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HOUSTON – Among the means by which the Houston Astros managed to escape a penalty, a fine, or even a reprimand, they used the defense of Chris Correa to illegally monitor the canoes of two opponents in the playoffs . Correa is the former director of St. Louis Cardinals screening who visited a federal prison after illegally accessing an Astros database containing Scouting information and trade discussions. His excuse: he thought the former Cardinals at the head of the Astros had stolen exclusive materials and wanted to prove it. In other words, he made sure the Astros did not do anything wrong.
Major League Baseball shut out the Astros on Wednesday after Yahoo Sports and the Metro newspaper announced that Kyle McLaughlin, close to Astros owner Jim Crane, had been removed from the well of photographers in Cleveland in the third game of the series. American League. and Boston in the first game of the AL Championship series. Houston claimed to have asked McLaughlin to monitor the opposing canoes to ensure that their opponents were not using any illegal tactics to steal the Astros signs. In other words: the Astros made sure that the Indians and Red Sox did not do anything wrong.
"We were playing in defense," said Astros Baseball Operations President Jeff Luhnow. "We were not playing the offensive. We want to make sure that the playing field is the same. "
The league offering the free pass to Houston angered baseball executives, who contacted Yahoo Sports to try to understand the reason. If the Astros were allowed to monitor the game in another team's dugout canoe without penalty, one wondered if all the teams should not be allowed to do the same. If the Astros were so preoccupied with the malice of their opponents, he explained, why did they send a young man in his early twenties whose role in the team is opaque and not just ask at MLB to send a security professional to examine the dugout from the same place and ensure everything is above the board? Especially, taking to heart the explanation of Astros for the use of McLaughlin, if there is a rule prohibiting technology embedded in the game to help steal the signs, why is a team- is she allowed to use game-integrated technology to check if her opponent is illegally flying signs?
These are tough questions for the MLB, and these are questions the league wants to push until the dead season, lest its post-season be hindered by questions about the tactics of its defending World Series champion . Sorry. This Pandora's box is wide open, and whatever the reasoning used by the league to validate its decision, absolving the Astros will not close it.
Astros chief executive Jeff Luhnow speaks at a press conference before the fourth ALCS game in Houston. (AP)
The number of complaints MLB heard from teams during the same season shows that this problem is much deeper than McLaughlin's use of the Astros. At the start of the Red Sox's division series against the New York Yankees, the MLB was alerted to an illegal coach sitting on one of the team's benches, sources at Yahoo Sports told Reuters. incident. He was asked to leave the boat. The playoffs of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies divisions, sources told Yahoo Sports, also carried numerous accusations of deception, fearing that someone would send strikes from the center of the field and that the signals be transmitted to a third base trainer from the tunnel. and then passed to the dough.
Team grunting is becoming more prevalent in baseball as technology allows teams to theoretically probe levels of treachery that were almost unimaginable just ten years ago. Last year, the MLB fined the Red Sox for using an Apple Watch watch as part of a ploy to steal placards against the Yankees. The players in the game are constantly discussing ways in which they believe other teams are flying signs, an art long reserved for bright-eyed players. Now, fear the players, the secret cameras are used to transfer video signals from the sensors in secret video rooms, where the teams decode them with the help of an algorithm, transmit them in real time to the dugout and transmit them to players at the plate using hand signals or code words or other delivery methods.
John the Square, meets Major League Baseball.
Such paranoia informs the actions of the teams, including the Astros. Naming the Red Sox for using the Apple Watch has clearly not convinced the Astros, who felt obliged, said Luhnow, to send a man in each city on the road to investigate their opponents.
"There have been many cases where we have identified suspicious activity," he said, without identifying the activity or the culprits. In a series that took place at the end of August against the Astros, the Oakland A thought they had caught Houston thanks to the applause of the canoe to replay the signals on the ground. Luhnow told reporters he had "never heard of [accusations against the Astros] Personally, "according to sources, the MLB contacted the Astros about the Oakland charges, and no penalty was imposed in this case either.
Kyle McLaughlin is targeting a mobile phone in the Cleveland canoe during the 11-3 loss to ALDS in the Indians, which ended their season.
Which basically lets Luhnow say: They hate us because they are not us. "What happens is when a team is successful," he said, "there will be many other people who will look at her and try to understand what motivates her. " Not because the Astros have essentially replaced their camera-tracking staff. Or because the ex-Astros told their teammates how good the team was at getting the signs of their opponents. No, just because they are good.
Given the pride such as it was necessary to negotiate for Roberto Osuna during a suspension related to domestic violence and claiming that they apply a policy of zero tolerance in relation to domestic violence. Domestic violence organization, the Astros sent McLaughlin to search the Red Sox's canoe after his dismissal by security in Cleveland was on the mark. The forgiveness of the MLB has allowed the Astros to deny any wrongdoing and in the eyes of the Commissariat, they are free and clear.
The rest of the baseball is still suspicious. Officials have suggested that, to rid baseball of spying games, the league must develop a plan before the next season with severe penalties for those who use the technology to influence the game in the game. Between this and some sort of secure wireless communication between the pitcher, catcher and canoe, the MLB has the means to limit the physical signs – thus limiting the theft of signs – and dissuade teams from using the technology to their advantage. If this helps to eliminate the glut of past and wild balls, this post-season is attributed to overshooting missed signs as teams try to prevent them from being stolen, all the better.
"I hope we can go beyond that," said Luhnow, a dream even though the Astros are facing elimination with a three-game deficit against a Red Sox face. It is too common, too invasive, too important for baseball to avoid the condemnation of supporters. Already attendance is down. Already, the competitive balance is worrying us. The gravity of the unintended consequences of technology can not be underestimated, and anything that has allowed MLB to look beyond the questions it has failed to answer by exonerating the Astros must be taken into account when deciding new rules.
For now, Alex Cora, director of Red Sox, said, "You do not want to get caught up in paranoia." He knows better, of course. It's too late for that. Pandora's box is open. Black helicopters hover over the Major League Baseball. And they will not leave any time soon.
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