Photo: Tim Bradbury/Getty Images. “You can get consumed by data. Play Now Yes, we use data to inform our decision-making, but I would say we are as connected to the human being in our space as we are to the information we have.”Pittsburgh Pirates GM Ben Cherington cautions against drawing connections between executives he knows are “absolutely maniacal about seeking an advantage” and malfeasance, saying edges can be gleaned within the guardrails of the rules.Yet, he also notes that the game is better off if the gaze is down toward the diamond, and not up at the front office.Ultimately, that’s where the outcome-obsessed must cede control.“There does come a fundamental question of where does the line fall between technology improving things and making things easier for us, versus detracting from a sporting event taking place among human beings, and losing that,” says Orioles GM Mike Elias, an assistant under Luhnow in Houston.“Those are broad issues that are dealt with at the league level; there seems to be an ongoing conversation about it around the game and, like anything else, it will work itself out.”A fan holds shows her displeasure with the Astros during a spring training game. Ruff times: Kim Jong Un orders pet dogs to be confiscatedDisturbing video shows BLM mob beat white man unconsciousLyin' Bidens? MLB's report says the Astros stole signs throughout the 2017 regular season and postseason, and early in 2018 as well.Because it's against the rules -- and not just in the "unwritten" sense, like old-school sign-stealing. And it would be inaccurate to claim a through line from the hyper-analytic practices of today’s front offices to the Astros using electronics and, ultimately, a trash can to punish opposing pitchers.Yet, from the field to the front office, the industry’s modern misdeeds can be traced to a pair of factors: proprietary information and paranoia.Is it too much to trust that rivals are doing the right thing, on the field, in the front office or in talent-mining efforts in the Dominican Republic?“In the big picture, it still comes down to making a commitment to follow the rules,” says Chaim Bloom, the first-year chief baseball office for the Boston Red Sox.

The Astros’ sign-stealing scandal is baseball poison that spreads its toxicity far and wide. One question stands out among the many that keep surfacing in the wake of the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.Why would a highly talented group of hitters, probably good enough as a collective to win a World Series without illicitly obtained opposing signals, resort to technology in a win-at-all-costs effort that would compromise their opponents and besmirch their reputations in perpetuity?That question has been directed at the players themselves, but perhaps we should be posing a different query, viewed through a wider lens encompassing an industry that has been evolving at breakneck speed going on three decades.How did an organization viewed as the gold standard of innovation stray so far afield that a highly-regarded baseball executive, a respected field manager and several lower-level employees conspire to cheat baseball in such a fashion?GM Jeff Luhnow, lauded in baseball circles for his bloodless commitment to efficiency, was fired.
site: media | arena: mlb | pageType: stories | However, scandal has hit the team since. Joe and Jill accused of sordid 1970s affairTrump reveals brother's funeral plans after return to DC with Melania, Barron If the Astros are again among the last teams standing this postseason, the sign-stealing scandal is sure to overshadow any of the other storylines involving players and teams who didn’t cheat. Over time, it’s probably not pointing north, like it should,” John Mozeliak, the St. Louis Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, tells USA TODAY Sports.
Shortly after the article came out, MLB launched an investigation.