During this offseason, News about the Astros broke as many accused them of cheating during their 2017 playoff run and eventual World Series win. They were accused of using the center field camera to steal the other teams signs when their catcher would relay it to the pitcher. Later, news surfaced that they would bang a bat in the dugout to signal a certain pitch and videos of the game prove this. Whenever a changeup was thrown, you could hear a bang in the background right before the pitch was thrown. What further proved this was that the Astros hitting statistics were significantly better at home than on the road because of the camera usage.
A couple days ago, the MLB announced that they will suspend both the Astros manager, A.J. Hinch and General Manager for one year. I personally think this punishment is not harsh enough as this cheating played a significant role in their World Series win. I also think that certain players should have consequences for their participation, as evidence shows that multiple players had to be involved for the sign stealing to work. Astros sign stealing evidence. Since players had some involvement and were aware of what was going on, I think there should be player suspensions handed out too. I honestly think that the players involvement should be more harshly punished because evidence proves that although Hinch knew what was going on, he had no involvement in making it happen.
One more point I want to make is that of Pete Rose’s permanent ban from baseball and the Hall of Fame. Pete Rose was accused of betting on one his own team during the season which violates strict MLB rules. The only problem with this is that he was betting on his own team, which wouldn’t give him incentive to purposefully lose. This punishment is also a lot harsher than the Astros suspension as he can never return to the sport.
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