On the Carpet

Yesterday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred laid down the law to the Astros for a sign-stealing scheme that stretched from the 2017 season into 2018.  General manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were suspended for a year (and subsequently fired by Houston owner Jim Crane).  The team was also fined $5 million and will lose its first- and second-round draft choices in the next two drafts.  I’ll give Manfred a solid B for his response.

The Astros should’ve been fined in the neighborhood of $50 million, but there’s a $5 million ceiling on team fines, which definitely needs to be raised; it will be interesting to see if Manfred is willing to demand something like that from the owners, who would have to agree.  But it is nice, for once, to see discipline climb up a few rungs on the organizational ladder.

Now, if he were really feeling creative, Manfred would demand all current and former Astros’ players from 2017-18 to participate in an open-ended news conference.  Who made the most use of stolen signs?  Why didn’t anyone go public, if they thought it was wrong?  Did in fact anyone think it was wrong? And who got the job of banging on a dugout trash can with a bat to signal batters?  Was it one bang for a fastball, or two?

On a related note, at least for me, MLB.com ran a story last week in which six of its writers revealed their HOF votes.  All six voted for PEDs’ users Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens; four added Gary Sheffield to the mix; and two voters sent in ballots for those three worthies, plus Manny Ramirez.  My question: Shouldn’t you six now come to the defense of Luhnow and Hinch and anyone else (the Red Sox look to be next up for punishment) the commissioner goes after for cheating?