Luhnow is extremely shrewd, and yes he has to know that a lie detector isn't scientifically recognized. On one hand I am surprised he even agreed to do one, as there are a lot of false positives.... but on the other hand, if he knew he was guilty and they would find evidence; then roll the dice. Having said that, I do believe that Luhnow is in many ways the fall guy. I think he at a minimum had suspicions... but I also suspect he did not feel bad about it because cheating has been rampant in baseball for as long as the game has existed..... hell I don't think this Astros group cheated any worse than those I was around, they were just smarter about it.
MLB doesn't anticipate a lot of things.... they assumed their press would play nice, the Astros would get their punishment and everything would go back to normal.
He kept mentioning them as separate because MLB explicitly exonerated him related to the trash can stuff (the report said he did not know about it), so he wants to clarify he only needs to defend himself about the video decoding scheme part.
Mining the interview for tidbits actually related to the team, I found it interesting: He didn’t mention Springer or Correa when talking about guys he was close to (he mentioned Yuli, Altuve, Verlander, and Bregman). He mentioned Tucker and Whitley as guys he was proud of developing. He indicated Altuve’s 2020 struggles were related to the scandal.
Yeah, its clear they’re not fully in-step with the media that makes a living covering them. Most leagues would have been out in front of potential issues such as this... and enacted action before a whistle-blower like Fiers goes rouge and decides to tell-all to an outlet that is coordinated by one of their on-field reporters for national games. While I’m sure they loved commandeering all the media attention for a few days.... when it became entirely damaging, and then they compounded it by saying things like “its just a piece of metal” (regarding the trophy), its amazing that they’ve still managed to increase profits/revenues and continue to sign big TV deals.
It certainly affected him mentally. If this caused him to struggle at the plate I'm worried how much it will affect him next season when there are opposing crowds taunting him constantly.
I actually do not think there will be “constant taunting” to the level that the media expects. First of all, there aren’t that many ‘rabid’ fan bases in baseball. Within the Astros division, there are ZERO. Yes, noise will be expected out of NY (which is always vocal, no matter what the issue) and whenever the Astros play the Dodgers in LA again. It could also be motivation to drive a team/player. This team was excellent on the road, with Altuve also showing better road splits... in large part for their ability to rise above the pressure. Altuve excelling in the post-season I feel is largely due to the pressure of the situation finally getting close to what he was used to... vs. playing in empty stadiums, not having family around, not being able to get out of the hotel, etc. I would say all of that played a role in many ways as well as the initial “shock” of the scandal.
Guilty people dont usually volunteer to take lie detector tests. Ask your self why Manfred turned down Luhnow's offer to take it. How would you try to prove you didn't know. This isn't a court of law.
Nope, and not often people fool lie detector tests. Maybe 5% of the time and Luhnow was willing to risk his reputation? Doubtful
I don't believe Hinch when he said Luhnow never talked to him after the memo regarding the Red Sox/Yankee cheating stuff was sent out by Manfred. No way in hell 2 weeks before the playoffs start is that not a major conversation around the batting cages considering those were 2 of the teams we were looking at beating to get to the World Series. The day the memo came out was the start of a 9 game homestand. Also, Luhnow said they did talk about the memo and in that conversation Hinch told him one coach was wearing an apple watch but stopped when they saw the Red Sox situation. However, Hinch failed to mention the trash can banging scheme. Hinch didn't have the balls to stop it and didn't have the balls to tell Luhnow. I lost some respect for Hinch after hearing Luhnow. Luhnow still deserved to be suspended because it was his job to know and MLB put the responsibility on the GM and coach.
Not so fast my friend! Proponents say 90%, Critics say 70% or below. https://www.apa.org/research/action/polygraph eta: ...what reputation is Luhnow risking at this point? He can get a job on Wall Street or Silicon Valley later this week if he wants it.
Isn't lying to your boss considered "cause"? What about being completely in charge of the production side of a billion dollar business , then helping to set up, encourage, and then turn a blind eye to YOUR EMPLOYEES' malfeasance. All the while completely ****ing up every PR opportunity provided to you. MLB didn't fire him. Crane did. Luhnow is either complicit or incompetent. And he's not incompetent. Tone deaf? yes.
While they are inadmissable in a court of law, police detectives use them all the time to eliminate potential suspects.
Seeing all this love for Mookie makes me think if Astros players were to move on from Houston the stigma would not follow them. Are people forgetting Boston cheated in 2017/18?
You make a good case that Hinch may deserve more blame than we have assigned him. On the other hand, I am hesitant to judge before I hear more of Hinch's side of the story. I also don't take everything Luhnow says as fact. Nor can I with Hinch either, but I still want to hear his response to Luhnow's interview. Right now, the whole lot of them look like liars, or at the very least, concealing important truths. I don't know about Hinch's chess skills, but we know Luhnow is a skilled strategist. Don't anyone think what ever he is saying or doing isn't playing into something he has thought out thoroughly.
"Luhnow and Hinch should have known. It's their job to know! No excuses!" "Repeat offenders Boston Red Sox & Alex Cora should not have known! Rogue video intern doing it on his own!" "I do not find that then-Manager Alex Cora, the Red Sox coaching staff, the Red Sox front office, or most of the players on the 2018 Red Sox knew or should have known that Watkins was utilizing in-game video to update the information that he had learned from his pregame analysis. Communication of these violations was episodic and isolated to Watkins and a limited number of Red Sox players only."