2018 Red Sox cheating scandal

[jacksonianmarch]

According to The Athletic, multiple memebers of the 2018 Red Sox have told MLB that they used the replay room to steal signs that season.

Surely, replay rooms have been used for cheating since the moment they were created, which is something MLB tried to crack down on prior to the 2018 season by adding monitors. The Red Sox reportedly used zoomed-in video in the replay room to learn catcher's signals, which could then be relayed to batters when runners were on second base. They almost certainly weren't the only ones doing that through the years. Still, it's especially disturbing that it's another Alex Cora team getting busted, given that Cora was also with the 2017 Astros when they were cheating.

 

 

This is per rotoworld. Cora decided to take what he learned and apply it to the Sox. Wow, didn’t expect this

[a700hitter]

I would be perfectly fine with Cora being fired.

[jacksonianmarch]

I have a feeling he is going to face a lengthy suspension

[OH FOY]

Yep, Cora in big doo doo.

[jacksonianmarch]

Astros punishment is going to be handed down within a week per rotoworld. Then they’ll have to shift to the Sox for penalties. Bringing it to a second team that won a World Series will likely be punished even worse, IMO. The speculation is a huge fine, GM and coach suspensions for Houston. No word on draft pick or IFA funds being taken away

[Elktonnick]

I have a feeling he is going to face a lengthy suspension

Good! If he is guilty he should be at least suspended if not fired. There is no place in baseball for this type of cheating if he did it.

[jacksonianmarch]

The source is a player on the 2018 team, so my bet is he did it. Especially since the sources for the Astros were players on the team too.

 

The other confounding issue for the Red Sox is they were fined and warned in 2017 about using electronic devices in the dugout. As a repeat offender, the punishment could be pretty extreme.

[a700hitter]

FO should stop diddling around. Cora and his ridiculous Spring Training in 2019 blew the season right out of the gate. It was a plan borne of arrogance. He was arrogantly over-confident throughout 2019. DD is gone. The pitching coach is gone. They should have completed the house cleaning and fired Cora too.

[Slasher9]

so *2018 World Series Champs then?

[Station 13]

I have a feeling he is going to face a lengthy suspension

 

What about the Yankees? the article is from the Athletic, it implicated the Yankees doing this, with the Astros busting them of course. But they did not pressed MLB further on it.

[jacksonianmarch]

n 2017, the Yanks and Sox were fined for using electronic media. They were warned against further uses. I don't see the Yanks being implicated beyond 2017.

[bkzwhitestrican]

That 2018 Sox team was probably the most dominant team of the decade, and maybe even of the 2000s. Unfortunately for them, that team will now have a shadow over it because people will wonder how much of that dominance was due to cheating. Especially when you consider that basically the same exact team was brought back for 2019 and had a terrible year without cheating (I know there were plenty of other factors as well).

[a700hitter]

That 2018 Sox team was probably the most dominant team of the decade, and maybe even of the 2000s. Unfortunately for them, that team will now have a shadow over it because people will wonder how much of that dominance was due to cheating. Especially when you consider that basically the same exact team was brought back for 2019 and had a terrible year (I know there were plenty of other factors as well).

That's nonsense. There's no shadow. Other teams, including the Astros were cheating in various ways.

[jacksonianmarch]

SO let me get this straight. The sox cheated during the season, but not during the postseason? Really? Why would you cheat when it matters least and then pack up the operation when it matters most? 2018 was a cakewalk for Boston. They had a .703 win percentage at home, 6 games better than their away record. They wont the division going away. Why would you pack it up when it matters most? Makes a LOT of sense now.

 

The more I read into this, the more I wonder if Cora gets the biggest penalty of all. Two teams, two world series titles and a single coach tying them together with a similar cheating strategy. With baseball viewership on the decline, having fans thinking the teams are cheating to win doesn't help. 2 straight WS titles won with cheating is really bad PR for the league. And with the sox already being warned the year prior, the league is going to come down hard on them. Cora might get suspended for half or more of the season, which would probably prompt Henry to ax him. The sox will likely be looking at draft pick forfeitures as well and DD will likely have a show cause penalty to ever work again

[jacksonianmarch]

That's nonsense. There's no shadow. Other teams, including the Astros were cheating in various ways.

 

There's an * now for 2017 and 2018

[a700hitter]

There's an * now for 2017 and 2018

And a bigger * for 1996-2000

[Bellhorn04]

Wait till all the facts come out please.

[a700hitter]

And the hypocrisy of MLB is that Clueless Joe who turned a blind eye to the rampant steroid abuse in his clubhouse is no a moral arbiter for MLB. What a joke!!

[bkzwhitestrican]

Wait till all the facts come out please.

 

But where is the fun in that???

[a700hitter]

Wait till all the facts come out please.

The facts are well-established for 1996-2000. The Yankee team was cheating like crazy.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Come on now. Everyone knows that cheating is the only way anybody can possibly beat the Yankees, and that NY is the only team in the entire MLB that would never do anything to try to get an edge. Just ask Arod, Giambi, Petitte, Knoblach, Sheffield, Brown, Stanton (but never Roger... even though his teammates said they were enhanced by his own personal trainer).

[Bellhorn04]

The facts are well-established for 1996-2000. The Yankee team was cheating like crazy.

 

I was just referring to this developing story.

[notin]

SO let me get this straight. The sox cheated during the season, but not during the postseason? Really? Why would you cheat when it matters least and then pack up the operation when it matters most? 2018 was a cakewalk for Boston. They had a .703 win percentage at home, 6 games better than their away record. They wont the division going away. Why would you pack it up when it matters most? Makes a LOT of sense now.

 

The more I read into this, the more I wonder if Cora gets the biggest penalty of all. Two teams, two world series titles and a single coach tying them together with a similar cheating strategy. With baseball viewership on the decline, having fans thinking the teams are cheating to win doesn't help. 2 straight WS titles won with cheating is really bad PR for the league. And with the sox already being warned the year prior, the league is going to come down hard on them. Cora might get suspended for half or more of the season, which would probably prompt Henry to ax him. The sox will likely be looking at draft pick forfeitures as well and DD will likely have a show cause penalty to ever work again

 

 

It is possible they figured the postseason had too much scrutiny and they feared getting caught again. Or, since it’s always former players who rat these scandals out, they figured someone would talk eventually...

[jacksonianmarch]

The facts are well-established for 1996-2000. The Yankee team was cheating like crazy.

 

PEDs were pretty rampant and weren't expressly illegal 96-00. The Sox were warned prior to 2018 and did it anyway

[bkzwhitestrican]

It is possible they figured the postseason had too much scrutiny and they feared getting caught again. Or, since it’s always former players who rat these scandals out, they figured someone would talk eventually...

 

Per ESPN's coverage:

 

The use of the video room for sign stealing, which one Red Sox source described to The Athletic as "cheating," was a practice only during the 2018 regular season, according to the report.

 

Multiple Red Sox sources told The Athletic that the system was impossible to use during the postseason because Major League Baseball had in-person monitors stationed in all video replay rooms during the playoffs.

[Bellhorn04]

The story on MLBTR makes it clear that this is very different from what the Astros did.

[jad]

I must have made a mistake. I thought I was on the RedSox board. Not the Yankee board peopled exclusively by adolescent trolls.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

The big-market Red Sox were just lucky they could afford expensive technology. Unlike mid-market franchises that have to rely on trashcans.

 

We need new penalties to tax the rich, and use the fines to buy laptops, tablets and iphones for all the poor clubs. Then all the teams would have access to the same resources.

[notin]

The story on MLBTR makes it clear that this is very different from what the Astros did.

 

For starters, it was only possible when the Sox has a runner on 2b...

[jacksonianmarch]

The story on MLBTR makes it clear that this is very different from what the Astros did.

 

It is also far sneakier, since there isn't a audio cue. They did it with RISP and figured out the sign sequence, which was conveyed to the batter by the runner on second who got a hand signal from the dugout. The sox led the league in RISP in 2018. With a runner on second, or second and third, the sox hit .280 and .339 respectively, 3rd and 2nd best in baseball.