being chased by a masked killer? would it still be a crime?

 

What if you're being chased by Indominus Rex and you find a Jeep that only needs a new battery? Can you replace the battery to escape?

 

Spoiler

 

At the same time, a low level may not have realized how serious of a crime they were committing.

 

Laws being broken is a legal matter - it's not the job of MLB to compensate the Astros for that.

Regardless of whether they were intentionally targeted or not, the Colts suffered harm due to the actions of the Patriots. How is that different than here? Taking away draft picks is to punish the offender. Giving them to someone else is to compensate for the harm. If the Astros deserve reparations, why not the Colts? I agree Spygate is a closer example, but no one ever thought about giving the Jets anything.

This applies across all sports. When a team tampers with another team's player, that directly targets the other team. When a player flagrantly fouls another player and it leads to injury, it leads directly to harm to that team. No one ever things the league should somehow compensate the suffering teams in any cases.

I agree its a huge story and much bigger deal than any of those other things, and if there's any evidence its not a few rogue people who did it for giggles, the Cardinals should get hammered. But neither the league nor the 28 other owners are going to think they owe the Astros anything.

 

not enough.

the minimum punishment should be, but not limited to,

all those Cardinals officials/employees implicated should be banned, a la Pete Rose, from employment w any baseball team.

if the owner is implicated, forced him to sell the team​

Cardinals be banned from the amateur baseball draft for the next 3 years

Cardinals be fined >$10 Million​

 

Huge fine, forfit of picks for X amount of years (possibly award their picks to the Astros?)

 

QFTOS

http://gatewayredbirds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=56680