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[Musky_Cheese]

The Astro cheating scandal keeps on going. Hinch non denial of buzzers...

Right now tho, an article from the Washington Post details the secret that was only a secret to the public. The reigning, defending, undisputed World Series Champions... The Washington Nationals had help from around the league in defeating the Houston Astro's.

“The whole industry knows they’ve been cheating their a---- off for three or four years,” said an executive from a team that faced the Astros in the playoffs during that span. “Everybody knew it.”

“It was a big open secret, really big,” said a veteran scout from another team whose coverage included the Astros. “Throughout baseball, throughout the scouting community, for several years, not just starting in 2017. I would say probably 2016, maybe earlier, through [2019], things were going on that were blatantly against the rules.”

Into this arena stepped the Nationals, appearing in the World Series for the first time in October. They entered the series as underdogs to 107-win Houston. But they came armed with two advantages: time to prepare, by virtue of their sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series; and an entire sport that had a vested interest in having anyone but the Astros win the championship.

As one member of the Nationals put it, “It was amazing, once [it was assured] we were playing the Astros, how many people were coming out of the woodwork to let us know what they were doing.”

After the Nationals swept the Cardinals to win the pennant and waited to see whom they would face in the World Series, five of Rizzo’s top lieutenants scouted the Astros-Yankees ALCS in person. The Astros, who under Luhnow’s regime fired many scouts and instead relied heavily on video scouting, had no advance scouts at the Nationals-Cardinals series.

By this point, the suspicions about Houston’s illicit methods began to gain some public traction. The Yankees accused the Astros of using a system of whistles to relay stolen signs to batters — to which Hinch, at the time the Astros’ manager, replied, “It made me laugh because it’s ridiculous.”

“You’re covering up and holding your shirt closed when you hit a homer to win the pennant?” the executive asked rhetorically. “Who ever hit a home run to win the pennant and goes to the clubhouse and 20 seconds later comes out in a different shirt? No. You celebrate with your teammates.”

Several Dodgers reached out to Washington second baseman Brian Dozier, who had been with Los Angeles the previous year, to say Houston was stealing signs

Martinez spoke with Alex Cora, the former Houston bench coach.

Scherzer asked Sipp whether the Nationals needed to be concerned about the Astros even with no runners on base. Sipp said yes

Read story here https://archive.fo/WP1bq#selection-2161.512-2161.637

R Rock And Roll synchronicity StreetsofBeige ManaByte

Thank you ManaByte for the link

 

[TheGreatYosh]

Collusion is the worst thing! The Nationals should be impeached!

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Collusion is the worst thing! The Nationals should be impeached!

Apparently Alex Cora called Nats manager Dave and warned him about what the Astros were doing. Alex was just fired from the Red Sox for his involvement with the 2017 Astro’s

Report: Alex Cora, Dodgers Warned Nationals About Astros Before World Series

The Washington Nationals reportedly had advance warning about the Houston Astros ' sign-stealing going into the 2019 World Series...

bleacherreport.com

 

[ManaByte]

The Astro cheating scandal keeps on going. Hinch non denial of buzzers...

Right now tho, an article from the Washington Post details the secret that was only a secret to the public. The reigning, defending, undisputed World Series Champions... The Washington Nationals had help from around the league in defeating the Houston Astro's.

“It was a big open secret, really big. Throughout baseball, throughout the scouting community, for several years, not just starting in 2017. I would say probably 2016, maybe earlier, through [2019], things were going on that were blatantly against the rules.” Barry Svrluga and Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post

“It was amazing, once [it was assured] we were playing the Astros, how many people were coming out of the woodwork to let us know what they were doing,” one member of the Nationals told Svrluga and Sheinin.

Second baseman Brian Dozier, a National last season and a 2018 member of the Dodgers (whom the Astros took down in the 2017 World Series), received advance warning from his ex-LA teammates that Houston was behaving unethically. “Several” members of the Dodgers informed Dozier before last year’s World Series that the Astros were stealing signs, according to Svrluga and Sheinin Dozier played for the Dodgers in 2018

Former Astros and Nationals reliever Tony Sipp told Nats ace Max Scherzer to worry about Houston’s stealing of signs. The Nationals ended up overcoming it by using wristbands and multiple signs Sipp played for Houston prior to signing with the Nationals in 2019 (Sipp was cut mid season by the Nationals) Sipp told Max they can steal signs with no one on base!

The Astros advanced to the 2019 World Series by defeating the Yankees in the ALCS for the second time in three years. Like the Nationals, the Yankees suspected something was amiss.

“We’re so focused on them cheating, we’re forgetting we have to just go out and play,” one Yankees official said before the series, which the Astros ultimately won in six games.
Outfielder Carlos Beltran and catcher Brian McCann, both now retired from playing, are in the unique position of having suited up for the Astros and Yankees recently. Beltran even worked for the Yankees as a special advisor last season, and he informed “low level” New York officials of Houston’s cheating, per Ken Rosenthal, Evan Drellich and Marc Carig of The Athletic (subscription link).

Read the entire HERE!!!

Alex Cora warned Dave see post #3

R Rock And Roll synchronicity StreetsofBeige ManaByte

If anyone can get the entire Washington Post article please share. Its behind a paywall

Archive gets past paywalls:

Astros cheating was an open secret in MLB for years - The Washington …

archived 12 Feb 2020 01:05:55 UTC

archive.is

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Archive gets past paywalls:

Astros cheating was an open secret in MLB for years - The Washington …

archived 12 Feb 2020 01:05:55 UTC

archive.is

Thank you. Fascinating read.

Spring Training and Pitchers and Catcher report tomorrow. We share a brand new facility with the Houston Astros lol

 

[Rock And Roll]

Considering that the entire league wanted the trashtros to lose I wonder how the league feels about the lack of punishment from Manfred. How thrilled they must be none of the players got punished and the buzzers were swept under the rug to protect the integrity of the game.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Considering that the entire league wanted the trashtros to lose I wonder how the league feels about the lack of punishment from Manfred. How thrilled they must be none of the players got punished and the buzzers were swept under the rug to protect the integrity of the game.

I thought it was a mistake as soon as I read the commissioner’s report that he didn’t just air it all. Instead he chose to only confirm what everyone already knew thanks to Fires and Jomboy.

He’s allowed the story to continue to grow. Given it so much more life with this slow burn.

 

[Urprobablyright]

Thank you mightily for a nice fat juicy article of interesting baseball intrigue. Few things quite like it, with its mix of innuendo, tradition, high performance and earthy phrases like "it sucked"..

One thing this makes me question is how good is Mookie Betts really? Like, he did great under cheater Cora, then they presumably decided to lay low for a year and he wasn't so hot, now he's gone to a new team on what i imagine would be a colossal contact, and maybe he's only ever going to be with 50% as productive as that season, without sign stealing helping him out?

I'm not sure we will get much joy out of this scandal. The way MLB basically ignored steroids doesn't bode well for them doing much to clean up the game.. guess a few hall of fame delays and back/front office movement might be the only really upshot of this. Happy to be proven wrong~

 

[Rock And Roll]

I thought it was a mistake as soon as I read the commissioner’s report that he didn’t just air it all. Instead he chose to only confirm what everyone already knew thanks to Fires and Jomboy.

He’s allowed the story to continue to grow. Given it so much more life with this slow burn.

It's a worse look for baseball now than it was 3 months ago when this all started to break.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Baseball seems like the most crazy sport. They have had so many scandals over the centuries, going back to the very beginning. A sport which seems to hold it's history and statistics more sacred than any other sport also has by far the most scandals which invalidate large swathes of that history.

 

[TrainedRage]

Thank you. Fascinating read.

Spring Training and Pitchers and Catcher report tomorrow. We share a brand new facility with the Houston Astros lol

If I could sit in some chairs like that I may go to Florida and watch a spring game. That looks comfy as hell.

 

[Daxter32jak]

After the death of Kobe Bryant I kinda forgot about this scandal

I’m glad the Nats beat them, I’m curious to see the opening day turnout at Minute Maid park