But jad, you did also say this a few days ago, with reference to comments suggesting Cora should be barred from the game:
The high moral propriety of posters here, and sports fans in general, always astounds me.
Why is it necessary to seek an equivalence? Two completely different scenarios.
The big difference is that the Astros by and large got away with it. They still have their rings-in fact some of those guys now have two of them.
Karma was snoozing.
The problem with the Astros scandal is that there has been so much cheating in the game over the years that it could be argued that all they did was cheat better.
The obvious question that's arising here:
Which is worse:
a) Helping your team cheat its way to a World Series championship; or
Pleasuring yourself in public.
The Red Sox being middle of the pack in payroll is unprecedented under Henry, and now it's going to be 2 years in a row.
Whether it can be attributed to being smart and sticking to a plan, or to being cheap and more interested in the bottom line than the standings, is a matter of opinion.
I seriously doubt spite would ever be the deciding factor. Usually the s***** teams have to overpay to sign anyone. We're one of the s***** teams now, of course.
What happened is that Eovaldi and Montgomery pitched like aces in the postseason. Much better than the 'real aces' like Kershaw and Verlander generally pitch in the postseason...
And Montgomery did in fact pitch like an ace in 2023. He was T9 in bWAR and T12 in fWAR.