jung

I was so steamed by that press conference today that I didn't even think about yesterday's posts. What are we doing? You give professional hitters a system that offers them real time data as to FB vs offspeed/breaking pitch using real time in game video and you would do just as well to stop playing the games! Its batting practice at that point. You have corrupted the very core of the game. And we are waaaay past the Sgt Schultz routine from Ownership both in Houston and in Boston. More BS. And what does Sox Ownership waste 40 minutes doing? "Ah nothing to see here......YET. Reserve judgement please. 4 grand salami's in April 2018 alone and a stratospheric increase in offensive output in 2018....well, lucky us." Absolute BS. We should put the Boston Report right next to the Houston Report, side by side as that will tell us a good deal.

Now I am really smelling a rat in this. The Sox just spent 40 minutes in a press conference saying nothing beyond "we parted company with Alex entirely over his involvement in Houston". Ah-huh. Watch, we are going to see another report that completely absolves Ownership for anything to do with 2018 if not makes an effort to white wash 2018. The Houston report completely absolved Houston ownership. So Red Sox catch no flak for hiring Cora in the first place again following the "pure as the driven slush" profile of MLB ownership. They don't even make a single solitary effort to offer that it might just have been a mistake to hire the guy.

Its in the results as well. Houston buried some of the best starting pitchers in baseball in the 2017 World Series. There is no greater advantage in baseball and maybe in organized professional sports of any kind than a professional hitter knowing whether he is getting FB or offspeed/breaking pitch. Its a massive advantage to the hitter. All he has to concentrate on then is location. Its batting practice! Lets not forget that Sox hitting went absolutely nuts in 2018. 4 grand salami's in April alone for example.

I am going to make this point again just because it needs to be understood. Organic sign stealing in baseball IS NOT EVEN CHEATING. Once you bring electronics and video into the picture using real time in game video whether with dedicated cameras or simply using the STUPID replay room and dugout monitors you have crossed the line and are 90% as dirty as it gets. It hardly matters after that if you have entrusted the output from all that effort to a runner on second base who's real responsibility is to get home from scoring position or have some elaborate covert or less than elaborate (knock on a trash can) overt method for communicating the output. Frankly, I don't think entrusting that output which involves a quite detailed effort to a runner on second base makes a hill of beans of sense to me. If I had to guess, a more covert method of communicating the output was used. Even the output is fairly detailed in that you have got to nail the sequencing as well as the signs and the runner on second has to absorb that AND communicate it to the hitter. Ironically it would appear possible that the biggest dif between a system using a dedicated camera system v the replay video room feed is that a team may have been able to continue post season because they were using a dedicated camera system. Using the replay video room feed does not work post season because its my understanding that the league puts league officials in those video rooms for the post season.

So you have what amounts to a whole team in Houston with a system engineered by Cora engaged in a year long if not longer scam to use electronics and in game, real time video to steal signs (cheat) and nobody in upper management at Houston knew? Putting your head in the sand IS waiting for somebody to start talking. Then you have the report itself which just splays Cora and goes on to more than suggest that Hinch's actions proved to players that "upper management" was acquiescent which is what opened the door to nailing Hinch and the GM by Ownership. Do you really thing that phrasing in the report was coincidental or simply a straight up analysis of evidence? THAT WAS AN OPINION. Ownership then takes an offered opinion and immediately fires Hinch and the GM effectively using that opinion in the report as the hammer. BULL s***! Remember Hinch in anger took a baseball bat to the monitors twice during the course of the 2017 season. Do you really think that suggested to the players support for this mess from Hinch?

Just trying to insulate ownership is BURYING THE STORY. That is enough to tell us where Manfred is trying to go.

You have got to be kidding. Manfred did nothing till reporters wrote their story which is what pushed this whole process. MLB for its part, head in the sand burying it under the carpet. Then the league puts out its report burying Cora, and castigating Hinch and the GM all in an effort to cut off responsibility before getting to ownership. What does ownership do, immediately fires Hinch and the GM making the frame complete. "Oh not us, not the league and not ownership. We know nothing.....nothing. Pure as the driven slush we are". One of the best Sgt Schultz routines I have seen in awhile.

Well the problem with technology as implemented in MLB is that it simply overemphasizes data over player performance to such a degree that it now tries to bend player performance and we end up with crap like Cash pulling his best starting pitcher in a game not because the guy had no record of getting out of early stressful innings or any other reason than that some database geek told him to do so. That happen every single game in some way shape or form. The game is a game of athletic excellence by human beings for other human beings to enjoy on that basis. Its not an MIT Computer Sciences project. We have cheating scams now attributable to the use of replay devices and technology when in fact replay is an uproarious FAILURE in MLB. It is a joke as it is too broadly implemented with no benefit derived and much boredom for fans. Take all the replay crap out of the hands of the teams. Put it in the hands of MLB and only consider questionable catches, HR's and plays at the plate. THATS IT. Take this stupid nonsense of watching the Manager hold up his hand while he ponders a challenge and allow them go argue calls with the field umps again.

That is correct. I would only question those that want to split hairs past a team using in game real time video in order to cheat. Once you are using real time in game video to steal signs or in any other way gain an in game advantage, you have crossed the Rubicon and its already 90% of as bad as it gets. How you want to divvy up the final 10%......be my guest.

Honestly, as a born and bred tri-stater I had to laugh cynically at your post, not at you but at the reality of the Mets. I don't necessarily disagree. But I don't think even the Mets will touch this one. The truth of it is that those that have been exposed already will be thrown directly under the bus by the League and Ownership in their desire to protect themselves. They won't go after players because they need players. Remember Beltan will be called on the carpet for his role as "special assistant" not necessarily as a player. Time for the owners to crush Manfred like the insect that he is. But they won't. Time for the league itself to take responsibility for its broad reaching implementation of technology and video with no earthly idea what they were doing. Honestly can no longer even devise the rational for what MLB has acquiesced to and even promoted in this regard. Technology is an overlay onto the game. IT IS NOT THE GAME. Yet they have subjugated the game to this nonsense even mutated it in some ways. Add progressive changes making for more of a rocket ship baseball to the point where just touching any part of the barrel of the bat to the thing sends it over the fence TO THE OPPOSITE FIELD no less and this game is a mess.

Manfred's performance to this point is already despicable. So IMO he has already crossed the Rubicon whether he knows it or not.

If there is any chance of this mess being fully investigated it will be because media keeps digging and keeps the pressure on. But remember, the one truism about modern media, sports or otherwise is that if they push too hard they end up looking themselves in the mirror and wondering if they are really chewing on their own tails. Its true in media covering government and politics and just as true in sports media.

Banned for life should be completely off the table especially considering the disgusting CYA performance of Manfred and Ownership in this mess. Sorry, MLB has some big big problems that coward Manfred just exacerbates constantly. I am NOT hopeful that MLB will do this right because Manfred has no interest in doing it right and the owners have no interest in doing the right thing. I have no idea where the PA comes down though they should really be interested in doing the right thing. As I said earlier, the truth is the anchor chain on the good ship MLB has slipped and the anchor is on its way to crashing through the keel and I see no acknowledgment from MLB that they have any earthly idea what they face.

Organic sign stealing is not even cheating. So I am not sure you are making a relevant point. Using electronics and video which are both OVERLAYS to the game IS CHEATING. Video and electronics are not THE GAME in spite of the best efforts of database geeks to make it the game.

This is the softest method the Sox could use to part company with Cora. Frankly, I have no patience for the league, Manfred, Houston Ownership, all ownership for that matter as they are all covering their asses.....every one of them. The Houston report was clearly an effort to bury Cora, stop the bleeding at the Manager and GM and Cora and Astros Ownership dripping with self righteousness complied with an immediate firing of Hinch and the GM. DISGUSTING!!!

Actually, this is the softest move Sox Ownership could make. Cora didn't get fired. But I am not sure it will matter in the long run. I am more upset about MLB covering its ass in this mess. They are all dirty. Manfred is dirty as he did nothing until reporters printed their story. Honestly, I despise Manfred. If Trump needed a Sec of Cowardly, Manfred would be the odds on favorite for the job. He is just disgusting.

Sox announce that Cora and Sox have decided to "mutually part ways".

I am not sure we could say it was only at home because the Sox were not using a proprietary camera system as they were in Houston.

Geez Merloni has been pretty even handed on this topic and even HE is saying two year suspension for Cora and more than 4 draft picks for the Sox. How many more......Another year's worth for 6 draft picks. That is a death sentence for the Sox if Lou is right. We have no farm to speak off. We have star players that are going to look at that and say....no Alex and no help coming! I'm outta' here. As for the CYA crap that Manfred and so far Houston is about, that is such utter BS but so Manfred it hurts. I posted earlier that the way the report tried to protect Ownership in Houston through the report was sickening. Manfred does nothing until two reporters write a story. Then they write a report that completely absolves Houston Ownership and Houston Ownership promptly fires Hinch and the GM as part of this CYA crap. They are all dirty and if they want to actually clean this up shoving stuff under the carpet ain't gonna' work. MLB has been headed in the wrong direction for a long long time. Time to right the ship because the anchor chain has slipped and the anchor is about to crash through the keel. There John Henry, a nice boat metaphor for ya'.

If Hinch had any chance of being spared in Houston it evaporated as the report stated that his acquiescence said to the players that Management was "tolerant". When it comes to cheating there is little space between tolerant and complicit. That likely is what got Hinch and the GM fired as well. That was ownership saying, NOT US. We were not tolerant nor complicit in any of this.

Possibly because banging on a trash can was simply too painfully overt to last long without exposure. Maybe Cora didn't switch to a less effective system, just a more covert system. Still and all you are spitting hairs. The core offense is using real time in game video to cheat. You are 90% to as bad as it gets at that point. You can parse the last 10% any way you want to.

Nobody has leveled an accusation yet. If you find one in my previous post....you let me know. Players for their part are not going to be dragged into this regardless of how active their role though once you have the guy on second base using material he knows has come from in game real time video as part of a sign stealing system what are we really talking about. You're still splitting hairs in my view in a way that will earn the Sox no credit in this.

So now you are going to argue that the cameras used matters? The core offense is using real time in game video to cheat. Your argument simply suggests that Cora became a more knowledgeable cheater between 2017 and 2018. He could possibly do it without a dedicated camera system. Whoopdie-ding dong.

That base has already been covered. Hinch did not have a role in Houston other than acquiescing reluctantly and he still got his head handed to him.

The problem for the Sox if even if Cora was using a less ubiquitous version of his Houston system in Boston, once you are using in game video real time to cheat you are already 90% to as bad as it can get. That IS the core of the offense and it is in part what makes me question whether Cora simply developed a more covert method for communicating data to the field than banging on a trash can. I would find it hard to believe that Cora did not realize that the core offense was using in game video to cheat and you are really splitting hairs about what happens after that. I actually do not think the Sox as a team get hit harder than Houston. To me that would look like splitting hairs the other way. But Cora.....man i think he is just going to be taken off to the woodshed for a long visit.