#1) He says that, but it could be a lie and who knows if it would have been truly an independent test. #2) They aren't conclusive. #3) He is free to take a test at any point. I'm sure Channel 2 would have happily had him take one as part of their interview. I really don't care about a 150 page binder. That's helpful for throwing others under the bus, but not really that helpful for proving you don't know something. He was pretty clear that he was warned twice, but didn't care to follow up. The MLB report itself said they couldn't prove he knew, and he was ultimately suspended because of a concerning culture problem within the baseball operations.
I still blame Crane and think he’s a shifty weasel. I’ve thought from the start that Lunhow and Hinch were both thrown to the wolves, and this basically supports that. It still comes off as a little pathetic though. I mean, I don’t blame Lunhow for being bitter, they have essentially destroyed the man’s career, he actually talks about maybe going into e-sports for crying out loud, and it’s a ****ing joke that the players and their swarmy snake owner sold their souls to Manfred, but doing an interview like that just seems sad and desperate. What a shame...
The interview was cool I guess... A lot of cupcake questions. I would have asked him "Okay Jeff, you are saying you are innocent and were completely blindsided. However, as the GM of the franchise I ask you, what would you have Jim Crain do in that position? Honestly." I mean come on, you're the GM and you are completely free of reproach?
Nope, he was suspended because of Taubman and the 3 major teams couldn't beat the Stros and that cost mlb money. Look at the Yankees court case if you want to figure out what went on. Follow the money
That he didn't mention the MLB league-wide memo (the one he failed to ever discuss with Hinch) is pretty damningly convenient.
Sadly, this is going to be an never-ending story. You will have hot dog sellers there hearing bangs, or ball boys installing wires on uniforms. Remember Luhnow came from the St. Louis Cardinals who cheated on the Astros.
If Commissioner Shitheel Manfred could prove Luhnow was guilty, Luhnow would have been banned for life. Manfred sure sounds like he had and still has an axe to grind with Luhnow. And all of this after the RED SOX buzzer incident there would be zero tolerance for sign stealing is just shear and utter bullshit. The RED SOX cheated their way to the 2018 championship, in much the same way that the Astros did in 2017. What was their punishment? A sternly worded letter? FFS.
Luhnow knew. Like Hinch wasn't going to make him aware why he had to smash the video monitors in the clubhouse. They'd share lineup input but not that. Ok. I understand why Luhnow would be pissed off. Astros ownership was slapped around like they were in 2004, 2008 and when having to move to another league in order to buy the team. F' all of them. And now the local talking heads want to talk baseball on this. F' that. They won 3-1 vs Oakland and it was barely a blip in the radar. F' that. go back to talking about that awesome Texans Defense, mother f'ers. F them too. F' all these Mf'ers. MLB, Commish. Yankees fans. Who did I leave out? The judges taking too long. Just give us the letter.
Luhnow was punished, rightfully so, because he should have known if anything askew was happening. It’s his ship. Him not knowing the intricacies of the scandal doesn’t make him any less culpable or guilty. He had a duty, based off the league’s email addressing the issue, to address the possibility of using technology/cheating. He turned a blind eye by not addressing the possibility of tech cheating with anyone on the field level and is now suffering the consequences. I feel badly for him, and agree that it’s not exactly fair...but he dug his own grave in turning a blind eye.
Probably... but Luhnow seems very smart and calculating to not let himself be completely coerced into that situation. I still remember his ability to avoid saying “we are holding him down for service time reasons” by saying all sorts of different things. Still remember him avoiding saying “we are not drafting Aiken because he is damaged goods” in order to ensure the draft compensation would happen after he incepted Close to not signing a contract. It can’t be that he’s bad at PR and doesn’t know what to say when it’s convenient to him...
He accepts that... but he seems to be rejecting having to take all the blame and continuing to have his reputation in question due to “toxic culture” hit pieces and being fired while others involved more directly kept their jobs. if it’s truly going to prevent him from getting other jobs, he may have a legal recourse... surprised that MLB didn’t anticipate that.
So Jeff keeps saying the trash can banging scheme and video decoding scheme were two separate things. Can anyone explain? I thought they were both linked?
You need a system to decode the signs (codebreaker) and a system to relay that decoded information to the hitter (trash can banging). There was a fair amount of evidence that Luhnow knew about codebreaker but there was no evidence he knew about the trash can banging, although he certainly could have known about both. Codebreaker itself isn't necessarily in violation of the rules and ostensibly could have legitimate purposes, but the investigation discovered that it was being used to electronically steal signs and relay that information to hitters in real-time.
The lie detector test is worthless and he knows it. They're inadmissible in court proceedings and highly unreliable. It's something people say, but it's of little value.
Video decoding is legal... something most teams were doing (and probably still are doing at some level). Teams were ahead of the Astros back in 2016 in terms of relaying signals to the hitter when a runner was at 2nd. That was the genesis of developing codebreaker. Teams still know that the runner at 2nd is likely able to signal stuff to the hitter, thus they’re very cautious about giving away location and continuing to change signs. Teams knew something was up with the Astros in 2017... hence the constant mound visits even with nobody on base. Teams were paranoid about changing signs. MLB had to cut down on mound visits due to how often they were being performed simply to discuss sign changes.
