01-13-2020, 03:00 PM
I see all the comments/tweets/analysis about how MLB hammered the Astros, while my primary reaction has been fury that the players are skating on this.
These are grown men who intentionally cheated. This was a player-instigated scheme that Cora aided and abetted, with Hinch and Luhnow far more removed from it. (To be clear, Hinch deserved this. He knew about it, and I don't really care that he says he didn't approve--he didn't put a stop to it or raise it up the flagpole internally.) And Manfred says he's declining to discipline players because of the sheer number of players involved, and the difficulty involved in sorting out blame. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Commissioner, but that's the job. You dig into what happened, you figure out who the ringleaders were, and you have tiered suspensions. The guys who instigated it get more than the guys who actively participated, and those guys get more than the guys who knew about it but didn't say anything. Only the truly unaware (e.g., September call-ups, some of the pitchers who legitimately may not have known) should get off scot-free.
I fully understand that it would be an absolute mess. I get that MLB doesn't want to drag this out and wants to get back to positive headlines as soon as possible, and the inevitable union grievances over particular discipline would drag this out. But them's the breaks. Seems to me that if you've got a player-driven cheating scheme on your hand, the proper response would be more player suspensions rather than shrugging your shoulders and letting all of the offending players skate. Instead, the takeaway from all of this is "players, do whatever you want to do." MLB isn't really interested in rooting out the cheating in its ranks. It just wants to avoid bad headlines. Punting on player discipline here is cowardly, and it does nothing to actually clean up the game.
Shoeless Joe Jackson would like a word, Mr. Commissioner.
These are grown men who intentionally cheated. This was a player-instigated scheme that Cora aided and abetted, with Hinch and Luhnow far more removed from it. (To be clear, Hinch deserved this. He knew about it, and I don't really care that he says he didn't approve--he didn't put a stop to it or raise it up the flagpole internally.) And Manfred says he's declining to discipline players because of the sheer number of players involved, and the difficulty involved in sorting out blame. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Commissioner, but that's the job. You dig into what happened, you figure out who the ringleaders were, and you have tiered suspensions. The guys who instigated it get more than the guys who actively participated, and those guys get more than the guys who knew about it but didn't say anything. Only the truly unaware (e.g., September call-ups, some of the pitchers who legitimately may not have known) should get off scot-free.
I fully understand that it would be an absolute mess. I get that MLB doesn't want to drag this out and wants to get back to positive headlines as soon as possible, and the inevitable union grievances over particular discipline would drag this out. But them's the breaks. Seems to me that if you've got a player-driven cheating scheme on your hand, the proper response would be more player suspensions rather than shrugging your shoulders and letting all of the offending players skate. Instead, the takeaway from all of this is "players, do whatever you want to do." MLB isn't really interested in rooting out the cheating in its ranks. It just wants to avoid bad headlines. Punting on player discipline here is cowardly, and it does nothing to actually clean up the game.
Shoeless Joe Jackson would like a word, Mr. Commissioner.