Balta1701

I'd like him to be booed until he apologies publicly for looking the other way (literally an admission by him that he did so), and I'd like him to be specifically questioned about it every time there's an opportunity until he does so.

So go into the locker room with scissors and cut up everyone's jerseys and privately say you'll do it again until this stops and then take your suspension.

It does seem in hindsight like there were an unusual amount of accusations and denials specifically focused on the Astros over the past couple seasons, doesn't it?

How did Frank Thomas react to the rampant steroid abuse in baseball? We are literally praising his response to that, correctly, in an other thread right now on this page. You're going to tell me that the players had no influence at all? The veterans? That if Keuchel had sat down with the manager and said "We can't do this", he couldn't have made something happen? That all these so-called clean players would have just cowered? That if Verlander had gotten there, seen this stuff, and immediately said "you're not going to taint my chances at a ring", that it doesn't end right then and there?

However, there is a clear and unambiguous statement from MLB that everyone in and around that locker room was fully aware of this particular cheating scheme, and none of them came forward or reported it until Fiers.

They can't do anything clearly, but you get to decide how you feel about a player and how you're going to treat them. You get to decide if you read papers that are hard on Keuchel and ask tough questions, or ones that let him slide. Hell, you can decide what to say on his twitter page or on the page of the White Sox when he starts. Or you can just say "I'm ok with these players." I believe I've been known to hold grudges against cheaters.

It's not a good answer I'll agree but I'll put it back to you. Tell me that you're ok with what the Astros did enough to say that you have no issues whatsoever with Keuchel, or suggest something different.

If there won't be any punishment for the players who either were directly involved with or at best looked the other way while their team cheated blatantly en route to a world series win, should other teams fans just be ok with and accepting of those players? We signed one of the highest profile players on a team that is as of now the biggest MLB scandal in a decade. Do we just shrug our shoulders and admit that we're all ok with what the Astros did now that he's on our team?

One of the most jarring bits of this report is that the players interviewed uniformly agreed that if Hinch had said to stop they would have, but Hinch reportedly said he didn’t like it and even said he damaged the monitor a couple times when he clearly had the authority to make it end. I don’t know if that means Hinch lied to investigators and thought that lie would make him look better or if it means there were some seriously weird power dynamics in that locker room where he felt powerless compared to his assistant coach, but whatever it was, Hinch does not come out looking like the kind of person I would want in charge of a locker room right now. But, I’m ok with the suspension and firing for him as fair punishment. So, if he wants back into this sport, there’s a simple path. Find an org where he’s on good terms and in 2020 ride the bus and coach AA. You don’t get a big league coaching job when you have that kind of black mark on your record as a leader. Work your way back up for a couple years and then you can talk about one of the only 30 big league jobs.

He won’t issue a statement even though he was supposedly one of that teams veteran leaders. If he comes out and has a 4.75 ERA at the end of April people should be asking him about it, but we know that’ll be forgotten about.

I know it won't happen but I'd love if the press dogged every one of the former Astros with questions about this all year. Ask him why we should trust that he's not a cheater at Soxfest.

While that is true, first of all the report specifically says that it was impossible for anyone to be around the Astros dugout without knowing that this was going on, so at the best he's content looking the other way when people are cheating to help him win a title. That does not say anything good for his character. Secondly, as you can see in the posts right above - there has also been a history of allegations of ball doctoring associated with the Astros pitching staff, and the evidence of that happening wouldn't be as clearly recorded as the sounds on video. Do you have confidence that this player was actually clean of that? I don't.

So....Keuchel?

How do they get that information to a batter/baserunner?

The number of jokes I've seen that Beltran's punishment is that he must now manage the Mets...

Because they're used to that being done for teams that break the rules in College.

The 2000 lineup was the highest scoring team in baseball. 1977 was only the 4th highest that year.

Well, for starters, a .775 OPS put up in 2014 Miami is a lot different than a .786 OPS put up in Texas in the year of the Happy Fun Ball.

Steele Walker woulda been more interesting for both the Marlins and Pirates.

If I've got this right from his stats over at Fangraphs, his Pitches/Plate Apperance last year was 3.35, which is lower than Tim Anderson's was. In other words, he's very much aggressive at the plate and often sees very few pitches - if you give him a pitch in the strike zone on the first pitch he will put it in play, but he also took 3x as many walks as Anderson did, so if you don't pitch to him he won't swing. If this keeps up remotely at all we are going to be talking about this guy's bat command and strike zone command forever. As soon as you throw him a hittable pitch he puts it in play.

No he has a point that makes no sense. DH is clearly taking Alonso's performance, but Abreu was an average starter last year who put up 2 WAR as a 1b. 2b is even a little odd as Yolmer was worth more than that and he spent most of his time there, plus Mendick wasn't a negative player.

Don't call the Twins out until we see them make a move, but even with that - I'm still more focused on Cleveland unless Lindor is moved. That's a team that won 93 games while being absolutely devastated by injuries...and their OF and pitching staffs got a lot better during the season last year.

The bottom of this division is weak but as of right now the top of this division is as strong as any other than the AL East. Doesn't have to play out as it is on paper - can't exactly predict Jose Ramirez missing nearly the entire season again - but the top of the AL Central is tough and has been that way for a decade.

Just for comparison, the projections for 2019 put the White Sox's lineup at 10.1 and they produced 7.5 (and for some reason in February the projections knew not to include Jay at all, I have no idea how the system knew that).

Well you never really get to do that though as even deep teams give some games to guys who wind up below replacement.