Poll: what do you think of the Astros’ punishment?

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, ArtVanDelay said:

Tanking would be pointless since they have no 1st and 2nd for two years.

If they could drop 120M in payroll I can see where that would be useful.

[Chavez Ravine]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

If they could drop 120M in payroll I can see where that would be useful.

Money in the top end pitching jar/hedge fund plus something  youthful and useful back in return.

[Moose Milligan]

Nick, throwing heat.

 

Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis has joined the chorus blasting the Houston Astros over their sign-stealing scandal, telling reporters "every single guy over there needs a beating."

"It's anger," Markakis told reporters of his reaction to the Astros' scandal and the ensuing response. "I feel like every single guy over there needs a beating. It's wrong. They're messing with people's careers."

Markakis did not elaborate on what would constitute a "beating." At least two pitchers have indicated that they would at least consider throwing at Astros batters, and William Hill sportsbook set an over/under of 83.5 for Houston hit-by-pitches in 2020, a number that would rank as one of the 10 highest in the previous five seasons

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28728594/braves-nick-markakis-says-every-astro-needs-beating-sign-stealing

[Can_of_corn]

Sweet Nick advocating assault.

Nice.

[Moose Milligan]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Sweet Nick advocating assault.

Nice.

If it's between the lines, I'm not terribly worried.  Manfred isn't policing the game so it's up to the players to police it themselves.  And then Manfred dishes out harder punishments to anyone that might have thrown at an Astros player or started a brawl.  What a joke.

[oriolediehard]

I agree with punishment to Astros.  But there are some hypocrisy here.  2 wrongs don't make a right.  But what about PED's.  The home run from the PED player cheater helped the team win the WS??? What about Arod PED's helped the Yankees 2009 WS. Barry Bonds, Sosa etc. If you want to strip the Astros, then all the teams that had steroids help their team win the WS should have their titles strip too.  All teams in any sport who cheated should have their title stripped too!!! 

[atomic]

32 minutes ago, oriolediehard said:

I agree with punishment to Astros.  But there are some hypocrisy here.  2 wrongs don't make a right.  But what about PED's.  The home run from the PED player cheater helped the team win the WS??? What about Arod PED's helped the Yankees 2009 WS. Barry Bonds, Sosa etc. If you want to strip the Astros, then all the teams that had steroids help their team win the WS should have their titles strip too.  All teams in any sport who cheated should have their title stripped too!!! 

90 plus percent of the guys were on steroids.  The guys not using steroids were stuck in the minor leagues. 

[atomic]

4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Sweet Nick advocating assault.

Nice.

Blame it on weak punishment the Astros received.  
 

Astros player gets beaned than Astros rush the mound and brawl starts.  Might want to hire some former boxers as bench coaches. 

[atomic]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

If it's between the lines, I'm not terribly worried.  Manfred isn't policing the game so it's up to the players to police it themselves.  And then Manfred dishes out harder punishments to anyone that might have thrown at an Astros player or started a brawl.  What a joke.

How can they suspend pitches who throw at players with no proof that it was international and not suspend players who cheated with plenty of proof?

[jarman86]

Probably best place to post this, but am I only person who feels like I'm watching one crazy hella train wreck?  I mean, MLB and Houston had 3-4 months to prepare for spring training interviews and the owner shows no remorse, saying it didn't impact the game and then the commissioner saying it shouldn't need an asterisk next to the Houston championship season and the trophy is just a piece of metal....I mean...how out of touch are these guys?!?! Did they not work with a PR team before spring training, on at least things to...I dunno….never say?!?  Just one whole mind blowing scandal.  And I hope if Astros players get hit, it is limited to the Bregmans and Altuves, not guys that had no role in the scheme. 

One thing I can guarantee is ratings will be high for Astros games to see the bench clearing brawls and beaned hitters, so at least MLB has that going for them.

[section18]

What I'm anxious to see is how much the power numbers drop for the Astro players this season. 

I bet it will be more than you think;

 Altuve 2012 7 HRs, 2013 5 HRs, 2014 7 HRs, 2015 15 HRs, 2016 24 GRs, 2017 24 HRs, 2018 13 HRs and 2019 31 HRs

Springer 2015 16 HRs, 2016 29 HRs, 2017 34 HRs, 2018 22 HRs and 2019 39 HRs

Bregman 2016 8 HRs, 2017 19 HRs, 2018 31 HRs and 2019 41 HRs

Yurriel     2017 18 HRs, 2018 13 HRs and 2019 31 HRs

All of these players benefitted from the cheating and why are they only limiting it to 2017? I think they've been cheating for 4 years.

I'll go on record right now that none of the above players will hit over 20 HRS.

[atomic]

I like how Manfred haste ability to increase suspension time for hitting a batter but can’t suspend players who cheated.

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, atomic said:

90 plus percent of the guys were on steroids.  The guys not using steroids were stuck in the minor leagues. 

I don’t think it was close to 90%.     But it was certainly a high enough percentage where you could never sort it out and punish sone teams and not others.  

[atomic]

47 minutes ago, Frobby said:I don’t think it was close to 90%.     But it was certainly a high enough percentage where you could never sort it out and punish sone teams and not others.  

Most everyone on the Orioles was.  Canseco said it was 80 percent and he was the one guy I would believe.

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, atomic said:

Most everyone on the Orioles was.  Canseco said it was 80 percent and he was the one guy I would believe.

Nobody knows.    

It is impossible to know exactly what percentage of major league players actually have used steroids or other performance-enhancing substances. Estimates of steroid use have varied wildly. Jose Canseco estimated that 85% of major leaguers were also using steroids. Ken Caminitiestimated that 50% of players were using steroids, but later retracted that claim and said that the number was lower. MLB's survey testing indicated a usage rate of 5-7%, but those numbers are unlikely to be reliable. They may be skewed by the ease of evading MLB's testing and the much publicized decision by some players to refuse testing and be counted as positive in order to drive up the positive rate as a way of forcing full-scale testing.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Steroids