Let’s Pump The Breaks on the Astros Bashing
Some of the best players in baseball have come out hard against the Houston Astros amid the sign-stealing scandal that’s been the talk of baseball.
Cody Bellinger didn’t think the Astros were punished harshly enough by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. He didn’t think the players should have received immunity for participating in the investigation. He flat-out said Astros second baseman Jose Altuve stole an MVP Award from Aaron Judge.
Aaron Judge agreed with “a lot of the things” Bellinger said, including that the Astros’ punishment was weak. He didn’t come out and say Altuve stole the MVP from him, but he alluded to it.
Even the best player in baseball, Mike Trout, who is rarely outspoken about anything, said he didn’t “agree with the punishments.” Many baseball fans feel the same way.
Amid all of the anger they’re feeling, I don’t think the players are seriously considering what they would have done had they been part of the 2017 Astros.
Here’s why I think that’s the case: there’s no reason to think there was anything particularly unique about the 25 or so players on the 2017 Houston Astros that would suggest they had less integrity or moral character than any other group of 25 players on a major league roster that year. This was a crime of opportunity based on a number of factors that came together to make it possible.
They individual players on the 2017 Astros have different backgrounds, took different paths to professional baseball, and came to the Astros by different means. Some grew up in the U.S., others in Latin America, at least one was born in Japan (Nori Aoki). Some were drafted and developed by the team, some were trade acquisitions, some were waiver wire pick-ups or free agent signings. They were put together the same way every other MLB team is put together.
The 25 players on the Astros are a small portion of the 750 players in the major leagues (I realize most teams use more than 25 players in a season, but I’ll use 25 to keep things simple). These players weren’t hand-selected for their lack of character that would, at some point, make them more likely than any other group of 25 players to participate in a sign-stealing operation. They were just ballplayers.
If the circumstances presented themselves similarly to another team, say the Yankees or Dodgers or Red Sox, for example, it’s not hard to imagine a whole different group of players doing exactly what the Astros players did. Players on those teams may now claim, after the fact, that they would never cheat in this way, God forbid, how dare you suggest such a thing?! They act as if it’s inconceivable that the Astros did what they did.
We’re at the point now where the Astros are cheater-cheater pumpkin-eaters and the players on the other 29 teams are upstanding men of character who refused to be the dirty, rotten scoundrels the Astros were.
Of course, we might find out in a week or so how the Red Sox players cheated in 2018 on their way to a World Series victory. Will we then see another round of angry players lambasting the Red Sox for their cheating scheme? Will we then say there’s something unique about BOTH the 2017 Astros AND 2018 Red Sox that they would cheat while 28 other teams wouldn’t in similar circumstances?
Consider the setting from the players point of view. The 2017 Astros were a team on the rise. They had set the franchise record for losses each year from 2011 to 2013. After losing 111 games in 2013, the Astros were a not-terrible 70-92 in 2014. On June 30 that year, the cover of Sports Illustrated had a picture of George Springer and the words, “Your 2017 World Series Champs.”
The process was already in motion that would result in three straight 100-win seasons. The Astros won 86 games and made the playoffs in 2015, then fell back to 84 wins in 2016, but had a strong core of players that suggested they were ready to make another jump forward as the 2017 season started. The players knew they were good and trusted the organization that had built a winning team from bottom-feeders to playoff contenders.
One of the reasons the Astros were so highly-regarded at the time was their analytics department, which was lauded as one of the best in the game, perhaps THE best in the game. The franchise was on the cutting edge in their use of technology. We have since learned that one of their developments in 2016 was “Codebreaker,” which involved video room staff observing other teams’ signs and the subsequent pitch, entering that information into a spreadsheet during the game, then having the information analyzed so it could be relayed to Houston hitters. “Codebreaker” eventually morphed into the 2017 garbage can banging scheme.
Baseball itself was at a point where the use of technology was spreading like wildfire across the game. Teams could capture data on the key players in the pitcher—batter confrontation, then use that data to their advantage. “Codebreaker” involved gathering data on the other teams’ signs through the use of video, but another use of video could be deciphering any “tells” a pitcher might have. For example, does he hold his glove slightly higher when throwing a fastball? Teams also have video of every pitch received by the catcher, which could be used to determine if the catcher is giving away what pitch is coming by the way he sets up for the pitch. All of this is legal, mind you, as long as the information is not passed along to the hitter in real time. That’s where the line has been drawn. The line seems so clear now, but we have to remember it wasn’t so clear in 2017.
In addition, sign-stealing has been a part of baseball for over a century and it exists along a continuum where some sign-stealing is perfectly acceptable and other sign-stealing is not. A runner leading off second who deciphers the catcher’s signs to relay the upcoming pitch to the batter is acceptable sign-stealing. A bench coach watching the opposing team’s third base coach to pick up the bunt, steal, or hit-and-run sign is also perfectly acceptable. These things are not only acceptable, they’re praise-worthy and encouraged and they have been ever since signs were first developed. This is the reality the players lived in.
Now technology comes along and teams can use video to decode the catcher’s signs (or determine if a pitcher is tipping his pitches) and that’s also acceptable if the information is given to the players before or after the game. Use technology to steal signs and put it in a scouting report and all is fine, move along, nothing to see here. From the 2017 Astros player’s point of view, their much-lauded analytics department was regularly supplying them with information procured through technology. It was a regular part of the game plan.
Adding to the mix is the negligence of Major League Baseball. They put a video monitor in the clubhouse so a manager can be told whether or not to challenge a call, but they didn’t put a system in place to make sure it’s not abused in the way that it ultimately was. They didn’t anticipate the need for oversight. They could have hired one person for $15 per hour to sit in the video monitor area to make sure these kinds of shenanigans didn’t happen, but they didn’t think to do that.
Rounding out this tableau, we have Alex Cora becoming a bench coach for the Astros prior to the 2017 season. Cora played in the big leagues for 14 seasons. When he joined the Astros as a bench coach, he was just 41 years old, but already well-regarded in the game. A few weeks later, the Astros signed Carlos Beltran, who was a highly-respected veteran player and potential Hall of Famer. The Astros signed him as much for his clubhouse presence and veteran leadership as for his ability on the field. These two veterans were supposed to be the leaders that the players looked up to. That was a big part of why they were there.
Now, Imagine yourself as a player for the 2017 Astros. You are part of an up-and-coming young team that is expected to contend for the playoffs. You have one of the best analytic departments in baseball and they are providing useful information through the use of technology. You have two highly-respected guys in the clubhouse, one a 20-year veteran and the other a coach, and they come up with a plan to use the information provided by the analytics department to signal what pitch is coming to the batter in real time.
What do you do?
What I think people should realize is how easy it was to go over the line, which was not yet set in stone during the 2017 season, when everything has pushed you up to it. This is especially true when you have a coach and a respected veteran player as the ringleaders and a manager who looks the other way. The players didn’t set out to create a way to cheat in real time using technology. There were incremental moves and other factors along the way that led to that outcome.
It’s human nature to believe that you would have done the right thing, but you don’t really know if you would have. Professional athletes are always looking for an advantage; it’s part of their competitive nature. As angry as other MLB players are at the Astros right now, they should really think about what they would have done if they were in the same situation. It’s hard for me to believe that this specific group of players on the Astros did anything that any other group of players in the same situation would not have done.
