by Eric Fulton and Julian Spivey First Base: Houston Astros Cheating Scandal The Houston Astros cheating scandal is really a sad thing that happened to a team that you would not have expected to cheat based on the talent they had (and still do today) with the likes of Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correra and Alex Bregman. I did not expect a team to cheat the game and use their video enhanced stolen signs strategy to win games, especially in the postseason. The Astros ended up receiving a $5 million fine plus a loss of picks in the MLB draft. Plus, it cost jobs to general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch. Also, Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran lost their managerial jobs with the Red Sox and Mets respectively, as they were on the Astros coaching staff in 2017. I don’t know what else MLB could do as far as punishment is concerned. It would be strange to see a major world championship vacated, but if it were to happen, I would be in support of the decision. EF I’m so tired of the Astros controversy already. I hope it’s dying down, but I’m not sure it really will even when the regular season gets going because I think you’re going to see other teams plunking Astros batters all year despite MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s warning not to do so. Maybe the Astros sign stealing using technology was more advanced than other teams doing so, but there are folks within the game who say as many as eight teams may have been running a similar scheme and MLB is still investigating the Boston Red Sox. The Astros will be the pariah of the league, but much like steroids, it’s doubtful they were the only ones cheating. I guess we’ll just say the Astros are Jose Canseco in this situation. Did MLB punish the team correctly? I’d have to say the league did the best it could do, even though I realize the majority wanted more punishment. The $5 million fine does seem like a slap on the wrist, but supposedly it’s the biggest fine the league is allowed to levy against a franchise. I can’t stand it in college sports when the NCAA vacates championships and I definitely don’t want to see MLB go that route. Many wanted players on the Astros suspended, but how would you go about suspending these players? Do you only suspend some? The whole team? And would the league have gotten any info at all on the scene stealing scheme without offering immunity to teams? I don’t know what else honestly could have been done. The thing that bothers me the most in this entire situation is fans seem to believe electronic sign stealing is worse for the game than the steroids era was. I’m not sure if it’s just recency bias or if folks are just that dumb. The steroids era turned baseball into a farce for a decade or more and left the sacred records of the game in tatters. The electronic stealing is something we’re still not even sure of the grand scale on. JS Second Base: Expanding MLB Playoffs Recently plans for Major League Baseball to expanding its Playoffs to seven teams per league leaked. In the proposed playoff format, the team with the best record in each league would receive a bye for the Wild Card round. The two other division winners in each league and the top wild card from each league would host all games of a three-game series in the Wild Card round with those two other division winners selecting their wild card round opponents from the three other wild card teams with the top wild card team playing the unpicked wild card team. The three series winners and the team with the bye would go on to the divisional round. I understand the interest sports leagues have for adding additional postseason teams (the NFL is currently trying to add playoff teams too). More teams builds added interest in the postseason and added revenue. But, what the addition of more teams into the postseason also does is dilute the postseason. I wasn’t even a proponent of MLB adding a fifth playoff team per league a little less than a decade ago, but that isn’t as much of a screw-up as adding two more teams per league would be. Adding two more Wild Cards would lessen the fun of the wild card battle at the end of the regular season and it wouldn’t be long before a team with a losing record made the MLB postseason. In the history of baseball there has only been one team with a losing record in the playoffs (1981 Kansas City Royals) and that only happened because a strike wiped out a third of that season. Adding teams to the playoffs doesn’t make the playoffs better – it just makes them longer and gives lesser deserving teams the chance to win it all. JS I like the Wild Card format the way it is now. Expanding the Wild Card again would show that the MLB regular season does not mean anything. If Major League Baseball is really thinking about this idea of adding more teams to the Wild Card, they would need to cut the regular season by eight to 12 games. Instead of playing 162 games, you would need to go 150 to 154 max. Then the Wild Card teams would have a best of three series, where the winners play the teams with the two best records in the best of five. Expanding the Wild Card would have to mean cut the regular season short, but with MLB not doing that, I just don’t see how that would work. EF Third Base: MLB Institutes Three Hitter Minimum for Pitchers This is a rule to speed up the game of baseball, which I think is necessary. The average baseball game is three hours long and I realize many of us fans don’t really mind it, but to build the game in a fast-pace society the game has to find ways to speed up the game and do so without ruining the game. Generally, I’m not a fan of a league dictating strategy, which is essentially what’s going on here in an attempt to stop the constant strategizing of relief pitcher/hitter matchups, but ultimately this should be an improvement for the game. If a team employs a reliever who can’t get more than one guy out that player probably shouldn’t be in the league anyway. JS Now this is a rule that I agree had to change. I know managers want to strategize a lefty vs. lefty matchup for example, but if managers can trust getting one batter out, let’s see what he can do to try to get at least three batters out. I think it will make managers think about who they would want in the game if the starter can’t go to the distance or if the long relief guy can’t pitch for a while. I really think it will make managers change things during the 2020 season on what to do with relief pitching. EF Home Plate: Baseball’s Top 10 Players I do agree with MLB Network’s top six of their top ten players. Mike Trout, Christian Yelich, Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts, Alex Bregman, and Anthony Rendon would be the six guys right now that any baseball team could start their franchises with if they were building a team. Seven through ten are interesting. To me, I would have Stephen Strasburg or Max Scherzer in the top ten. I would also put a guy like Ronald Acuna, Jr. Some say he can be a 50 home run, 50 stolen bases guy in the very near future. Jacob DeGrom I would also keep in the top 10, but I am not sure if guys like Francisco Lindor or Gerrit Cole should have been on the top 10 list. EF
One of my favorite things about the offseason going into Spring Training is MLB Network’s unveiling of the best players in the game. It’s hard to argue with the top 10 this year as it’s a fairly solid list. The top four are locks in my opinion, as you have the last four MVPs of the game. I agree with Alex Bregman, Anthony Rendon, Jacob deGrom and Nolan Arenado all being in the top 10. I don’t truly have an issue with Gerrit Cole or Francisco Lindor being in the top 10, but if this were my list, I would replace them. Cole is on the list because he was arguably the best pitcher in baseball last season, though he did lose the A.L. Cy Young to his own Houston Astros teammate Justin Verlander that season. I’d go with someone who’s been more consistent over the last few years and replace him with Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals. I hate to be boring and select the same two guys as Eric, but I believe he was right on the money with Ronald Acuna Jr. Acuna was just three stolen bases away from a 40-40 season last season and is a five-tool player who had overall better numbers than Lindor last season. JS
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