I spent the majority of Tuesday working on a write-up related to the report in The Athletic.
The Astros released a statement promising to cooperate with MLB's investigation. In that statement, Luhnow:
The reason we won the World Series in 2017 is Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, and a lot of great players and they do things the right way and we as an organization, that's what we aspire to do as well.
Also, Luhnow:
We haven't done everything properly, but I do feel confident that in general, most of the time, we did things right and we try and follow the rules. We try to be good citizens and we try to compete as hard as we can.
Carlos Beltran denied The Athletic's [and Mike Fiers'] report:
I'm not aware of that camera. We were studying the opposite team every day.
The Yankees are Big Mad about the whole thing. An anonymous member of the 2017 Yankees:
To actually have somebody hitting a garbage can, pretty much the whole game, that's pretty much your job, whoever is doing that. It stinks. You wish you could go back in time and figure that out earlier, because we thought we were the better team. We probably were the better team.
Brian Cashman:
I don't think it's a technological question alone. It's just conduct. You decide to play by the rules, or you don't. And if you don't, there's consequences. You're putting yourself at risk whether it's future employment, current employment, or sanctions or what have you. It's not a technology question as much as how you want to operate.
*Sports Illustrated's Mike Rosenberg: Why the Astros must admit they cheated.
*Parts of the Front Office are in Arizona for the GM Meetings. Jeff Luhnow met with members of Scott Boras' team yesterday, which makes sense as Scott Boras represents basically every free agent. Chandler Rome says that Luhnow is hoping to add multiple veteran starters:
We're looking for multiple players, whether it's internally or externally, that can give us innings in a rotation. Typically, it's eight or nine guys competing for five spots. Right now, we need to build that list.
*MLB.com: The case for each Cy Young candidate.
*Oakland's Bob Melvin got more Manager of the Year votes than A.J. Hinch, who finished 5th.
*Gabe Kapler is the new manager of the San Francisco Giants. Presumably Joe Espada will remain as the Astros' bench coach.
*Six of the Astros' Top 30 prospects are Rule 5 Draft-eligible: (9) Cristian Javier, (13) Enoli Paredes, (16) Ronnie Dawson, (25) Jonathan Arauz, (26) Nivaldo Rodriguez, (28) Taylor Jones.
*Fighting crime with San Diego's real-life superhero squad.
*A Musical Selection:
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
