The Houston Astros have been caught cheating. According to an article in the “Athletic” they were caught illegally stealing other teams signs throughout the teams 2017 Championship season. Now to be perfectly clear, all teams steal signs these days whether it’s “Tipping Pitches” or stealing signals from second base, but the illegal part is doing it using technology which is where the Astros crossed the line in 2017. This isn’t the first time a team has been accused of cheating as the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox were caught using an Apple Watch to steal signals in previous years and were fined for it, thus forcing the MLB to increase sanctions on sign stealing last offseason. However, the Astros took it even farther.
According to 2017 Astros pitcher Mike Fiers and three other Astros who’s identity was not revealed, a struggling player who was traded to the Astros in 2017 started this scheme with a hitting coach and they ran away with it. Now, this isn’t to say Houston didn’t’ have a good team back then and they don’t do now, but this did definitely give them an advantage en route to there 2017 title.
What they did was the following:
1.A camera was set up in CF at Minute Maid Park zoned in ,right on the opposing catchers signals
2 The camera was connected to a monitor in between the Astros dugout and their clubhouse , so basically in the tunnel.
3 Throughout the games, players and employees would watch that monitor and try to decode the signs
4 Once they would figure out the signs, they would relay it to the current Astros hitter at the plate via a bang of a metal garbage can or a high-pitched whistle.
5 The sound would indicate that a change up or breaking ball would be coming, while no sound would indicate a fastball would be coming to the Astros hitter.
This would take a while for opposing teams to catch on, especially when they brought relievers into the games. That would be because teams would change signs, once they realize they are being robbed of signals. An example of this came in late September of 2017, when then White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar took the mound against Evan Gattis of the Astros. Twitter sensation @Jomboy-, did a great job of breaking down that AB, and how the banging effected Gattis and Danny. You can see that video here watch closely!
Danny was also interviewed in this article, and said that he grew suspicious after he heard the third bang and “Stepped off”, to call timeout and change the signals with his catcher Kevin Smith. In fact, if you go on Twitter and look up Jomboy’s account, you will see that he has a whole thread filled with Astros “Bang” videos.
DOES THIS AFFECT THE YANKEES?
Oh yes it does! In the 2017 ALCS, the Yankees lost all four games in Houston. Now I did some thinking and it turns out that of the 15 runs that were scored by the Astros in those four home games, 10 of them were scored in the early innings. That’s important, because starters don’t usually change the signals until later in their outings. Another thing, is that CC Sabathia, the game 7 loser for the Yankees absolutely dominated the Astros in Game 3 of that series and hadn’t been bad for a long stretch of time until that pivotal Game 7.
Now you can make an argument, that Houston was just too good and all, which is fine because they won it all in 2017. But, when I went to take a look at some of the Astros players postseason stats for that postseason, from @Tyler-talker1 on twitter, what I saw was mind-boggling.
Tyler threw out the Home/Away splits of 6 different Astros players and the two players stats that caught my attention were Jose Altuve and exYankee brain Mccan.
At home, Jose had a 427 BA ( batting average), with 6 HR and &RBI compared to a .143 BA away with 1 HR and 2 RBI. That is not the Altuve we have been accustomed to seeing including at that time. Usually, his splits are similar, but they were drastically different here. This was also true specifically in the 2017 ALCS matchup against the Yankees.
Last but not least is Brian Mccan, the former Yankee who’s splits inexcusable and in this case really makes you feel suspicious. At home, Brian posted a 300 BA with 6HR and 12 RBIs. But on the road, his BA was .037 with 1HR and &0RBI. Not only that, but he also got to play 3 games at his old place in Yankee Stadium during that short postseason span.
So now the question has been raised, were the Astros really the better team or did the Yankees get robbed of a 2017 trip to the World’s Series? Those questions and more will most likely be answered once the MLB is done investigating the Astros.
Personally, i don’t think the Yankees were better then the Astros in 2017, but then agin the fact that they lost in 7 games, with Houston having the camera does raise questions.
IN CONCLUSION…
However, while the MLB can’t change what has already happened, it can take action on the present. I expect the Astros to be swiped of 10-20 future draft picks should this prove to be as big as it seems. Not only did Houston steal signals, but according to Fiers, guys who were starting games at Minute Maid Park at that time, hoping to prove that they belong in the big leagues were “Served up” because they were just coming up from Triple-A, so it was easier to decider the signals when Houston did use the camera.
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