The Astros and Red Sox Punishments

[Number5]

2 minutes ago, Satyr3206 said:

I have learned over the years to steer clear of certain conversations.

Yeah, like "Does this outfit make my butt look fat?"

[Darkhawk]

3 hours ago, weams said:

Many Scouts don’t like the new ways of doing things.  And then they don’t like they guys asking for the new ways. 

 

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

There’s really two issues:

1.   Did these guys get a fair opportunity to show they could handle the new ways before they were let go?

2.   Did the organization do a good job of communicating expectations and letting folks down gently when they were let go?

Surhoff suggested no on both points.    But (1) his opinion might be biased, and (2) sometimes you just need to clean house without putting each individual under the microscope.    

I saw that Sabathia was getting paid $250,000 by the Yankees to be a consultant and also do some stuff on YES. Thought that was pretty ridiculous for a guy who's never been in a front office before but it's the Yankees so whatever. 

But if I am Mike Elias and we're paying old players, that I have no connection to, to show up in spring training I'm going to let that contract expire and bring in my guys that I know fit into my system and aren't doing their own thing. 

As a fan seeing Elias fire one of my favorite players from back in the day didn't feel me with the warm and fuzzies but I am sure he felt like he had good reason to and if cutting Surhoff's salary (which I am sure wasn't close to $250,000) enables them to hire up and coming talent like @Luke-OH  and others like him then that's the best move for the franchise. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, MDtransplant757 said:

Reddit is ok. All depends on the subreddit. Just avoid anything political, gaming or anything related to social issues and you'll be fine. Twitter is the place where mutants and opinions go to die. 

I'm currently being mildly downvoted in R/Baseball for arguing against intentionally hitting Astro players.

 

[Satyr3206]

31 minutes ago, Darkhawk said:

 

I saw that Sabathia was getting paid $250,000 by the Yankees to be a consultant and also do some stuff on YES. Thought that was pretty ridiculous for a guy who's never been in a front office before but it's the Yankees so whatever. 

But if I am Mike Elias and we're paying old players, that I have no connection to, to show up in spring training I'm going to let that contract expire and bring in my guys that I know fit into my system and aren't doing their own thing. 

As a fan seeing Elias fire one of my favorite players from back in the day didn't feel me with the warm and fuzzies but I am sure he felt like he had good reason to and if cutting Surhoff's salary (which I am sure wasn't close to $250,000) enables them to hire up and coming talent like @Luke-OH  and others like him then that's the best move for the franchise. 

If they had to fire Surhoff to hire people like Luke they have some serious financial problems.

[Darkhawk]

7 minutes ago, Satyr3206 said:

If they had to fire Surhoff to hire people like Luke they have some serious financial problems.

No disagreement, but that wasn't the major point of my post.

It's not direct causation. I wouldn't care if we had an operating budget of $125 million or $1 billion. If we were at our maximum budget and Elias said I can pay BJ Surhoff to come to  Spring Training and try and help Trey Mancini become a better outfielder and then he goes home or for the same money I can hire twenty other scouts and analysts that don't have the prestige of a former All-Star but are constantly working to find or develop better players then I'm going to let Surhoff go. 

[wildbillhiccup]

Alex Cora (he gone)

Red Sox Fire Alex Cora

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2020 at 6:29pm CDT

The Red Sox announced Tuesday evening that manager Alex Cora will not return as their manager in 2020. The news comes one day after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the results of his investigation into the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, wherein Cora was revealed to be one of the architects of Houston’s trash-can system. The Red Sox organization issued the following statement:

“Today we met to discuss the Commissioner’s report related to the Houston Astros investigation.  Given the findings and the Commissioner’s ruling, we collectively decided that it would not be possible for Alex to effectively lead the club going forward and we mutually agreed to part ways.”

[Can_of_corn]

Since they fired him before he was suspended (potentially) they have to pay him the whole contract right?  The smart move would seem to be to have waited.

[cboemmeljr]

 

[wildbillhiccup]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Since they fired him before he was suspended (potentially) they have to pay him the whole contract right?  The smart move would seem to be to have waited.

The term "mutually agreed" stood out to me. Perhaps they reach a buyout agreement. I'm sure they just wanted to distance themselves from the stink of this thing asap since Cora was seemingly suspect zero. 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

The term "mutually agreed" stood out to me. Perhaps they reach a buyout agreement. I'm sure they just wanted to distance themselves from the stink of this thing asap since Cora was seemingly suspect zero. 

Could be.  Hopefully we will find out.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Cora might get banned for life over his role on the Red Sox and Astros stealing signs scandal. 

[ArtVanDelay]

25 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Alex Cora (he gone)

Red Sox Fire Alex Cora

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2020 at 6:29pm CDT

The Red Sox announced Tuesday evening that manager Alex Cora will not return as their manager in 2020. The news comes one day after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the results of his investigation into the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, wherein Cora was revealed to be one of the architects of Houston’s trash-can system. The Red Sox organization issued the following statement:

“Today we met to discuss the Commissioner’s report related to the Houston Astros investigation.  Given the findings and the Commissioner’s ruling, we collectively decided that it would not be possible for Alex to effectively lead the club going forward and we mutually agreed to part ways.”

Between this and Penn State, I’m a happy guy!

NSFW obviously.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

 

[atomic]

46 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Since they fired him before he was suspended (potentially) they have to pay him the whole contract right?  The smart move would seem to be to have waited.

It doesn’t affect the luxury tax and they are loaded with money so what does it matter.  Think of payment for doing a good job.  

[Frobby]

On 1/14/2020 at 9:42 AM, Frobby said:

Here’s a tidbit: in an MLBTR poll, 47% think the Astros got off too light, 44% think the punishment was fair, 8% think the penalty was too heavy.    That’s with about 20,000 people voting so far.    So, very mixed opinions there.   https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/01/mlbtr-poll-the-astros-scandal.html

 

On 1/14/2020 at 10:09 AM, atomic said:

Online polls are worthless.  People vote multiple times. 
***
You don't think some Astros fan couldn't write a script to vote 10,000 times?  If you don't have to log into vote I would consider an online poll completely useless.

23 hours ago, Frobby said:

Perhaps a fan could, but why would he/she?    It’s not worth the time.   There is no consequence to the poll.    

You’ve inspired me to do a poll here.   Coming next.   
 

So far, with 103 posters voting, the OH poll is running more favorable to the Astros than the MLBTR poll.   The former has 57-58% saying the punishment was about right, with 7-8% saying too heavy and 33-34% saying too light.    In the MLBTR poll, it’s running 43% about right, 8-9% too heavy, 48-49% too light.    

My theory on why the OH posters have been more lenient so far is that the Orioles weren’t much affected by the Astros’ cheating.     We were lousy in 2017-18, weren’t in the playoffs, and weren’t in the Astros’ division.    I bet if you broke down the votes in the MLBTR poll, the Dodgers and Yankee fans skew heavily to “too light.”