Posted on 12/09/2019 9:55:19 AM PST by DFG
Guardian or snitch, depends on the lighting.
Mike Fiers, the 34-year-old journeyman pitcher whose two career complete games are also no-hitters, one of those as a Houston Astro, nearly four weeks ago blew the whistle on a technology-driven, sign-stealing scheme allegedly run by those Astros. Major League Baseball has questioned dozens of potential perpetrators, accomplices and witnesses (including Fiers) in an investigation that threatens to expose the finest era in Astros history as, at best, suspicious.
Fiers pitched for the Astros for 2 1/2 seasons, the last in 2017, during which, he told The Athletic, the team devised and integrated a system that identified catchers’ signs and relayed them to hitters in the batter’s box. The Astros won the World Series. Fiers, whose ERA that season was 5.22 (and nearly 10 in the final two months), was not on the rosters for any of their three postseason series. He was non-tendered a month later. And, he told The Athletic, he spent the next two seasons warning teammates with the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s of the Astros’ deviousness.
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“Roll models”!?
I prefer Italian when they’re very soft
I guess I have been out of touch and had not heard about this. There have been rumors of a variety of sign-stealing schemes over the years.
That is one reason you saw so many mound visits when players were on second base. The players would cover their mouths to avoid lip-reading. Obviously they were engaging in such activity because somebody thought the other team could be stealing signs.
The new limit on mound visits was a new twist.
Thanks for posting—this _will_ get _very_ interesting.
I was cheering for those guys, mainly on an anybody but the Yankees and Dodgers approach. They were playing dirty. I wonder if Nolan Ryan knew anything about it?
This is so stupid. The more sophisticated teams get at sign-stealing, the more their opponent can use it against them. As soon as you know they’ve got your signs, change them. Sign stealing is 150 years old. Thwarting sign-stealing is only 149 years old. Good grief...
When someone’s got your signs, cross them up. Make them throw pitchouts and look like idiots. Make them expect curves and buzz them high and tight.
I’d be surprised that such systems are not standard practice. If a catcher is going to transmit information in the clear, of course other people are going to read it. They should have used a proper encryption protocol.
Or at least put an asterisk next to their name.
2017 Champion Astros *
(* cheated)
Forgot the sarcasm tag, thought it would be obvious.
Not sure when “Team Sports” ceased being “Inspiration” for our youth, but it was long ago.
Now we have overpaid pro-team members - dealing drugs, organizing dog fights, hiring hit-men, and cheating in their sports among other notorious behavior.
I never watch any of it, they can all end today and I would be fine with it.
They could actually do something as simple as sending the signs in the clear, then having a “true” of “false” signal (like tapping the left foot for true or right foot for “use next sign”).
They could switch the “true” of “false” signal by a mound visit if needed within an inning, otherwise just change as needed in each inning.
Having a guy on second base passing pitches to the batter is one thing. Using cameras in the outfield and monitors in the clubhouse is way outside the gamesmanship of sign stealing. The Astros are going to get hammered on this.
All baseball games on TV almost always show the view from the center field camera when the pitcher is ready to pitch and is getting signs from the catcher. I think a question to look at, is do the players or coaches see this view as they are playing the game?
Stealing signs are as old as sports itself but by players and coaches , there has to be rules, using banned equipment such as close circuit cameras (when the rules require only delayed media feeds can be viewed while the game is progressing), corked bats, foreign substances on the ball,,, all illegal because it ruins the game .
If MLB doesn't come out harsh with punishment , Astros coach and all the players that willingly participated, and upper management who sighed off on purchase orders for the cameras and monitors , the game will forever changed and not in a good way... who wants to watch a game where hitters know which pitch is coming and the team that wins the world series is the team with the best technology of off field experts in suits codebreaking in a dark rooms on not the team with the best players on the field?
MlB has known these allegations of live cameras for a while from the astros and has kept this under the rug. Back in 2018 Danny Picard broke the story the Astros were using an iphone camera with a live feed held by an Astro employee that got into press box on the field next to the Red Socks dugout during the playoffs.
So there is now hours of audio evidence astros home games, and with these new allegations that detail they electronically stole signs at home , there is 2018 evidence of the method they used for away games with a live iphone camera , so who believes this has been isolated to just a few home games back in 2017 and not the last three seasons while we all thought it was because little Altuve had giant talent the Astros were so good?
Here’s how the league will look at it:
If it was only the Astros, he’s a hero. If every team in the league was doing the same thing, he’s a snitch.
Nolan Ryan retired many years before.
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