2020 astros offseason

[txhorns 2421]

1 minute ago, Chuckie Finster said:

His team was busted for cheating in the same fucking season. The 2017 Yankees broke the rules to get a competitive advantage. Cheaters. Confirmed. I understand the outrage from those who are clean, and I do get that there are different levels to cheating, but for a confirmed cheater to get on his high horse is too fucking much.

I mean technically it wasn't against the rules until the Yankees and Red Sox were caught using Apple watches and the commissioner's office told everyone to stop it.

[Chuckie Finster 23079]

I mean technically it wasn't against the rules until the Yankees and Red Sox were caught using Apple watches and the commissioner's office told everyone to stop it.

lolwut

[FondrenRoad 4378]

41 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

This is funny because the Yankees got fined in 2017 for cheating.

I think it was before Judge was called up, though.

He was their opening day right fielder in 2017. Was called up in 2016. 

Yankees used the phone to the replay room to cheat. Red Sox used the Apple watch. Both of them were getting live data in the dugout from the replay room.

Both cheats required a runner on 2nd, but they were able to relay exact pitches from signs stolen from the replay room during the game. 

Whether Aaron Judge used it or not is unknown. Only Astros ABs are being reviewed frame by frame. 

Edited February 19, 2020 by FondrenRoad

[Telegraph_it 3379]

You could almost make the argument the Astros needed the system to have an edge over the Yankees and Red Sox’s system. 
 

But no. Let’s pretend the Astros are as bad as Morey’s tweet. Right LeBron? 

[FondrenRoad 4378]

I hope the court takes that shitty relief pitcher's case against the Astros. That will clear the way for the Astros to serve a discovery request on every other team in the league. 

[Beau Vine 55867]

1 hour ago, David Dennison said:

This is funny because the Yankees got fined in 2017 for cheating.

I think it was before Judge was called up, though.

Do you even watch baseball or do you just post on baseball threads for the arguments?

[HtownHorn 15236]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

 

Lulz, you motherfuckers were cheating with Apple watches, too.

[David Dennison 19542]

19 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Do you even watch baseball or do you just post on baseball threads for the arguments?

I watch a shitload. I just can't remember when he got called up. The Yankees got punished in 2017 for cheating in previous seasons. 

[Lat22 4086]

Now Lebron chimes in:


NBA's LeBron joins MLB stars in ripping Astros as cheats https://sports.yahoo.com/nbas-lebron-joins-mlb-stars-ripping-astros-cheats-233433240--nba.html

Shut up and dribble.

[Zavala 1384]

Wow how booty blasted are those fucking Yankees. Even that sjw bum LeBron is jumping on the butthurt bandwagon shitting on the Astros, we must be doing something right 

[immortal13 4059]

Lebron....he mad

[Mack Tripper 708]

Now Lebron chimes in:


NBA's LeBron joins MLB stars in ripping Astros as cheats https://sports.yahoo.com/nbas-lebron-joins-mlb-stars-ripping-astros-cheats-233433240--nba.html

[Eastwood 4394]

2 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

His team was busted for cheating in the same fucking season. The 2017 Yankees broke the rules to get a competitive advantage. Cheaters. Confirmed. I understand the outrage from those who are clean, and I do get that there are different levels to cheating, but for a confirmed cheater to get on his high horse is too fucking much.

Here's the thing that makes me absolutely livid about this... Cheating happens all the time in baseball. At all levels. All levels. The MLB itself cheats the game by juicing the ball. Players juiced to the absolute gills. Pitchers have been putting every substance known to man on the ball for an edge. Scuffing the ball. Pine tar. Snot. Whatever for an extra inch of movement. Corking bats and getting caught red handed. But almighty baseball and their decrepit, old as fuck, unwritten rules loving core fan base picks and chooses what is "real" cheating and what isn't.

Teams knew what the Astros were doing DURING THE SEASON, as evidenced by mound visits and changing of strategy during the game, and don't say jack shit. People are willing to suspend belief and pretend like the players weren't talking about this behind closed doors while it was happening and sat on it because they were all doing some form of this one way or another. People want to pretend like the MLB home office didn't already hear about this while it was happening and sat on it the way MLB sits on everything. Red Sox did it with Apple watches but nobody cares because they didn't win anything using it. But Mike grows a conscious all of a sudden, goes to the press, and now because the media got its teeth into it and now the MLB is all fire and brimstone and shocked, absolutely shocked that cheating is going on in America's past time of only the holiest of holy integrity and sacred worship of all that is unwritten tradition.

So now all of these players who have shared locker rooms with guys who cheat and said absolutely dick about it and continue to look the other way are getting their soundbites in, getting in their shots so as to appear to be above the cheating fray, but we all know how this is going to end. It's going to come out after all the damage is done to Houston that 16 other teams did this, too, and some of the guys dropping hot sound bites will be popped for some other form of unsanctioned cheating, but people aren't going to give near as much of a fuck as they did when Houston did it. Because that's how sports roll. The only thing people care about is how much blood you can put in the water to feed the frenzy. And if you're an East Coast media darling team that gets ESPN paid like the proven, multi-time champions of cheating NE Patriots, or the "no price is to high, no crime is too big" SEC, then who cares, still a dynasty, bruh. If the Yankees won a World Series and it came out this was happening, it would be "sign stealing has always been a part of the game. It's just more sophisticated now." Fuck, man, when Barry Bonds' head and hands grew 5 sizes in one summer from replacing his entire blood supply with the stem cells of 1,000 baby fetus, you still had people in the media saying "it doesn't put the bat on the ball for him! He still has to hit it!"

And I'll say this: Mike Fiers isn't some hero in the front office behind closed doors. He went outside the family on this one. MLB will crush anyone who says that publicly and will continue to laud him as a catalyst towards "bringing integrity back to the game," but lets be real here. This is the same league that punted for as long as possible on juiced players because the home runs brought more eyeballs. It wasn't until the media started pushing the issue did the righteous indignation popped up. Mike Fiers brewed up a shit storm and nobody in the MLB front office is happy about this. Oakland isn't happy about this. That locker room just lost a little extra "sanctity" over this. A's players will be looking over their shoulder a little more with a guy known to spill the locker room secrets around them. Fiers is in his contract year this year. He had a fantastic first year. If he has anything less than a stellar year, the A's aren't re-signing him. MLB is quietly hoping that Fiers does everyone a favor and fades into the background.

There. That's it. This is everything that I've been quietly ranting to myself about in traffic for the past two months. Now some 65 year old baseball purist can chime in and tell me how I don't know dick about the "real history" of the game and why what the Astros did was somehow different than the thousands of instances of systemic, continuous, and premeditated cheating that happens every season. It's either cheating or it's not. Either it's all punished or none of it is punished. Unwritten rules, my ass.

[Chuckie Finster 23079]

Not only that, but imagine trying to explain this to someone who isn’t familiar with baseball.

 

Okay, so teams have been trying to steal signs since the invention of baseball. Everybody agrees with this. If you figure out the other teams signs, it’s okay to tell the batter what is coming if you have a runner on second base, but no other time. It’s okay to use a camera feed to try to help figure these out, but you can only study this information before or after the game. All of these things are technically against the rules of course, but everyone accepts that they are allowed as long as you do them exactly like I’ve stated.

 

Oh, and if the pitcher does something slightly different for each type of pitch that helps the batter know what is coming, then it is generally regarded as the pitchers fault because DUH everyone knows that the batter is desperately looking for any indication to help him know what is coming.

 

Edited to add: before any troll tries to claim I’m absolving the Astros of wrongdoing, that ain’t it. They cheated and should be punished. I just find the outrage silly when the sport is completely shaped by unwritten rules, most of which are technically “cheating”.

[Gourmand 7778]

Here's the thing that makes me absolutely livid about this... Cheating happens all the time in baseball. At all levels. All levels. The MLB itself cheats the game by juicing the ball. Players juiced to the absolute gills. Pitchers have been putting every substance known to man on the ball for an edge. Scuffing the ball. Pine tar. Snot. Whatever for an extra inch of movement. Corking bats and getting caught red handed. But almighty baseball and their decrepit, old as fuck, unwritten rules loving core fan base picks and chooses what is "real" cheating and what isn't.
Teams knew what the Astros were doing DURING THE SEASON, as evidenced by mound visits and changing of strategy during the game, and don't say jack shit. People are willing to suspend belief and pretend like the players weren't talking about this behind closed doors while it was happening and sat on it because they were all doing some form of this one way or another. People want to pretend like the MLB home office didn't already hear about this while it was happening and sat on it the way MLB sits on everything. Red Sox did it with Apple watches but nobody cares because they didn't win anything using it. But Mike grows a conscious all of a sudden, goes to the press, and now because the media got its teeth into it and now the MLB is all fire and brimstone and shocked, absolutely shocked that cheating is going on in America's past time of only the holiest of holy integrity and sacred worship of all that is unwritten tradition.
So now all of these players who have shared locker rooms with guys who cheat and said absolutely dick about it and continue to look the other way are getting their soundbites in, getting in their shots so as to appear to be above the cheating fray, but we all know how this is going to end. It's going to come out after all the damage is done to Houston that 16 other teams did this, too, and some of the guys dropping hot sound bites will be popped for some other form of unsanctioned cheating, but people aren't going to give near as much of a fuck as they did when Houston did it. Because that's how sports roll. The only thing people care about is how much blood you can put in the water to feed the frenzy. And if you're an East Coast media darling team that gets ESPN paid like the proven, multi-time champions of cheating NE Patriots, or the "no price is to high, no crime is too big" SEC, then who cares, still a dynasty, bruh. If the Yankees won a World Series and it came out this was happening, it would be "sign stealing has always been a part of the game. It's just more sophisticated now." Fuck, man, when Barry Bonds' head and hands grew 5 sizes in one summer from replacing his entire blood supply with the stem cells of 1,000 baby fetus, you still had people in the media saying "it doesn't put the bat on the ball for him! He still has to hit it!"
And I'll say this: Mike Fiers isn't some hero in the front office behind closed doors. He went outside the family on this one. MLB will crush anyone who says that publicly and will continue to laud him as a catalyst towards "bringing integrity back to the game," but lets be real here. This is the same league that punted for as long as possible on juiced players because the home runs brought more eyeballs. It wasn't until the media started pushing the issue did the righteous indignation popped up. Mike Fiers brewed up a shit storm and nobody in the MLB front office is happy about this. Oakland isn't happy about this. That locker room just lost a little extra "sanctity" over this. A's players will be looking over their shoulder a little more with a guy known to spill the locker room secrets around them. Fiers is in his contract year this year. He had a fantastic first year. If he has anything less than a stellar year, the A's aren't re-signing him. MLB is quietly hoping that Fiers does everyone a favor and fades into the background.
There. That's it. This is everything that I've been quietly ranting to myself about in traffic for the past two months. Now some 65 year old baseball purist can chime in and tell me how I don't know dick about the "real history" of the game and why what the Astros did was somehow different than the thousands of instances of systemic, continuous, and premeditated cheating that happens every season. It's either cheating or it's not. Either it's all punished or none of it is punished. Unwritten rules, my ass.

Excellent post.

The sanctimonious groupthink makes me ragey.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Rimbo 27027]

50 minutes ago, Eastwood said:

Here's the thing that makes me absolutely livid about this... Cheating happens all the time in baseball. At all levels. All levels. The MLB itself cheats the game by juicing the ball. Players juiced to the absolute gills. Pitchers have been putting every substance known to man on the ball for an edge. Scuffing the ball. Pine tar. Snot. Whatever for an extra inch of movement. Corking bats and getting caught red handed. But almighty baseball and their decrepit, old as fuck, unwritten rules loving core fan base picks and chooses what is "real" cheating and what isn't.

Teams knew what the Astros were doing DURING THE SEASON, as evidenced by mound visits and changing of strategy during the game, and don't say jack shit. People are willing to suspend belief and pretend like the players weren't talking about this behind closed doors while it was happening and sat on it because they were all doing some form of this one way or another. People want to pretend like the MLB home office didn't already hear about this while it was happening and sat on it the way MLB sits on everything. Red Sox did it with Apple watches but nobody cares because they didn't win anything using it. But Mike grows a conscious all of a sudden, goes to the press, and now because the media got its teeth into it and now the MLB is all fire and brimstone and shocked, absolutely shocked that cheating is going on in America's past time of only the holiest of holy integrity and sacred worship of all that is unwritten tradition.

So now all of these players who have shared locker rooms with guys who cheat and said absolutely dick about it and continue to look the other way are getting their soundbites in, getting in their shots so as to appear to be above the cheating fray, but we all know how this is going to end. It's going to come out after all the damage is done to Houston that 16 other teams did this, too, and some of the guys dropping hot sound bites will be popped for some other form of unsanctioned cheating, but people aren't going to give near as much of a fuck as they did when Houston did it. Because that's how sports roll. The only thing people care about is how much blood you can put in the water to feed the frenzy. And if you're an East Coast media darling team that gets ESPN paid like the proven, multi-time champions of cheating NE Patriots, or the "no price is to high, no crime is too big" SEC, then who cares, still a dynasty, bruh. If the Yankees won a World Series and it came out this was happening, it would be "sign stealing has always been a part of the game. It's just more sophisticated now." Fuck, man, when Barry Bonds' head and hands grew 5 sizes in one summer from replacing his entire blood supply with the stem cells of 1,000 baby fetus, you still had people in the media saying "it doesn't put the bat on the ball for him! He still has to hit it!"

And I'll say this: Mike Fiers isn't some hero in the front office behind closed doors. He went outside the family on this one. MLB will crush anyone who says that publicly and will continue to laud him as a catalyst towards "bringing integrity back to the game," but lets be real here. This is the same league that punted for as long as possible on juiced players because the home runs brought more eyeballs. It wasn't until the media started pushing the issue did the righteous indignation popped up. Mike Fiers brewed up a shit storm and nobody in the MLB front office is happy about this. Oakland isn't happy about this. That locker room just lost a little extra "sanctity" over this. A's players will be looking over their shoulder a little more with a guy known to spill the locker room secrets around them. Fiers is in his contract year this year. He had a fantastic first year. If he has anything less than a stellar year, the A's aren't re-signing him. MLB is quietly hoping that Fiers does everyone a favor and fades into the background.

There. That's it. This is everything that I've been quietly ranting to myself about in traffic for the past two months. Now some 65 year old baseball purist can chime in and tell me how I don't know dick about the "real history" of the game and why what the Astros did was somehow different than the thousands of instances of systemic, continuous, and premeditated cheating that happens every season. It's either cheating or it's not. Either it's all punished or none of it is punished. Unwritten rules, my ass.

You're ranting the same thoughts I shrug to. You get mad; I use this to stay calm. Because

1. fuck everyone else but us, and

2. anything that pisses off dodgers and Yankee fans is GOOD

[Chuckie Finster 23079]

[Eastwood 4394]

 

6 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

 

 

1 hour ago, Eastwood said:

"sign stealing has always been a part of the game. It's just more sophisticated now."

Like. Fucking. Clockwork.

[TexArcher 39072]

10 hours ago, Jshep34 said:

Amazing how these players and managers never cried this much when roid users were stealing titles, mvps, records and money.

I've pointed this out before, but I'll say it again: the outrage from the Dodgers is ironic as hell after they played at least one obvious juicehead (Puig) against us in that World Series.

And Aroldis Chapman has a domestic violence incident, but the Astros are evil for signing Roberto Osuna.

And the Red Sox also cheated, but this entire story is about the Astros.

Why?  Because the Astros aren't a traditional media darling like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox.  And because a drunken dude-bro assistant GM said something that offended a female media member who was itching to get offended so she could try her hand at op/ed and patriarchy smashing, and the rest of the nerd media couldn't wait to stick up for one of their own, who just happened to be the only almost-pretty girl who would talk to most of them.

Look, what the Astros did was wrong and they should be punished.  And they were, in major ways, imposed by the league and the club. 

But the whole "biggest scandal since the Black Sox" angle is the creation of a vindictive, lazy media desperate for some clicks.  

And every single one of the players expressing outrage over this knows of at least one teammate who is cheating.  All of them.

So come on with it.  Y'all want to make us the Patriots, you might just succeed, in more ways than one.

[Eastwood 4394]

Oh, and one more thing: all this talk about pitchers plunking Astros batters is absolute cowardly horseshit. Their balls were two sizes too small to plunk when they knew about it in 2018 and 2019, but all of a sudden grew like the Grinch's heart when they seemingly have the implied green light from fans and media. And the Astros batters know this. If the league doesn't get out in front of that in a big way early, we'll see some real violence instead of the millionaire bench clearing temper-tantrum slap fights that we normally see.

[runthebone 8377]

There's going to be minimal plunking.  That is all fucking talk.  Pitchers today don't even retaliate to protect their own teammates.

[henrygandorf 29225]

give us all your free bases. 

[Pimphand 6370]

Do these fucksticks (Yankees, Dodgers, media, et al) not realize their fucking tears are like crack cocaine?

I'm about to fucking overdose

[Nice Guy Eddie 13731]

the Astros need something else to happen to get them off the headlines. Athletes aren’t just coming up with these statements on their own but being prompted by questions.

as much as I thought (everyone thought) the Astros press conference was horrible, I think they have to continue to keep their heads down and not say anything else.

[Iceman 2978]

6 hours ago, Eastwood said:

Oh, and one more thing: all this talk about pitchers plunking Astros batters is absolute cowardly horseshit. Their balls were two sizes too small to plunk when they knew about it in 2018 and 2019, but all of a sudden grew like the Grinch's heart when they seemingly have the implied green light from fans and media. And the Astros batters know this. If the league doesn't get out in front of that in a big way early, we'll see some real violence instead of the millionaire bench clearing temper-tantrum slap fights that we normally see.

I still think the bean-ball situation is a figment of people's imaginations.

#1, people want to win.  Giving the Astros free baserunners ain't exactly the recipe to victory.  Also, if I am Joe Schmo, pitching for the, say, White Sox; why the fuck do I care what Houston may or may not have done?  I just don't see it as some "campaign of Dignity and Righteousness" against the Astros.  I might be totally wrong, but that's how I see it.  Opposing pitchers are wanting to win, and if someone trailing by 6 in the last 2 innings wants to take shots, then that's gonna be dealt with by the umps and the league.  IT HAS to be.

Put me down for the UNDER 89.5 HBP for the Astros.

[Mez2 4048]

Re cheating:  game's the same, just got more fierce 

[Lat22 4086]

7 hours ago, TexArcher said:

And because a drunken dude-bro assistant GM said something that offended a female media member who was itching to get offended so she could try her hand at op/ed and patriarchy smashing, and the rest of the nerd media couldn't wait to stick up for one of their own, who just happened to be the only almost-pretty girl who would talk to most of them.

This is why it happened to Houston.  No doubt in my mind.

[Scraps 13800]

God trolling Dodgers fans on social media is fun 

[Steamboat1874 4358]

10 hours ago, Mack Tripper said:

Fuck Lebron

He cheats in every game he plays by traveling.

 

[Beau Vine 55867]

6 hours ago, Pimphand said:

Do these fucksticks (Yankees, Dodgers, media, et al) not realize their fucking tears are like crack cocaine?

I'm about to fucking overdose

 

[RGBIII 23015]

This is all media as well, they are asking the exact same questions to these players to get the exact same reactions in the slowest sports news cycle of the year (No football, ASB etc). Literally no new information has come to light since the report but the backlash is 100 times more intense because these stupid media fucks has to generate clicks and they know these dumb big market fucks in New York and LA will gobble this shit up like the fucking slop that it is. All I will say is these fucks better make sure that their noses have been clean and theres no hidden skeletons in their closet...

[FondrenRoad 4378]

8 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

This is all media as well, they are asking the exact same questions to these players to get the exact same reactions in the slowest sports news cycle of the year (No football, ASB etc). Literally no new information has come to light since the report but the backlash is 100 times more intense because these stupid media fucks has to generate clicks and they know these dumb big market fucks in New York and LA will gobble this shit up like the fucking slop that it is. All I will say is these fucks better make sure that their noses have been clean and theres no hidden skeletons in their closet...

No football!?  This is the peak XFL season.

[David Dennison 19542]

7 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

This is all media as well, they are asking the exact same questions to these players to get the exact same reactions in the slowest sports news cycle of the year (No football, ASB etc). Literally no new information has come to light since the report but the backlash is 100 times more intense because these stupid media fucks has to generate clicks and they know these dumb big market fucks in New York and LA will gobble this shit up like the fucking slop that it is. All I will say is these fucks better make sure that their noses have been clean and theres no hidden skeletons in their closet...

Manfred better watch his back. The media and player shitstorm against him is getting louder by the day.

[Dennis Taylor 19355]

10 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

 

the hypocrisy in mind-blowing. or maybe it isn't at all. fuck jeff passan, the yankees, red sox, dodgers, braves and anyone else crying like fucking bitches.

[The Dog 44861]

MLBPA needs to give these guys religion so they will shut up.

[HtownHorn 15236]

Lulz, the MLBPA has said that from the beginning that MLB told them there would be no penalties against the players, because MLB had never informed players about potential penalties for using technology to steal signs. MLB has also stated, that had they tried to punish any player(s) the PA would have immediately filed a grievance on behalf of the player(s), which likely would have been a loss for MLB. These players are just fucking stupid to think that 1) the Astros would have fully cooperated with the investigation without immunity, and 2) that MLB had any real evidence without the players cooperation. Mike Fiers could have easily been played off as a conspiracy theorist who was trying to hurt his former team that is a rival to his current team. Not too mention that Fiers is a pedophile. Of course the Fake News purposely if overlooking that the Yankees and Red Sox were both caught cheating using electronic devices in 2017.

[runthebone 8377]

At this point, I don't know who else is left to ask.  Maybe NASCAR drivers because they will say cheating is fine and is part of their culture, just like baseball.

My main thing is that I don't want anyone getting a hand broken via hbp.  Bad memories of Bagwell.

[DaysOff 8209]

Meanwhile on the arlington thread. This is a new MLB park apparently.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

5 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

Meanwhile on the arlington thread. This is a new MLB park apparently.

The cheap warehouse facade is a nice touch.

[David Dennison 19542]

Were they going for the tractor supply look?

[runthebone 8377]

Stanton says he would hit 80 homers if he knew which pitch were coming.  I assume he means in 162 games spread out over 3 seasons.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

10 minutes ago, runthebone said:

Stanton says he would hit 80 homers if he knew which pitch were coming.  I assume he means in 162 games spread out over 3 seasons.

Bellinger would probably say the same thing.  However, Bellinger knew what pitch was coming every time in the playoffs. 

[Js1 87185]

3 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

Bellinger would probably say the same thing.  However, Bellinger knew what pitch was coming every time in the playoffs. 

The strikeout pitch? 

[FondrenRoad 4378]

3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

The strikeout pitch? 

That's the one.

[Alvin89 108]

https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/1906205/are-the-yankees-massive-hypocrites-for-signing-gerrit-cole

[Pimphand 6370]

1 hour ago, runthebone said:

Stanton says he would hit 80 homers if he knew which pitch were coming.  I assume he means in 162 games spread out over 3 seasons.

He is an idiot but the quote he directly said "in 17" which was when he hit 59 so he was asserting he would have gotten 21 more.

Thankfully he has been a full blown trainwreck for the MFY and hopefully continues to do so.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Pimphand

[Jshep34 2426]

https://houston.sportsmap.com/memo-to-astros-rockets-texans-and-houston-fans-in-general-sports-in-this-city-can-be-fun-again-heres-how-we-make-it-happen

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

[tx 3 putt 78684]

4 hours ago, Lat22 said:

This is why it happened to Houston.  No doubt in my mind.

That had nothing to do with fiers breaking the code. That douche earned that firing / sinking his career 

[CurlyDumps 4659]

Half of these guys speaking out are actively working with a "nutritionist" who helps them beat PED tests. The righteous indignation has reached Ryan Braun levels.  

And speaking of PED's, does anyone remember if Lebron spoke out publicly when NBA players were linked to the Biogenesis Scandal? Which involved a clinic located in Miami, and happened to overlap with the years he played for the Miami Heat?

[Mack Tripper 708]