Astros Being Investigated for Using Tech to Steal Pitching Signs

[drivlikejehu]

 

MLB has said they investigated this and found no evidence of it.

 

Lack of hard evidence doesn't make it untrue.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Here’s a tweet of Altuve’s statement:

 

[cardsfan]

MLB is trying to contain this because it goes to the integrity of the game. If they lose 10% more of their fans it will effect revenues.

[gunnarthor]

My guess is that the electronic device thing didn't happen but if they want to strip these guys of more draft picks, I'd be happy with that.

[cardsfan]

Stealing signs is all well and good, but, still have to hit the ball.

Blake if you were tipped off that Kershaw was going to throw his slider that is always outside of the strike zone you have an advantage. Don't swing since you have little chance of hitting it for a hit. This is why a simple banging of a trash can can be advantageous to a home club. You could claim afterwards that he was tipping his pitches.

 

You can see that like players gambling it goes to the integrity of a fair game. Now we have 2 World Series tainted.

[cmoss84]

 

MLB has said they investigated this and found no evidence of it.

True

 

Just drawing my own conclusion-that there is a very real possibility that this is going to be a problem on a much larger scale, and that things might get worse before they get better. 

[USNMCPO]

 

True

 

Just drawing my own conclusion-that there is a very real possibility that this is going to be a problem on a much larger scale, and that things might get worse before they get better. 

I have no doubt that this is going to get worse before it gets better. What happens if more obvious evidence comes out about the buzzers? What happens if other teams are shown to have done similar things? The whole MLB investigation could be shown to be a cover up. Nixon didn't quit as President because of Watergate. He quit because of the cover up.

[Squirrel]

Moderator warning: no politics. USNMCPO was not inviting a political tangent so don’t take it.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Interview of Josh Reddick with something taped to his skin.

[Musk21]

 

Interview of Josh Reddick with something taped to his skin.

It's a piece of gold confetti.

 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

It's a piece of gold confetti.

I saw people saying that. I don’t think it’s a piece of confetti at all.

 

There looks like a small rod sticking up from it at :24 and :39

[Squirrel]

 

I saw people saying that. I don’t think it’s a piece of confetti at all.

There looks like a small rod sticking up from it at :24 and :39

I don't think it's confetti, either ... looks like tape of some sort, because it's such an exact size. But I've watched it a couple of times and don't see a little rod.

[Musk21]

 

I don't think it's confetti, either ... looks like tape of some sort, because it's such an exact size. But I've watched it a couple of times and don't see a little rod.

I could see why it would possibly look like tape, but I still think it's confetti. What Hosken refers to as a rod looks more like the gold piece (confetti in my mind) is not completely flat against Reddick's chest and the camera angle and light shows that more clearly.

 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

 

I don't think it's confetti, either ... looks like tape of some sort, because it's such an exact size. But I've watched it a couple of times and don't see a little rod.

On second look, the tape bends funny depending on his movements, the light, and maybe the clothes shifting. However I'm not ready to say there's nothing under there. 

[Squirrel]

 

On second look, the tape bends funny depending on his movements. However I'm not ready to say there's nothing under there. 

Okay ... that I see ... the funny bend as if something is under it ... but I still can't see anything sticking out from it ... but then, my eyes are older than yours.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

I saw people saying that. I don’t think it’s a piece of confetti at all.

 

There looks like a small rod sticking up from it at :24 and :39

why would you use shiny gold tape to adhere a device to a player’s skin?

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

why would you use shiny gold tape to adhere a device to a player’s skin?

Answer: to steal signs?

[Nine of twelve]

 

I saw people saying that. I don’t think it’s a piece of confetti at all.

There looks like a small rod sticking up from it at :24 and :39

There's no way that this is an electronic device. Even a really stupid baseball player would know better than to stand in front of a camera while wearing a tank top with such a thing taped to his upper chest.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Answer: to steal signs?

wouldn’t you use flesh colored medical tape to adhere the device?

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

wouldn’t you use flesh colored medical tape to adhere the device?

Yeah but that gold tape is cool and shiny!

 

I don’t know Reddick, but let’s not overestimate the intelligence of professional athletes.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

There's no way that this is an electronic device. Even a really stupid baseball player would know better than to stand in front of a camera while wearing a tank top with such a thing taped to his upper chest.

There might not be a device attached there, but I am not sold on your reasons for that. Like I said, don’t underestimate an athlete’s ability to be absent-minded and overly confident of himself. There are academic studies that show that cheaters and fibbers in any walk of life only embolden themselves the more they fib and cheat.

[USNMCPO]

 

Moderator warning: no politics. USNMCPO was not inviting a political tangent so don’t take it.

Absolutely no. We have enough of that crap everywhere else. Thanks Mod, for clarifying.

[dex8425]

Hey! I was watching game 7 of the 1987 world series and the commentators talked about the Cardinals using multiple sequences with nobody on because they were concerned about the Twins stealing signs with pictures. 18:14 in this video

Happens right after Joe Magrane crossed up his catcher.

[dex8425]

 

There's no way that this is an electronic device. Even a really stupid baseball player would know better than to stand in front of a camera while wearing a tank top with such a thing taped to his upper chest.

You'd think he'd know better than to get really cheap tattoos too, but apparently not

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Hey! I was watching game 7 of the 1987 world series and the commentators talked about the Cardinals using multiple sequences with nobody on because they were concerned about the Twins stealing signs with pictures. 18:14 in this video

Happens right after Joe Magrane crossed up his catcher.

Couple points:

 

When Tim Tschida was on KFAN recently, he said he thought it was suspicious when the catcher used a complicated sign sequence with no one on base. That is something someone could easily go back and look at, too, for patterns.

 

Puckett said he didn’t want to know what pitch was coming, since he was probably swinging anyway, he said it was a distraction to him.

 

The broadcasters in the Game 7 video were pretty open about the possibility the Twins were stealing signs illegally (or, by what we think of as illegal as of this Astros scandal.

 

Broadcasters seemed like they were interested in intelligent discussion back then. At 19:28: “the ring finger is used for rings, not for throwing”

[Ben Noble]

 

why would you use shiny gold tape to adhere a device to a player’s skin?

 

Because gold would act an excellent conductor of an electronic pulse from a tiny device and, in a sense, the tape would 'amplify' the signal by spreading it out over a larger surface area of the skin so that the player would more readily notice it. Gold would also protect against corrosion from, say, sweat. 

 

The real question is why the "Astros," who everyone knows is just a front for NASA, have never released their photographic evidence of the Flat Earth.

[Vanimal46]

[nicksaviking]

 

 

Looking at Mike Bolsinger's career numbers, it's hard to argue that his departure from the MLB wasn't imminent anyway, but I like how that data was framed, showing that actual individual humans suffered due to the cheating. Looks like Bolsinger had to leave the country to play again in fact.

 

Side note: This is going to be hard, I like Dusty Baker and want him to succeed, but I want the Astros to lose every game from now until they're contracted. So I guess, sorry Dusty.

[Vanimal46]

Looking at Mike Bolsinger's career numbers, it's hard to argue that his departure from the MLB wasn't imminent anyway, but I like how that data was framed, showing that actual individual humans suffered due to the cheating. Looks like Bolsinger had to leave the country to play again in fact.

 

Side note: This is going to be hard, I like Dusty Baker and want him to succeed, but I want the Astros to lose every game from now until they're contracted. So I guess, sorry Dusty.

This is more of a Twins discussion, but the Astros player that benefitted most from the trash can bangs? Marwin Gonzalez.

 

https://twitter.com/adams_at/status/1222506722276843527?s=21

[nicksaviking]

Ha, will Fangraphs adopt these stats? How was all of this data accumulated? Did someone go back through the audio of each game?