MLB Hot Stove 2020: Congratulations to the nations capital

You just discredited yourself by quoting Joe Buck.

And yall are paragons of truth and facts.

Everyone's guilty because I need them to be!

Joe Buck doing MLB games is about the only thing worse than Joe Buck doing NFL games.

All other teams cheated just as much as the Astros. That quote by a former player proves it. Great work.

Glad you a remaining obtuse.

Never change.

You want to believe in things that have, at best, rumors and gossip to support them. You want to equate proven reality to innuendo. And I'm the one thinking poorly...

Clark's knowledge comes from a different era anyway, definitely not after the league wide directive against electronic shenanigans. And , again, you remain obtuse in thinking degree and scale of cheating doesn't matter. It matters.

Look, you'll always have the world series win and it'll always be tainted in some people's eyes. Seems like you come out ahead. Especially since, after your initial sadness and upset, have fully thrown yourself into thinking everything was fair because everyone was cheating.

Also, nuance of degrees seems to not be a thing with some people. I'm sure most teams do some shady shit, but how much of it is remotely as egregious as what Houston has done? That shit matters. There's a reason parking tickets and rape have different punishments.

Sterling said:

Also, nuance of degrees seems to not be a thing with some people. I'm sure most teams do some shady shit, but how much of it is remotely as egregious as what Houston has done? That shit matters. There's a reason parking tickets and rape have different punishments.

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I agree, the Astros are all rapists.

Gavinmad said:

I agree, the Astros are all rapists.

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That's probably true. Good thing Cole escaped, he'd probably have been next.

Sterling said:

Also, nuance of degrees seems to not be a thing with some people. I'm sure most teams do some shady shit, but how much of it is remotely as egregious as what Houston has done? That shit matters. There's a reason parking tickets and rape have different punishments.

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I think the argument he is trying to make is that other teams cheated just as bad as the Astros, it's just that the Astros got caught because of a whistleblower. Aren't the Red Sox and Yankees under investigation for pretty much the same thing for the 2018 season?

They still cheated though.

Rengak said:

I think the argument he is trying to make is that other teams cheated just as bad as the Astros, it's just that the Astros got caught because of a whistleblower. Aren't the Red Sox and Yankees under investigation for pretty much the same thing for the 2018 season?

They still cheated though.

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Yeah, that's his argument, but except for the red Sox, there's no hard evidence. And he's basically implying that all teams cheated as bad only on gossip and rumor. So why should we assume they're all just as bad? Because a few players imply that?

He needs them to all be just as guilty so the Astros seem like they were on an even playing field. However, going on current facts and not feels, that's just not the case. If it was so widespread and as egregious as the Astros there would be at least one more whistleblower and there wouldn't be any players complaining as passionately as they are.

I'm open to revising this view if a lot of stories start coming out when players start retiring. Right now, I'm not going to believe all were as bad as the Astros without some evidence.

Rengak said:

I think the argument he is trying to make is that other teams cheated just as bad as the Astros, it's just that the Astros got caught because of a whistleblower. Aren't the Red Sox and Yankees under investigation for pretty much the same thing for the 2018 season?

They still cheated though.

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I've already said that if any teams even the Yankees if they've done the dirt as egregiously as Houston should get similar punishments. If it's to a lesser degree it should be a lesser punishment. This isn't rocket surgery. The stuff with placing a camera and doing things real time with no base runners seems at least on a surface level unusual. Like every team does signs with baserunners so there's obviously some grey area but there's a lot of room between those 2 things.

The only thing I really care about going forward is how much of a deterrent the punishment was. Will this actually deter large scale cheating in the future? The fact that no players were punished and no postseason games were altered (either past or banning for future) makes me wonder. Losing picks does hurt but how much does a player trying to win now care about that? I could even see players doing it behind the manager's back if skillful/dedicated enough. I guess we'll see.

Why can't we just have a secure communication device between pitcher and catcher? I seriously double anyone will try hacking that since it then probably goes into criminal territory. Would it really be such a loss not seeing the signs on TV?

DickTrickle said:

The only thing I really care about going forward is how much of a deterrent the punishment was. Will this actually deter large scale cheating in the future? The fact that no players were punished and no postseason games were altered (either past or banning for future) makes me wonder. Losing picks does hurt but how much does a player trying to win now care about that? I could even see players doing it behind the manager's back if skillful/dedicated enough. I guess we'll see.

Why can't we just have a secure communication device between pitcher and catcher? I seriously double anyone will try hacking that since it then probably goes into criminal territory. Would it really be such a loss not seeing the signs on TV?

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No players were punished because they cut a deal for immunity.

Secure communication would be nice, until some team puts a listening device on their players to record the catcher, then matches it up with the pitches.