Long-Reads

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Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Suspension Reaction Roundup

A friendly gathering of what I'm sure will be a universally even-keeled response to the punishments handed down by MLB yesterday:

*Check out our own Masked Marvel on Manfred painting himself into a corner.

*Jake Kaplan: After cleaning house, where will Jim Crane turn?

*538's Travis Sawchik: How much of the Astros' legacy is now in doubt?

*ESPN has a list of player reactions to yesterday's news.

*ESPN's Buster Olney (unlocked): The five victims of the Astros' sign-stealing scandal.

*ESPN's Jeff Passan: Why anger is boiling behind the scenes about the Astros punishments. An anonymous team president:
Crane won. The entire thing was programmed to protect the future of the franchise. He got his championship. He keeps his team. His fine is nothing. The sport lost, but Crane won.

*FanGraphs' Jay Jaffe: Manfred hammers the Astros.

*SI's Emma Baccellieri: Unpacking the meaning of Manfred's punishment.

*Stephanie Apstein: MLB, not the Astros, should have fired Hinch and Luhnow.

*Tom Verducci: Firing Luhnow/Hinch was the only option Crane had.

*Bradford Doolittle, David Schoenfield, and Jeff Passan broke down what the penalties actually mean.

*Chandler Rome: Manfred went after the Astros' "insular culture."

*Jerome Solomon: Jim Crane's firings set the bar higher for the organization.

*USA Today's Bob Nightengale: The Astros are still talented, but are leaderless and flawed.

*SI legal guy Michael McCann: Could Hinch or Luhnow sue the Astros and/or MLB?

*The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal: People at every level of baseball are responsible for the sign-stealing mess. Rosenthal:
The penalties administered by Manfred...will serve as a powerful deterrent to anyone who considers engaging in illegal sign stealing in the future. But baseball still must figure out exactly how to best prevent such violations from occurring again, whether it's by denying players access to video during games, introducing new technology to protect the relaying of signs from catcher to pitcher or developing some other innovative strategy. And everyone involved needs to acknowledge the role they played in allowing the sport to grow so out of control.






*SI: Baseball's cheating culture is facing a reckoning.

*Yahoo's Tim Brown: The 'High-Road' won't win Houston's opponents any glory.






*Baseball America's J.J. Cooper: How the draft situation will be resolved over the next two years.

*MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo: The cost of the lost prospect value in 2020 and 2021.

*Boston's Dan Shaugnessy: The Red Sox need to do the right thing and fire Alex Cora.