In one of the most bizarre games of the year, the Astros beat the Mets 10-8 to win consecutive games for the third time in June. Cristian Javier's velocity was concerning, the bats kind of weren't? The Astros are 41-34. The Rangers won, the Angels lost, so the Astros are back in second place, a half-game up on Anaheim and 5.5 back of Pantego.
*Houston went 4-5 on this nine-game NL homestand against the Nationals, Reds, and Mets. They played 26 games in the last 27 days.
*Houston is 15-12 against NL teams in 2023. The Rangers are 13-10.
*It's the 4th time in the last five games that the pitching staff has allowed 8+ runs.
*The Astros offense, following a game in which they score 10+ runs: 0-3, 6 total runs scored.
*Alex Bregman was 3x5 with 2RBI. After a 2x22 stretch from June 11-17, Bregman is 8x18 with 5RBI.
*Corey Julks was 1x3 with a walk and 2RBI - his 4th straight game with a walk. He has raised his OPS 39 points (from .658 to .697) in the last four games.
*Yainer Diaz hit another home run, his 7th of the year. Diaz has played in every game this homestand and hit .286/.286/.657. On the home stand, the Astros hit 13 home runs - Diaz had four of them.
*Jeremy Pena drew 22 walks in 558 PAs in 2022. With two walks yesterday, Pena is at 17 in 296 PAs in 2023. After walking twice in 58 PAs between May 31-June 17, Pena has four walks in his last 12 PAs. It was the 3rd 2BB game of his career.
*Chas McCormick was 1x3 with a home run and a walk.
McCormick vs RHP: .242/.336/.455.
McCormick vs LHP: .265/.306/.500.
*Mauricio Dubon started the game at 1B and hit two doubles, making him the lightest Astros 1B since Jose Vizcaino.
Chandler Rome: Dubon starting at 1B shows the Astros' lack of depth.
*Cristian Javier didn't make it out of the 3rd Inning, throwing 2.1IP, 4H/4ER, 1K:5BB, needing 82 pitches to retire seven Mets.
Javier's top fastball velocity by inning, June 21:
1st Inning: 94.4mph
2nd Inning: 93.9mph
3rd Inning: 91.7mph (his last pitch of the day was a 90.7mph fastball)
Javier: I really don't even know what to tell you what was going on today. I was falling behind a lot of hitters and missing with a lot of pitches.
*Probably the dumbest signing of the GM Jim Crane era was Rafael Montero. Montero gave up 3H/2ER yesterday, raising his ERA to 7.04. Montero has pitched in 32 games in 2023 and has allowed at least one run in 12 of them. He has allowed a hit in 25 of them. In those 32 games, just five have seen Montero enter and exit without allowing a baserunner.
You've got to pitch him sometimes. He's been struggling. I know it, you know it, everybody knows it. You've got to take your shot in the 6th. You've got four innings to do whatever mishaps that happen vs. in the seventh and eighth where he's used to being.
The Astros owe Montero about $28m.
*Meat Wagon update: Jose Urquidy threw another bullpen, Michael Brantley swung a bat, and Yordan Alvarez went for a job.
*Rob Manfred told TIME Magazine that he wishes he could have a do-over with how he handled the Astros' sign-stealing scandal. Asked about what he regrets surrounding it, Manfred:
I'm not sure that I would have approached it with giving players immunity. Once we gave players immunity, it puts you in a box as to what exactly you were going to do in terms of punishment. I might have gone about the investigative process without that grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with, I'm not going to punish anybody, maybe not my best decision ever.
The crazy thing is that the interviewer didn't ask Manfred about the Astros - he brought it up on his own as part of an answer to a "One thing you wish you had done over?" question, after (and I realize that this interview has been edited) answering questions about the Dodgers/LGBTQ kerfuffle and Oakland's impending relocation. So...good work on highlighting that for the public's awareness Rob.
*ESPN: How US Soccer's strange coaching search played out.
*Atlas Obscura: The elusive, maddening mystery of the Bell Witch.
*This run of exhibition games at Choad Life Park saw an empty stadium last night, as though "taking a day off" is something that happens in baseball in 2020. It's 1-1 and the off-season barnstorming tour continues tonight.
*Brent Strom talked to Mark Berman about coming back in 2021, Correa, and Dusty, and the stable of pitchers the Astros have. It's a really good interview.
*Took a little longer than I expected, but there's a response to Luhnow's Monday Night Interview. The Athletic's Evan Drellich:
People with knowledge of the investigation said that 'there was direct testimony that Luhnow was aware of the sign-stealing scheme.' The league's department of investigations, headed by former federal prosecutors, gathered a combination of direct evidence, circumstantial evidence and testimony that a source said would hold up in a legal forum, despite Luhnow's suggestion to the contrary. 'Luhnow received emails that put him on notice of the activity, but claims he only read parts of the emails even though he responded to the emails,' the person said. 'One witness clearly stated and provided evidence that Luhnow know, and others identified facts indicating that Luhnow knew. The best interpretation of the evidence is that Luhnow either knew exactly what the video room was doing, or knew generally what they were doing and willfully chose to keep himself in the dark.
It's not out of the realm of possibility that you could find someone in MLB's New York office who has committed themselves to burying Luhnow and the Astros at every opportunity. It's also not out of the realm of possibility that the Astros did something wrong and answered MLB's questions far more whole-heartedly than any other team had/has answered them, and they have paid more dearly than any of them. [Ed. Note: I have downloaded Ben Reiter's podcast The Edge, but have not yet listened to it, something I plan on remedying today. Ben Reiter wrote Astroball, so there's reason to believe that what he has to say is worthwhile.]
Whether he exactly knew what was going on or not is really beside the point. I wrote to all the GMs. I put them on notice that it was their obligation to make sure that their organizations were not violating any of the sign-stealing rules...He damaged the game, and as a result, he was disciplined.
This is utterly exhausting. And I'm just a fan. It's a fair question to ask, Why did the Red Sox do the Apple Watch stuff AND the video room stuff and only the film room guy get re-assigned for a year, while the Astros got the worst penalty in sports since SMU? Because MLB likes to do their killin' before breakfast, they're keeping a not-small amount of the findings of their investigation private. Other teams saw what happened to the Astros and shut the hell up. I've just sort of come to terms with the idea that this is/was a league-wide problem, and Manfred decided to let everyone think that it was an Astros-only problem (in the same way that the Mitchell Report scapegoated teams on the coasts). The noisiest opponents have been the Yankees, Dodgers, and Indians, for what it's worth.
*Rob Manfred, an empty ghoul shell wrapped in a pretty nice suit, hopes MLB keeps the larger postseason field and the runner on 2nd to start extra innings going forward.
*I wrote about the 1916 Black Tom Munitions Explosion in Jersey City. It was a lot of fun for me because there were just a ton of "wait WHAT?" moments in the research.
*The Guardian: Chess' cheating crisis - paranoia is now the culture.
*Eamon Duffy: Four centuries of trying to decode, decipher, or translate this medieval text have left people baffled.
*The presidential election is less than two weeks away. I did some research and put together a list of 244 counties whose results I'll be watching closely on Election Night...and, likely, the days following. If the county name is in Bold, it means it flipped - either way - from the 2012 to 2016 presidential elections.
I am growing tired of Base Ball, and am very ready for it all to end. But! The Astros beat the Mariners 6-1 thanks to stellar pitching from Framber and a massive moonshot from Machete. Houston is 28-27, up 3.5 on the Angels, and 4.0 on the Mariners, with five games to play. An Astros win tonight and an Anaheim loss means the Astros are going to the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. I am running late, so let's get this done.
*The Astros scored five runs in the 6th inning, meaning they scored more in the 6th Inning last night than they have in any game since September 12.
*Maldonado's three-run homer sealed the game for the Astros, finally getting the big swing they've been missing since...September 2019. It's Maldonado's 2nd 3-run HR of the season, and the 9th of his MLB career. Machete:
I would say probably the best [swing] I took all year, especially in the situation and the way I have been lately.
Chandler Rome: Framber has embraced an "attitude before everything" mantra this season, and it's showing. Maldonado, on Framber:
He's always had good stuff. Last year, even the year before, when I caught him, he was still the same guy. It seems like he cares more now. It seems like he's developing better. He's not letting stuff get into his head, I would say.
And the stat that I know everyone is tracking and celebrated on Twitter when it happened: Framber had a 5th-straight game with a Wild Pitch! He joins Joe Niekro (7), Darryl Kile (6), and Mike Fiers, Mike Hampton, Don Wilson, and Dave Giusti as the only Astros pitchers with a wild pitch in five straight games.
*Since allowing 3H/4ER against the Giants on August 10, Josh James: 9.1IP, 6H/2ER, 10K:5BB. James has walked just one of the last 20 batters he has faced, after walking 16 of the 63 batters he had faced prior in 2020.
*Kyle Tucker was 4x5 - the 2nd 4-hit game of his career.
*McTaggart's Notes column features info on Ryan Pressly's resurgence, and Enoli Paredes' transition from the rotation to the bullpen in 2020.
*Yahoo's Tim Brown: "Slogging through 2020, the Astros reach for a postseason spot no one wants them to have." These are great to read - for the heart and for the soul.
-The postseason in Arlington will have fans, pending approval from Texas officials (which will, obviously, approve it). Expanded playoffs are here to stay, but not this season's format. And who knows what rule changes, be they 7-inning doubleheaders or runners on 2nd to start extra-innings, will stick around in 2021?
*The last two days have featured songs from Semisonic, the Most American Band of the Last Twenty-Five Years. Neither of these songs were "Closing Time," which many consider to be the hallmark of a One-Hit Wonder's musical career. I scoff at your insolence. That said, I apologize. Also, the following is the Hot Links Playlist's 400th song, which now features over 25 hours of basically my favorite songs of all-time. Yeah, I sort of get it if you don't listen to all 25 hours...
The Astros didn't play. At least ten teams didn't play, but for reasons related to conditions within society, not conditions related to a hurricane.
*Chandler Rome took a look at why Lance McCullers, Jr is having a such hard time getting Strike Three.
*Jake Kaplan: What's different about Framber Valdez?
*Our Boy Kevin Goldstein is joining a growing coalition of current and former players who are donating their game salaries on Jackie Robinson Weekend to a non-profit combating racial inequality.
*The Boston Red Sox got their slap on the wrist punishment from Rob Manfred and MLB: they lost their 2nd Round draft pick in 2020 and their replay room guy (J.T. Watkins) was suspended for the season and cannot be the replay guy in 2021. Presumably he can jump back in the replay room in 2022. Alex Cora, who has already been fired by the Red Sox, was banned through the 2020 season, but not for anything he did with the Red Sox...it was his actions with the Astros that got punished.
Bear with me here:
Alex Cora was with the Astros in 2017, whereupon he won the World Series. The Astros, largely under Alex Cora, cheated in 2017. The Red Sox won 93 games in 2017. Alex Cora then joins the Red Sox, where they win 108 games on the way to the World Series and their team OPS went up 56 points from .736 to .792. (The American League's OPS as a whole...dropped, from .753 to .734 from 2017 to 2018). But Manfred says Cora didn't know about this scheme.
Manfred, however, had this golden nugget of a truth bomb: The evidence uncovered during the investigation is insufficient to conclude that the conduct continued in the 2018 Postseason or 2019 regular season.
Reminder, from Manfred's report on the Astros in January (which I swear was five years ago): Cora was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs. Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players' conduct.
Okay. So obviously wanting the Red Sox to get absolutely slammed has a little something to do with the Astros. But the Red Sox didn't have a Mike Fiers. Remember that it was the Red Sox players (notably, J.D. Martinez and Chris Sale) who were among the first non-Astros to say, "Hey, let's start moving on from this story." And obviously, the Red Sox getting their [squints] replay room guy suspended does not absolve the Astros of their guilt. But come on. MLB investigates for three months and it's the replay room guy who takes the fall? I will never excuse the Astros for putting a cloud in my brain over the best thing that's ever happened to me as a sports fan. But Manfred's gotta be kidding me with this. 44 players talked to Manfred in the Red Sox "investigation," 30 said they didn't know. How is that possible? If anything, what Manfred did today was to confirm (again, this is my personal opinion, and if you have read Este Bolgo regularly then you know that I think very highly of my personal opinion) that he had no interest in Getting To The Bottom of Sign-Stealing. It's all the doing of the 2017 Astros. That's where this investigation started and stopped. Manfred said it when he noted that Cora was banned because of what he did with the Astros. Also: they want me to believe that a guy drafted by the Red Sox out of WEST POINT just decided, on his own, to start picking signs from his unique position of being able to do exactly that without letting Cora or anyone else know about it? Manfred is all about punishing the Astros, who have a nationwide market share of approximately 1%, instead of the Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, all of whom are the favorite teams of Cowboys, Lakers, Clemson footbaw, and Duke basketball fans. FOH, Rob Manfred.
Yahoo's Tim Brown: Scapegoating the replay room guy puts his peers in a tight spot.
Manfred said of Luhnow "It is the job of the General
Manager to be aware of the activities of his staff and players." On #RedSox management "I considered that the Red Sox front office staff was unaware of Watkins’s conduct."
The Astros lost their first official Spring Training game of the season, 2-1, not that it really matters.
-Framber Valdez threw 2IP, 0H/0ER, 3K:1BB, and got up to 95mph.
-Kyle Tucker was 0x3 with 1K.
-Alex De Goti (Italian for "Alex of Goti") was 1x1 with a double and a walk.
-Drew Ferguson (RBI) and Nick Tanielu had the other extra-base hits.
*Dusty plans to leave George Springer in the leadoff spot. Dusty: If it's not broke, don't fix it. Altuve, Bregman, Gurriel, and Correa will be in Lakeland for Monday's game against the Tigers - their Spring debuts. That's almost three hours on a bus each way. Sounds fun. Bryan Abreu will start against Future Astros Great Matthew Boyd.
*Dusty, on Kyle Tucker: The sky's the limit on what he can do. Sometimes you either have to wait for your opportunity or take your opportunity. That's the position he's in now.
Greinke, on getting pulled in favor of Will Harris in Game 7, noted that was pretty much how he'd been used all season: I just (pitched) my five innings, six innings, and let the bullpen do the rest. That's kind of how I was being used. It was kind of expected.
Sign-Stealing Stuff *The Astros did not confiscate the signs from Saturday's Grapefruit League opener. It is the policy of FITTEAM WHATEVER IT'S CALLED STADIUM to not allow signs into the stadium.
Heads up: For a few days now I've been working on kind of an over-arching timeline regarding the whole [waves hands] Astros sign-stealing scandal. Might be ready today, I'm not sure. In the meantime.
New Stuff:
*Brent Strom sat down with Chandler Rome and Brian McTaggart for a Q&A. Some highlights:
-The SP5 spot seems to now be between Austin Pruitt, Josh James, and Framber Valdez.
-The Astros used Gerrit Cole's delivery as a model for Josh James.
-He's "willing to bet" Forrest Whitley debuts in Houston this season.
-Strom likes Bryan Abreu.
-He misses A.J. Hinch.
In the Chandler Rome version, they've already identified some areas of improvement for Pruitt, especially with how he uses his pitches.
*Justin Verlander threw his first official bullpen session of Spring Training: I felt good. I threw everything. I definitely wouldn't say everything was working, but I would say it's where it needs to be now.
And Dusty, on the new three-batter minimum (or end of the inning) rule: It's a challenge for how you set your lineup, a challenge for how you bring in certain guys at certain times. I think the challenge is, especially the lefty. He might go to the wayside. That was a big job for some of these guys.
Tony Sipp was the last Astros' lefty-specialist.
*Jared Hughes will make $1.5m in 2020 if he makes the Astros, and can opt out of his contract if he is not added to the 40-Man Roster by March 18.
*Former Astros Great Scott Kazmir is 36 and will start throwing for teams this week in a comeback attempt. The only comeback I'm looking for from Kazmir is for Daniel Mengden and Jacob Nottingham to come back to the Astros. HEY-O.
Sign-Stealing Stuff
*Someone named "Jorge Castillo" wrote a BIG EXPOSE in the LA Times in which Rob Manfred confirmed, kind of, that the Astros used the trash can in the postseason. Manfred: There was conflicting evidence on that point. But, you know, in an investigation you often have conflicting evidence and it was my view that the more credible evidence was that they continued to use the scheme for the postseason.
Castillo: Astros players, most notably shortstop Carlos Correa, have insisted the trash-can system was abandoned in the postseason because Minute Maid Park, their home stadium, was too loud for batters to hear the bangs.
Not true! Six days ago Carlos Correa already admitted that the trash can was available in the playoffs. Correa: The trash can was there. Yeah, I mean, if we had a chance, but I remember them coming using multiple signs and impossible to decode all those signs.
It wasn't how loud it was, it was the teams using multiple signals. None of what I just wrote makes anything Okay, mind you. If we're going to start quoting players, let's at least quote them correctly.
*Manfred talked to Evan Drellich and explained why MLB stuck with the immunity pledge to players who talked. Essentially: the MLBPA would have won any grievance they brought. Manfred: Given the fact that we didn't think we could make discipline stick with the players, we made the decision we made. Having said that, I understand the reaction.
*Braves "star" Nick Markakis thinks every Astro "needs a beating." Big talk from over yonder in the National League. Also Aaron Judge said more things.
*Francis Martes - Frankie Tuesday - was suspended for the entire 2020 season after testing positive a second time for Boldenone. After undergoing Tommy John surgery, Martes was suspended for 80 games after testing positive at the beginning of the 2019 season. It wasn't a factor, since he was recovering from TJ surgery, but now it's put his entire career on hold.
Martes, 24, was once Baseball America's #15 overall prospect prior to the 2017 season. This closes the book on the July 31, 2014 trade with Miami. The Marlins received Jarred Cosart, Enrique Hernandez, and Austin Wates - the Astros got Jake Marisnick (traded to the Mets), Colin Moran (traded to Pittsburgh for Gerrit Cole), Martes, and a 2015 Comp Balance A pick which they used to draft Daz Cameron (traded to Detroit for Justin Verlander).
*George Springer said it's "way too early" to decide on a contract extension with the Astros. Springer: The fans have been great to me my whole career in Houston. The city has been great to me. I've grown up as an adult here, I guess. I've been in this organization since I was 21 years old. This organization has been very special to me, but time will tell.
In other words, "Let's talk money."
Counting his $2.52m signing bonus, Springer has made $52,455,300 from the Astros organization in his career, $45m of that from 2018-20. He'll be 31 in September.
*The Astros signed 34-year old reliever Jared Hughes to a minor-league deal with an invite to MLB Spring Training. Hughes: I'm a Texan (Ed. Note: Dallas). I live in the state of Texas with my wife and children. I love the state of Texas and the people in it, and the opportunity to come and play for the Houston Astros is something I just couldn't miss. It's a dream come true.
Hughes has a career 2.88 ERA (4.11 FIP), 1.22 WHIP in nine MLB seasons, all in the National League.
In that above link, we find from McTaggart that:
-Correa changed his workouts and diet in order to stay healthy for an entire season.
-Bregman is 20 pounds lighter compared to last season, and thinks that the extra weight resulted in his slow start in 2019.
-Reddick's shoulder is on the mend. In 114 games from May 2 to the end of the season, Reddick hit .259/.301/.395.
*The Astros had their first full-squad workout (without Zack Greinke). Altuve: I like to talk about the team, team results. I'm here taking full responsibility for the team. I appreciate what Carlos did. Believe me, that tells you what kind of person and what kind of teammate he is. I tell him 100 times what I feel about what he did.
Reddick, on why he didn't use the Trash Can Scheme: This game is hard enough as it is to focus on outside stuff like that. I'm not trying to make it about me...We've got to live with it as a team and get through it as a team. I'm not trying to individualize myself among these guys. We all could have stepped up and done something about it.
*
Harold Reynolds breaks down Altuve's walk-off homerun against Chapman in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS pic.twitter.com/zVy0GJCA3k
*Jake Kaplan on how Spring Training is different with Dusty Baker as opposed to A.J. Hinch. Kaplan: For the most part, it's been plug-and-play with Baker replacing Hinch and James Click replacing Jeff Luhnow as general manager, and with most of the same coaches and data- and technology-savvy staffers as Spring Trainings past.
*Game 4 Hero Jose Urquidy ranked 62nd on the ZiPS Top 100 Prospects list. Bryan Abreu was 72nd. Forrest Whitley was 84th and Brett Conine was 89th.
*Chandler Rome: The Astros know they have each other, and that's pretty much it. Reddick: I think as a team we've done pretty much everything we can do. We keep asking for our peers' forgiveness, and hopefully, they can come around to us one day and understand that we are truly remorseful and sorry for what we've done.
*Mike Trout became the latest player to offer his wisdom to the Astros' situation: It's sad for baseball. It's tough. They cheated. I don't agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything....A lot of people lost jobs. It was tough. Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming? It would be fun up there. A lot of guys lost respect for some of the guys...I lost respect for some guys. A lot of stuff that comes out, you have to see if it's true or not. I'll talk to them and see them in the season. All this stuff coming out, it's tough to see.
*This happened:
A player suggested a very unusual punishment for #Astros so I thought I’d share. Every single team refuses to take the field at Minute Maid Park. Visitors forfeit every game there. Astros go 81-0 at home, but affects their revenue (no fans with no games played!) Quite an idea!
*Bookmaker William Hill set the over/under on the number of times the Astros get HBPd at 83.5. Houston batters were hit 66 times in 2019, which was 16th. The Mets led MLB in 2019 with 95 HBPs, followed by the Reds at 89, the A's at 87, and the Cubs at 83.
*Joel Sherman thinks Rob Manfred should go back and punish the Astros players for the Sign-Stealing Scheme, after all. I'm no lawyer, but going back on a promise of immunity sounds like it wouldn't backfire at all. The punishment(s) he recommends: A three-year ban on All-Star Game appearances, no postseason money shares ever again, Astros bat first in home games in 2020 and 2021, no home playoff games for the next three seasons, no hosting the ASG for 15 years, no international signings for 2021 and 2022, Jim Crane suspended for two seasons.
*Forrest Whitley talked about reporting to camp at 230 pounds, up 40 from the 190 at which he showed up in 2019. Whitley: I was just so skinny that by the time the season would reach like June or July, I wasn't ready. That showed in 2018; I got hurt quite a little bit....I think just the general thought process that went into that was just not coming into camp absurdly skinny like I had the past couple years. I remember a couple years ago I came into camp at like 190, so I wanted to lower the workload, eat a little bit more, and focus on coming into camp at a little better weight.
I'm sitting at about 235, down five since the beginning of the month. Of course, I'm like 5'11" so
*Jim Crane told James Click he can have more money if he needs it. Click: I know where our payroll is relative to the CBT line. (Crane) just shot it down and was like, 'We're over it, that's fine because we're going to win, and if you need more for us to win, I'll get you more.
Spotrac has the Astros' payroll at $214m to $231m. The line in which you pay the tax in 2020 is $208m, with a further penalty if you go over $228m. $37.3m is coming off the books after the season when Brantley ($16m), Reddick ($13m), and Gurriel ($8.3m) become free agents, with the possibility of a further reduction should the Astros not re-sign George Springer ($21m in 2020). I love savings. Love it when my favorite team has coupons. Getting a jersey embroidered with "Savings" on the back.
*Rob Manfred, on punishing the Astros' players themselves: Look, it's impossible, given the facts that we found - and, frankly, the statements of the Astros' players since the decision came out - to escape the fact that, independent of what the GM did, the manager did, (the players) had an obligation to play by the rules, and they didn't do it. I understand when people say, 'The players should have been punished.' I understand why people feel that way, because they did not do the right thing...If I was in a world where I could have found all the facts, without granting immunity, I would have done that.
Manfred says throwing at Astros' hitters is "dangerous, and not helpful to the current situation."
Manfred, on the use of buzzers in 2019: Can I tell you 100 percent certain that it didn't happen? No. You can never know that. People tell you what they tell you. I will tell you, the evidence on this issue was as consistent in the direction that nothing was going on as the evidence was consistent in the direction that there was inappropriate behavior in (2017 and 2018).
So stay with me here: The part of the quote that, and this is shocking I know, people are keying in on is the first part, where Manfred says he can't be 100% certain the Astros weren't wearing buzzers in 2019. But he goes on to say, if you take the time to read the whole quote, that the evidence was as consistent for them not wearing buzzers as it was consistent that they did shady crap in 2017 and 2018. In other words, Manfred's investigation probably got that right, since the Astros themselves are coming out and admitting it.
It is incredibly shocking to me that people are running to Jomboy's defense and taking what he throws against the wall as gospel, while ignoring evidence to the contrary. I can't quite put my finger on a parallel in society where people believe the guy they like is telling them the truth in the face of evidence to the contrary, and vilifying the people who provide said contrary evidence. It's right on the tip of my tongue. I'll figure it out, I guess, after a little more coffee.
Anyway, here's where the buzzer theory originated: Reddit user meme-engineer on October 24: I had a dream a couple weeks back when the Astros were playing the Rays, it was that after the post season finished a news story came out that the Astros had a team of people deciphering signs with cameras and then that team relayed the signal to transponders that were worn in the cleats of the top (trusted not to snitch) Astros players, the transponders would vibrate according to what pitch was coming (example: once for fastball, twice for off-speed). But it was just a dream haha. That wouldn't happen.
*Say, what's happening with Mike Fiers: Sunday, The Chronicle asked Fiers, the public whistleblower in the Astros' cheating scandal, if he'd like to respond to Correa's prompting, and Fiers politely declined comment. Then, before walking away, Fiers added, 'We did it as a team.' *The A's had filed a formal complaint to MLB about the Astros before Fiers' allegations were revealed in The Athletic, and nothing was done.
*Yu Darvish says the Astros should lose their title. Darvish: It's like the Olympics. When a player cheats, you can't have a gold medal, right? But they still have a World Series title. It feels weird.
Darvish threw 3.1IP in the 2017 World Series in two starts - Game 3 in Houston and Game 7 in Los Angeles - and allowed 9H/9R (8ER), 0K:2BB, 2HR, and threw 61 of his 96 pitches for strikes.
*Chris Sale: Yeah, it sucks. But what am I going to do? Am I going to hold them at gunpoint? Am I going to sit here and curse them out through a bunch of cameras? If I have something to say to them, I know those guys. I can get one of their numbers and text them and talk to them face-to-face or whatever. It happened. What are you going to do about it? You can sit around and cry about it or I can get my ass to work and try and win a championship.
*GM James Click says the focus is on rebuilding trust: Every Astros employee, every single one of us, is absolutely committed to making sure that that kind of thing never happens here again. That's our focus. There will be absolutely zero tolerance, no tolerance whatsoever, for that kind of behavior in the Houston Astros organization ever again. And furthermore, that would be the case whether there had been an investigation or not. Any organization that I'm a part of would be absolutely 100 percent in compliance with the rules. There'll be no question about that.
*Yahoo's Tim Brown: The Astros should stop apologizing and go full heel.
*Will Harris is "in a tough spot" in Washington. Harris: Oh, man. They're obviously my friends, and guys that I consider family, guys I will have a relationship with the rest of my life, hopefully. And now watching them go through this...
*MLB will restrict access to video during games. Dugout phone calls will be recorded. Bo Bichette, on technology in the games: In a way it would be dumb to not take advantage of what we have, but at the same time I think that...personally I'd be fine if there was no technology in there whatsoever. I mean they did it back in the day, why can't we do it now? So I'm sure part of the reason (the Astros) did what they did, it is because of how easy the access was to it. And for me, I'd have no problem taking every bit of it away.
In Josh Prager's book (my favorite non-fiction baseball book) The Echoing Green - $4.99 for Kindle currently - he goes back to the Shot Heard 'Round The World in the 1951 NL playoff game, detailing a system the Giants had to deploy a guy in an office in centerfield of the Polo Grounds to use a buzzer to signal to the dugout what signs were coming in. Voila! Bobby Thomson's legendary home run. It's a really good book. You should read it.
But first, Spring Training updates (these are short):
I think in general, during the playoffs, I was trying to do exactly what I did during the regular season, but there were times offensively I wasn't where I needed to be.
Josh James is working on his full wind-up delivery, meaning the Astros are going to give him a chance to make the rotation. James:
Right now, I'm not feeling too comfortable out of the windup because I've been primarily in the stretch, especially being a reliever all year...so just some stuff to work out of the windup to get comfortable.
Dusty Baker is a big fan of rest:
I believe in rest days and I believe in telling guys when they have rest days. There's mental rest days, there's baseball rest days, there's days you say, 'Hey man, go out and have a good meal and a couple of drinks and let your hair down a little bit and you won't be off for another couple of weeks.
Like I said, I have no problem when people talk about what happened during the regular season in 2017. You know, whatever people have to say, we've got to take that on the chin. Guys, it was wrong. It was wrong and we've got to own that and we've got to take that.
He's telling me we cheated them out of a championship? Game 7, he throws a ball away in the first inning and we scored two runs.
Cody Bellinger hit .143/.172/.393 with 17K:1BB in 29 PAs in the 2017 World Series while hitting in the clean-up spot (He hit 5th in Game 5). In 28 postseason games since the 2017 NLCS, Bellinger is hitting .141/.206/.263. And the more I think about this rant, I keep coming back to the takedown of Bellinger's reading comprehension skills. That's really funny.
*Correa said that Altuve would get mad when someone used the trash can when he was at the plate and that Altuve, Reddick, and Tony Kemp did not use the trash can. He admitted that he did. Over at SignStealingScandal, Tony Adams noted the following percentage of bangs:
Reddick: 3.9%
Altuve: 2.8%
Kemp: 0.0%
*On the 2017 Yankees:
The Yankees (in the ALCS). They scored one run in the first game, one run in the second game, they scored one run in Game 6, and they scored no runs in Game 7. If you expect to win with three runs in four games, you're out of your mind.
On Kurt Suzuki:
Oh, they won the championship. And he's still talking about that? Enjoy your ring. Enjoy your teamates. Enjoy what you guys accomplished. Congratulations to you guys. You guys played better than us. That was it.
Honestly, I'm too old to get in the middle. I really don't associate myself with this kind of stuff. I just kind of go about my business and try to stay out of everything and get ready to play baseball. That's what it's about: playing baseball.
Yeah, it bothers me...Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. I think facts are still coming out. Information is still coming out. I don't think this is something that's done now, even for us...People can speculate all they want. We dug our grave. We're in it. But I think emphatically, everybody made it clear that [wearing buzzers] wasn't true. I think we need to go out and prove that we're going to win. We can win. We have a great ballclub and we can do it the right way.
*Dusty Baker says MLB needs to step in and stop premeditated beanings of the Astros. Why is this coming up? Dodgers (of course it's the Dodgers) pitcher Ross Stripling, who was almost traded to the Angels, was asked about whether he would hit an Astros batter:
I thought about that if I was going to the Angels because they open in Houston, right. And I was like, 'Oh my gosh.' Ah...That's a good question. Would I do it? I would lean towards yes. In the right time and the right place.
Baker:
I'm depending on the league to try to put a stop to the seemingly-premeditated retaliation that I'm hearing about...I'm just hoping that the league puts a stop to this before somebody gets hurt. It's not good for the game. It's not good for kids to see it. I think both: stop the comments and also stop something before it happens.
I can see both sides here. Obviously the Astros don't want to get hit with the ball. Obviously the rest of the league is frustrated that no player actually got punished for the sign-stealing scheme. It's probably more frustrating for an opposing player to realize that they could get punished more severely in an act that they (rightly or wrongly) believe is an effort to police the games themselves, since MLB's message of punishment did not directly affect anyone actually banging a trash can or receiving a signal about what pitch was coming. It's an impossible situation. On a base, primal level, I get it.
*Brian T. Smith: The Astros can't move forward until they stop damaging themselves.
*Jeff Passan: This war of words between the Astros and everyone else isn't going to end soon. Passan:
There's more to come. There's always more with this Astros story that drips out with all the efficiency of a broken faucet. The coming days, weeks, months will teem with more details, explanations, facts. Manfred's report looks more and more like a Polaroid that needs to be shaken. The manifold characters all have their versions of the story to tell. There are reputations to be salvaged, careers to be saved, sides to be taken. This is just the beginning.
*Kenley Jansen says the sign-stealing scandal is worse than steroids and gambling. It's just behind Original Sin and slightly ahead of Murder. Jansen:
At least back then [in the steroid era], everyone had to be on steroids. It was a fair game.
Ooooh history is All The Way Revisioned now. This is fun.
*Kris Bryant agrees that the Astros' stealing signs was worse than steroids.
Why link to these statements? For when it comes out that perhaps their teams were stealing signs, as well.
*The New Yorker: Is stealing baseball signs really so bad? Bobby Valentine:
It's the same thought that I have when I'm on a highway, and I'm in the lane where everyone's going 82 mph, and then the guy in front of me gets pulled over. I think, Jeez, is he just unlucky? Everyone else was going 82.
Manfred told Ravech that any discipline of the players likely would have resulted in grievances from the MLBPA, citing Luhnow's failure to communicate to the Astros' players the contents of a 2017 memo outlining MLB's policy on the use of technology. Manfred says that although he doesn't absolve the players in Houston, he believes that Luhnow and Hinch were obligated to inform them of the memo and enforce MLB's rules.
In other words, Manfred didn't want a union fight.
*Leeds United 1 Bristol City 0. With Fulham's loss, Leeds are three points clear of automatic promotion to the Premier League. There are 13 games left. FiveThirtyEight gives Leeds an 80% chance of promotion.
When does an apology fall short of satisfying the aggrieved party? I thought about this a lot today. There are a number of reasons why an apology is rejected or at least treated with skepticism:
1. The apologizing party was told to apologize. Someone told them they were to apologize - that it's something that they should do. They don't really want to do it, but did it, anyway.
2. The apologizing party is not actually sorry.
3. The apologizing party knows/thinks others were doing the same things for which they are currently apologizing, and thus the apology sounds insincere.
Regardless, the Astros held Apology Day yesterday in West Palm Beach.
Statements Bregman: I am really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization, and by me. I have learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans. I would also like to thank the Astros fans for all of their support. We as a team are totally focused on moving forward to the 2020 season.
Springer: The amount of remorse, regret that's very, very obvious to us in this room...There's no real way to express how much regret we have. How much remorse we have.
Reddick was asked if the World Series was worth breaking the rules: I don't think so...It's something that we're gonna probably regret and feel bad for for the rest of our careers.
Carlos Correa had a lot to say, on Twitter and to the media. Correa entertained a question on Twitter from noted troll Incarcerated Bob (who is credibly accused of being behind the "Beltran's Niece" Twitter account) and said there was nothing going on in 2018 or 2019. Correa also confirmed Manfred's findings in the report, but rejected the idea that the Astros were wearing buzzers. Altuve: It was a fake Twitter account that started everything. It makes me upset that a fake Twitter account had that much credibility. Like I said, I feel bad for 2017, but I can say something I didn't do was the buzzer thing. No one on this team wore a buzzer.
A.J. Hinch tried to clarify that he was not aware of any buzzers. What reality is this, even. Hinch: There has been a significant reaction to my answer to the 'buzzer' question. To be clear, I have never seen any such device used in baseball. I am not aware of any such device existing or being utilized with the Astros, the players, or any other team.
Correa, On Beltran steamrolling everyone into buying into the trash can scheme: [Beltran] was the best teammate we've ever had...We all had a say in everything...When the anonymous source is saying we felt intimidated, we were too young to say something, that's straight up bullshit.
Verlander: It's been difficult, showing up in 2017. And once I spent some time there, understood what was happening. I didn't - I wish I had said more. Looking back, I can't go back. I can't reverse my decision. I wish I had said more, and I didn't, and for that I'm sorry.
McCullers: I think that's something none of us can go back and change. I think the important thing we've all come together here. We met (Wednesday) and we stand behind Alex and Altuve and are remorseful for what happened for what happened that season and look forward to moving on.
Dusty Baker: At the meeting [Wednesday] night the players showed tremendous remorse and sorrow and embarrassment for their families, the organization, the city of Houston and for baseball.
Jim Crane completely misread the situation: Our opinion is this didn't impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we'll leave it at that.
This is, of course, completely stupid. The Astros had a good team, they won the World Series. It impacted the game. Click that link to see the logical gymnastics Crane does. 10.0 from all judges, including the East German one. More Crane, on whether he should be punished by Rob Manfred, who is an employee of Jim Crane and 29 of his closest billionaire friends: Well, clearly, the report states that I didn't know about it. Had I known about it, certainly I would have done something about it. I did hire Jeff, and I think Jeff did a lot of great things for the organization over the years. You know, no, I don't think I should be held accountable.
"Our opinion is that this didn't impact the game." - Jim Crane
Billionaires never think they should be held accountable. Read more to see how Crane threw Hinch and Luhnow under the bus. Jim Crane wants to be the new White Knight who leads the Astros into the Garden of Nevermore or whatever dreamland Crane is the mayor of. Billionaire wants all of the credit and none of the blame.
Reactions *Ken Rosenthal: The Astros screwed up their news conference on live television Thursday as only they can.
*The San Antonio Express-News' Mike Finger: The Astros apologized, but for what, exactly? The Astros might have gone to unprecedented lengths to break the rules, putting careers and legacies in peril in the process, but they did not do this to affect the outcome of games. The players, who obviously would have won the World Series without any help, are profoundly sorry for taking part in the scheme, even though the whole thing was beyond their control. The owner, who was completely oblivious to what happened before, can absolutely guarantee everything will be above board from now on.
*A's pitcher Sean Manaea: I saw a couple of interviews and they all said pretty much the same thing - they skated by everything, they swept everything under the rug. They didn't own up to anything and they're trying to move on which is like - what are you guys trying to move on from? You haven't even said what it is you did. They're just now saying they're sorry, but what about this entire offseason? It was like: deny, deny, deny. When the time comes, you have to say what you're trying to move on from. It's crazy.
*Rays pitcher Chris Archer, on his August 1, 2017 start, in which he allowed 6H/4ER, 5K:0BB, 2HR in a 6-4 win against Houston the day after Dallas Keuchel said the Trade Deadline was "Disappointing to say the least." Archer: It's pretty messed up. The whole thing is messed up. It sucks when you dedicate your whole life to something, and somebody's out there doing some shady shit like that.
Mike Fiers was the opposing pitcher that game. He allowed 3ER in the first inning. Archer allowed four runs, all were driven in on homers from Beltran and Bregman and hits from...Beltran and Bregman. Archer: You heard some rumors but I don't think anybody expected it to be to that extent, especially when you know these dudes on a personal level. You've talked to them. You've gone to dinner with them. You've even been on the same team with some of them - Team USA and stuff [Archer played with Bregman in 2017 for the World Baseball Classic]. FaceTimed with them throughout the season and offseason. Texted with them. Whatever. And then to find out to find out I was a part of them being successful. It was definitely disheartening. It's bad for the game. They set out the punishments, and it is what it is at this point. I guess it's time for everybody to move on.
*Clean-shaven pretty boy Gerrit Cole: My feelings really haven't changed much. Nobody is getting a win out of this. It doesn't look very good. I guess I'm just fortunate to be able to be here and move past this and get to experience all the good things about coming to a new team and all that kind of stuff.
Hero, really. Enjoy Central Park and Serendipity and whatnot.
Other Notes *Pete Putila will retain his Assistant GM role. Tom Koch-Weser and Derek Vigoa will remain with the Astros...for now. James Click hedged a little: I think any new GM coming in would want to take a full view of the baseball operations staff and figure out how we take the awesome people that we have here and maximize them and put them in the right position to succeed. It's something definitely on the front-burner for me.
Ed. Note: I've flirted with actually typing this out for most of the offseason, but as Spring Training actually starts in earnest (for real! You can watch Forrest Whitley throw right here!) I want to get this out. There is a certain part of me that is defined by the Astros. I get mad when they lose a game they have no business losing, when they get shut down by a guy making his 2nd career start, when the bullpen blows a Quality Start, when they go 1x13 w/RISP, when they go 0-4 at home in the World Series. Obviously I've had an Astros blog for over 11 years. I've been on Twitter for almost 11 years and have not changed my banner photo once. The Astros are a part of me. Not anywhere close to all of me, but I do spend a lot of time thinking and writing about this particular organization because I was really homesick in Upstate New York in 2008.
Many of you know I'm a public high school history teacher. I also coach soccer. The 2016-17 school year was the absolute hardest year of my life. I taught US History and AP US History for the first time each, and I was in charge of my own team under a ridiculously demanding boss with whose personality I clashed on an atomic level. So I would get home from a road game and an almost-two-hour bus ride and have to then prepare for two different classes the next day.
I love - truly love - two sports teams: the Houston Astros, and Leeds United. I was at the game that sent Leeds to the Champions League quarterfinals WITHOUT Robbie Keane and Eirik Bakke and Rio Ferdinand and Olivier Dacourt! (Leeds United has been a train-wreck since 2003 - it was a real bad time when the Astros AND Leeds were both just complete disasters and affronts to their sport). This was how I was spending my leisure time. Anyhow, when, on June 3, 2017 - the final day of the hardest year I've ever encountered - the Astros beat the Rangers to go to 40-16, the 2017 Astros brought me joy. Later that Autumn, a team I actually loved actually did something. They won the World Series. Since then it has been Hans Gruber falling from Nakatomi: they traded for Osuna, Taubman did Taubman things, Fiers talked to Evan Drellich. It's all shadows now. To me, it's tainted. It doesn't need an asterisk, the asterisk is implied. Were other teams doing it? Maybe, probably, I don't know. I know a lot of people worked really hard to get that World Series and, as advanced as the Astros were with analytics, a freaking trash can, the guy the Astros let walk to the Mets, and the Other Guy From The Carlos Gomez Trade, brought them down.
No one will ever replace the feeling I had at 10:59pm on November 1, 2017. But I know now that it's not the same, that there is shame involved. And if the players don't feel it themselves, I sure do.
Throughout this offseason I have considered shutting Astros County Dot Com down. Getting Randos (and, to be honest, some friends I've known for a long time) in my mentions blasting me for having the gall to be happy for 25 guys doing cool things who happen to have "Houston" stitched across the front of their shirt is not fun. I simultaneously want the Astros to beat the hell out of everybody and also to not have done what they did. And what they did was to cheat their way to the postseason. I'll go to my grave wondering how Alex Bregman could hear a trash can getting hit with 42000 people yelling at the top of their lungs in the bottom of the 10th of Game 5. I'll also go to my grave wondering why a team with that much talent would risk it all. No one - including Mike Fiers - has turned in their Ring, so maybe that's why I'm going to keep this dumb blog going for the time being.
I was not immediately affected by Hurricane Harvey. My mom and my dad live on different sides of Houston. Neither of their houses flooded. I've met a lot of you in real life. I know a lot of you on Twitter. I'll go with the maxim (which I didn't come up with) that Facebook is for friends who are now strangers, and Twitter is for strangers who are now friends. The 2017 World Series saved a lot of you - it was a welcome respite when your world was literally floating away or rotting under floodwaters (which Yankees fans would like to have happen every single year). Now, I'm just sad. I'm beaten down by pretty much everything. The Apologies are hollow because it didn't need to come to this in the first place.
That said, I don't think the Astros were the only team dabbling in the "dark arts" of using technology MLB made available for an edge. Still, when you're the first one caught, it's not pleasant. And you can bet that if Even Drellich With Reporting From Ken Rosenthal (the Carlos Santana feat. Rob Thomas of our generation) tugs at this thread long enough, he/they could unravel the whole thing. I just don't know if they will, or if the Fury of Baseball can stay stoked long enough to care if another team did.
To me there are two things in this world: there's life, and there's baseball. And one helps you get through the other. -Jerry Seinfeld.
Been a rough few days at ACHQ. My wife's grandmother passed away and we were in Oklahoma for the funeral. A former student of mine was shot and killed. Let's just get this over with:
*Oakland's "quality control coach" Mark Kotsay was interviewed by the Astros for their vacant managerial opening. That's nine candidates so far:
Brad Ausmus, Dusty Baker, Jeff Banister, Joe Espada, John Gibbons, Mark Kotsay, Eduardo Perez, Buck Showalter, and Will Venable.
Reminder that Jim Crane said he wants to make a decision on the manager by February 3 - which is next Monday, which is also the day after I turn 40 (and I'm not happy about that, either).
*And hey ho the Astros need a new GM (and it should be Kevin Goldstein) and they've interviewed former Giants GM Bobby Evans for that role.
*
Justin Verlander notes that the Astros are very analytically and technologically advanced....followed by a lot of laughter.
This is going to happen all year, all next year, all the year after that, and the year after that, and the year...forever. Get used to it. Our collective favorite team was caught doing something wrong. It doesn't matter if other teams were doing it - we'd roast them if they were - now they're a lightning rod. It's how it is now. Would have been great if they'd won a home game during the 2019 World Series so we could all have some semblance of facts to counter it, but they went 0-4 at Minute Maid Park (after going 65-21 at MMP from Opening Day through the ALCS), so we don't. It is officially Frustrating to be an Astros fan. All those years of losing, completely discounted, because of what they did, and what Mike F. Fiers said (and, no, I won't be linking to the pedophile rumors at present) two years later.
*Buster Olney: The sign-stealing fallout could leave the Astros vulnerable in the AL West.
*Former Braves Great Dallas Keuchel was the first 2017 Astros member to apologize for the sign-stealing scandal. Keuchel: Was it against the rules? Yes it was. And I personally am sorry for what's come about the whole situation....It's just what the state of baseball was at that point in time...It is what it is, and we've got to move past that. I never thought anything would've come like it did. I, myself, am sorry.
Basically what I've been saying: this was far more widespread, and no, it doesn't make it okay that the Astros did it. But the Astros weren't going to get left behind when there were advantages to be made.
*Lame-Ass Dodgers Fans are going to take the 30-mile/150-minute trip to Anaheim for the expressed purpose of booing the Astros. That seems extremely cool.
*Liverpool had a 2-0 lead and blew it against a Shrewsbury Town substitute in the FA Cup 4th Round. Now League One's Shrewsbury Town gets to play at Anfield and make a ton of money off of ticket sales. You cannot reasonably explain to me how the NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men's and Women's) wouldn't be better off by letting all 350 D1 colleges participate, with qualifying games taking place throughout the season. Like you wouldn't watch Tourney Weekend when Siena and Iona play what would be a qualification game in December and letting all 350 teams have the chance to advance to fill out the 68 teams (or however many there are) in March for the Actual March Madness.
