I'm still not sure what to think. I'll always love my Astros...but this is really a bummer. I believe that sign stealing is rampant. And it's baseball...even knowing the pitch, you still have to hit it. But this is on a whole other level. What the Astros did is cheating, plain and simple...and I'm disappointed in them. It does taint 2017 for me. When you thought they just had Yu Darvish's number, you know have to doubt why that was. Was he really tipping pitches? I know that it's not an issue going forward so any success is, theoretically, earned. But it does suck to think that your favorite team of any sport who had done the one thing you had been waiting for as a fan (WS championship), cheated to get there. That said...if I were a player in MLB, I'd keep my mouth shut. Maybe you didn't do anything but odds are good someone on your team has. Lastly...F*** Mike Fiers. Until he returns his ring and playoff share, I hope for a well placed line drive in the groinal region. Short of that, f*** him.
Will be fun to get politicians get involved with MLB again. At this point, I just want a fair investigation to all teams that believe to be cheating. I don’t trust MLB to do chit at this time.
He didn’t expose baseballs cheating scandal he exposed the Astros’. Nothing has happened to anyone else. Two face mother****er.
Year of the Rat. Perfect for Fiers. Someone should make T-shirts to wear when he pitches in Houston next time.
Isn't this just saying Trout or anyone else for that matter has never been given an exemption to use HGH?
Let it all come out. The Astros cheated. True. But, damn. All these sports writers and talking heads from all around the league wanting to throw the Astros under the bus, while pretending that their favorite team is clean is just disgusting. Cheating has ALWAYS been part of the game. But, now people have decided the Astros went too far. Spit balls, corked bats, pine tar, nail files, steroids. I could go on and on. Baseball players are a bunch of cheaters. I want it all to come out. I want to hear about all the cheating from all the teams.
The Astros got thrown under the bus by a former player...let that settle in. WTF did we do to this ****
Deserved or not, the entire franchise is stained as cheaters. Every player whether they participated or not. Altuve may be innocent, or he might not be. But the stain will always be there. Hinch and Luhnow knew what was going on and didn't stop it. Imagine if they had.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...astros-players-punished-sign-stealing-scandal More than half of Major League Baseball fans believe Houston Astros players should have been penalized along with team management in the aftermath of the sign-stealing scandal that has gripped the game over the past week, according to an online survey conducted among 1,010 adults, including 810 MLB fans, nationwide Thursday and Friday on behalf of ESPN. 58% of adults responded that Astros players should have been penalized by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, according to the survey. In addition, the vast majority (72% of adults and 76% of MLB fans) said they would support MLB taking additional steps to punish players who were involved in sign stealing. According to the survey, MLB fans are paying a lot of attention to the scandal, with 61% of the game's fans polled saying they are closely following events involving the Astros and Boston Red Sox. One-third of MLB fans say they might watch those two teams less, though most Americans say the doping/steroids scandal was worse than the current sign-stealing scandal. Among avid MLB fans, 86% view the situation as serious, with 57% saying it's very serious, compared to 83% of the game's overall fans considering it serious, including 52% who say it's a very serious situation. Among all Americans, 77% find it serious, with 45% finding it to be very serious. Most Americans say the doping/steroids scandal was worse than this one (49% say doping was worse vs. 24% who say the sign-stealing scandal is worse) but rank this scandal above Pete Rose gambling on his own team (44% say this scandal is worse vs. 25% for the Rose scandal). While over half of Americans view both the Astros (56%) and Red Sox (52%) less favorably in light of the scandals, the negative impact is less severe for MLB, the players and the owners, with 54% saying their views of MLB itself are unchanged and 53% saying their views of the players haven't changed. Just under half (49%) say their views of the game's owners have not changed, although around a third or slightly more say they have a less favorable view of each of these entities or groups. Among MLB fans, it's about an even split when it comes to whether the teams caught cheating should have their championships stripped, with 56% saying the Astros should relinquish their 2017 championship and 53% believing the Red Sox should do the same for their 2018 title. While 60% of adults and MLB fans alike say the scandals make no difference in their likelihood to watch MLB games, around a third of fans say they are less likely to watch the Astros or the Red Sox. Roughly 3 in 4 Americans (74%) and MLB fans (76%) believe most teams were using technology to steal signs, but it's just the Astros and Red Sox who got caught. The survey was conducted by Global Strategy Group for ESPN on Jan. 16-17. It was weighted to known demographics based on the Census. The overall survey had a margin of error of +/-3%, and the margin of error among 810 MLB fans is also +/-3%.
