The Houston Astros are in some hot water in the baseball world right now.
On Monday, news broke of the Houston Astros stealing signs electronically in 2017; the year the franchise captured its first World Series. Former Astors pitcher Mike Fiers (now a member of the Oakland A’s) claimed Houston stole signs using an outfield camera and were “willing to go above and beyond to win.” Three other Astros reportedly confirmed the claims and former Chicago White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar also touched on an instance in which the team used noises to assist their batters.
Farqguhar (currently a free agent) recalled hearing a loud banging noise every time he was about to throw an off-speed pitch against Houston. For fastballs, the Astros’ dugout remained quiet. A fan found the footage and perfectly explained one of the instances in which the they may have stolen signs.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, who broke the news, explained how exactly the Astors went about it.
The following is an excerpt from The Athletic:
A feed from a camera in center field, fixed on the opposing catcher's signs, was hooked up to a television monitor that was placed on a wall steps from the team's home dugout at Minute Maid Park, in the tunnel that runs between the dugout and the clubhouse. Team employees and players would watch the screen during the game and try to decode signs — sitting opposite the screen on massage tables in a wide hallway.
When the onlookers believed they had decoded the signs, the expected pitch would be communicated via a loud noise — specifically, banging on a trash can, which sat in the tunnel. Normally, the bangs would mean a breaking ball or off-speed pitch was coming.
It turns out that someone caught onto the Astros before the news broke. Back in 2018, Trevor Bauer shared a couple of tweets implying the Astros have been illegally stealing signs and tweeted this after Charlie Morton struck out a career-high 10 batters.
The MLB is still looking into the incident and time will tell how things play out. But this explanation definitely painted a pretty clear picture.
(H/T Jomboy)
