Houston Astros 2020 thread............

So I am conflicted on this one, the last three years I have felt Houston had the best team in baseball, period. So why in the world does a team that has best lineup top to bottom and the best pitching rotation feel the need to steal signs? Its like the damn Patriots who were the best team in football when they were cheating. I get that stealing signs is part of the game and a runner on second base doing it is just that, a part of the game. However, systematic cheating using technology etc. is just beneath contempt. For that reason more than any I have no sympathy for Luhnow or Hinch or anyone else (Cora) who was part of scheme and now is paying the piper. Does Houston beat the Dodgers in seven in 2017 if they arent cheating, maybe so, probably so, but now we will never know.
 
The lack of character is incredible... to want to hang on to cheaters is the problem. The fans want to win no matter what.

So....

Imagine paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to watch strangers play a child's game. Imagine your entire self-image tied to the vicarious pleasure derived from the exploits of these strangers. Imagine that they are cheaters. Then, imagine a life that is fulfilled by your honesty and efforts instead. Imagine being creative and able to live with original thoughts, fair play and the thought that who and what you are is enough for a good life. Imagine the confidence it takes to accept defeat because you didn't cheat. Imagine being able to sleep well at night without your ego justifying all your transgressions. Imagine a world where you do not participate in cheating or give your hard earned money to those who do.

Imagine...
 
Here is the Crane presser if interested.
I give him props for going through this alone, just him there. Most team owners in any sport would have lawyers, PR people and others surrounding him
 
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Despite the issues - per Vegas (Caesar's) --

Win Total
Los Yanquis (101)
Los Dohers (99)
Los Astros (97)​

The Astros also have the second-lowest championship odds at 6-1.
 
Joe Fan said:
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Red Sox fired Alex Cora.
 
Altuve and Bregman allegedly wore electronic devices on their shoulders to tip pitches? Altuve telling teammates not to rip off his jersey as he hits walk-off in ALCS. Wow this is some crazy stuff....
 
Sadly, my Astros family and friends cancelled our annual Spring Training trip. I’m done with the Astros after 45 years of being a loyal fan. No room in life, much less baseball, for cheaters. The players silence on this is deafening.
 
Phil Elliott said:
I tried to quit em after they left the NL, but I could't pull it off. They are still my boys.
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I get it. It was hard to go back to the MLB after the last strike. My best friend is the most devoted Astros fan I know. Was really his idea to not go this year. I might go back one day when all of these superstars are gone. I’d rather have a scrappy Hunter Pence/Craig Biggio team though.
 
I dont buy the buzzer thing, no way a player wants that on while trying to concentrate on batting and then having to worry about it on bases, in locker room where media is etc. That just doesnt pass smell test. That said, the only reason people give it even a little credence is because the stros did pull stuff that just is so beyond the pale. What a massive black eye for baseball. I'll say it again, maybe Houston beats the Dodgers in a close seven game series anyway, they were the better team, but now we will never know and that title is forever tainted.
 
The HouChron often uses articles from other papers, either to save money or perhaps as a concession to how bad they think their own staff of writers is, not sure really. They printed this one on Sunday from the San Francisco paper, about how far back sign stealing goes.

" ..... Carl Erskine, who pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1948 to 1959, recalled the art of reading a man’s intentions. “We’d study the other teams to see if guys were tipping their pitches,” said Erskine, 93, in a phone interview with The Chronicle from his home in Anderson, Ind. “The expression on his face, how his hand turned in the glove, that could be a sign a certain pitch was coming. We’d watch our own guys to make sure that didn’t happen. All that other stuff — flashing signs from second base, using tips from the base coaches — that’s been going on for a long time, in one way or another.”

On a fateful October day in 1951, as Erskine recalled with regret, innocence took leave.

Erskine was warming up in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ bullpen when the New York Giants’ Bobby Thomson hit the so-called “Shot Heard ’Round the World” at the Polo Grounds to end the best-of-three National League playoff series. “The Giants win the pennant!” broadcaster Russ Hodges shouted, over and over, in his iconic call.

A half-century later, some troubling details came forth. It was revealed that the Giants had stashed one of their coaches, Herman Franks, behind a darkened window in the home clubhouse, located behind and above the center-field fence. Using a telescope to detect the catcher’s signs, he used a buzzer to alert players in the Giants’ bullpen, located almost directly below. From there, flashing a white towel, signs could be relayed to a hitter “looking straight over the pitcher’s shoulder,” Erskine said. “Easy. You wouldn’t even have to turn your head.”

In those days, Erskine said, “There were no rules that spoke to stealing signs. And you know, when they interviewed Bobby Thomson so many years later, he was very coy. He said he ‘could have’ taken the sign, that it was right there for him, but he never really admitted that he took it.”

It is now baseball’s task to determine its relationship with technology. A number of options are being discussed, and Manfred has left open the possibility of a minimalist landscape nearly devoid of cameras or other electronic devices — just shut everything off before the first pitch is thrown. How strange: As technology brings such striking advances in efficiency around the world, baseball considers going back in time. It’s starting to sound a lot healthier than progress."​

Bruce Jenkins is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist.
 
I don't buy the defense of other people have done it and that makes its OK we did it, that's just a race to the bottom.

Meanwhile, not sure what Altuve and Bregman were thinking at their fan fest, I cant believe the Astors PR folks didn't suggest that they show at least a modest amount of contrition, not a good look for them or the team.
 
FWHORN said:
Meanwhile, not sure what Altuve and Bregman were thinking at their fan fest, I cant believe the Astors PR folks didn't suggest that they show at least a modest amount of contrition, not a good look for them or the team.
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I cannot believe they promoted those two or didn't postpone or cancel the fan fest.
 
theiioftx said:
Sadly, my Astros family and friends cancelled our annual Spring Training trip. I’m done with the Astros after 45 years of being a loyal fan. No room in life, much less baseball, for cheaters. The players silence on this is deafening.
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Considering that players and teams were apparently told not to speak to the press (keep in mind also the tweet from the Dodgers that hinted at this), the silence should not be a surprise. Yet the media CONTINUES to ask questions that CANNOT be answered without risking penalties for extending a middle finger to the Commissioner's edict...
 
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