© Thomas B. Shea | 2019 Oct 30
The Astros appear to be in deep trouble. An MLB investigation is being conducted into accusations that the team used a centerfield camera to steal signs during baseball games dating back to their 2017 World Championship season. Video evidence appears to corroborate these accusations made by former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers. Judge for yourself:
Astros using cameras to steal signs, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/rncm6qzXxw
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) November 12, 2019
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says the investigation should be completed before next season and could include penalties more extreme than taking away Astros draft picks.
How extreme could the punishments get? Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper joined KNBR on Wednesday to discuss.
“Can you imagine if the commissioner actually threatened to take away their World Championship?” Kuip asked Murph & Mac. “Can you imagine that? I don’t think he’d actually do that, but if you throw it out there it’s going to make a lot of people squirm, and look, they’re squirming anyway.
“I don’t think it’s going to end well for the Astros, and I don’t think you’re talking about ‘oh we’re gonna take away a couple draft picks and then we’ll fine them.’ I don’t think that’s even going to be close to good enough.”
Kuiper also made the point that there could be a number of potential whistleblowers.
“(The Astros) made such a big deal of getting rid of almost all of their scouts. Because they were “smarter than everybody else,” ‘let’s get rid of the scouts and use our technology of scouting teams on TV and we’ll do it through the internet,’ and they made a big deal out of that right? Guess who’s gonna turn on these guys. It’s going to be the people they got rid of — the scouts.
“There’s some paperwork involved where these scouts have a pretty good idea of what’s going on, and they’re in trouble.”
Listen to the full interview below.
