Legal sign stealing a problem for Astros opponents, but 2017 scandal still lingers
Astros and cheating is something that isn’t going away and as a fan of the Astros it sucks, but you learn to live with it (and nobody is taking away my 2017 World Series Championship T-shirt or the joy I had when Houston won it all).
This week when the Astros were hosting the Rangers (and winning 2 of 3 to clinch the Silver Boot again) there was lots of talk about sign stealing – but the legal kind of sign stealing.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward was on the Dodgers staff when Houston won the World Series while banging trash cans. He is probably still salty about it and certainly aware every time he goes against Houston.
In the series this week, on the TV broadcast, they even talked about sign stealing and how it frustrated the Rangers pitchers.
But that is the legal sign stealing – the art of the game.
Woodward said after Wednesday’s game when Alex Bregman started the 10th on second, they intentionally balked to move him to third where it would be harder for Bergman to relay information.
Why?
Bregman is great at it. According to the Dallas Morning News, Woodward said Bregman may be the best he has ever seen at this part of the game. He’s also really good at relaying that information to the hitter.
“That’s not cheating,” Woodward said. “That’s saying, `Hey, I see a grip. You’re exposing it to me.’
Obviously every pitcher worries about having a tell, tipping pitches…and every team studies everything to try to pick up those tells and use that intel to gain an advantage.
That is baseball. As good as this Astros team is and if they win it all this year, I doubt they will get full credit from the baseball world because of what happened in 2017. Even when I guy who lost a ring because of it says what they are doing now is not cheating, the stink of 2017 hasn’t gone away.
Let me know what you think on Twitter @JasonMinnix. Tune into The Blitz weekdays 4-7p.
