The Astros are the best team in baseball. Most observers will agree on that.
Broadly speaking, this is because Houston hits the best, pitches the best, executes the best and takes advantage of every opportunity to win — and, perhaps most importantly, takes advantage of their opponents' mistakes. It’s that last thing we’re going to talk about now.
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A lot of people think the Astros steal signs from their opponents. This is not new. The Yankees, their ALCS opponent, are the latest to make the accusation. Well, good for the Astros. If an opponent has signs that are easy to steal, regardless of how they’re stolen, that to me is the same as a pitcher tipping his pitches, or hanging a curveball, or a fielder making an error that helps start a rally. Mistakes are mistakes. Sloppiness loses baseball games. Period.
It’s not a new argument, but if the Astros are stealing signs, their opponents just need better signs. It’s as simple as that. If your code is easy to crack, the problem is on you, not the codebreaker.
“I don’t think it’s any secret they do it," a source told the New York Post this week. “They bang pipes (to relay signs). We have heard they have cameras around the park and that some way of communicating originates from their bullpen. Just look at their home record.’’
The Astros went 60-21 at home this season. So what?
While stealing is usually wrong, context is everything. I would argue that stolen signs are more of a gift.
“But wait a minute, Jason. Some believe they might be using technology to steal signs.”
I’m glad you brought that up. My answer: They should be. And yes, I know it’s against the rules. But no, it shouldn’t be.
Every team uses technology to gain an advantage, whether slowing down video to study a pitcher’s mechanics, study launch angles or learn pitch sequences to form a better approach at the plate. There are multiple iPads visible in every dugout to give hitters one last look at a pitcher's tendencies before going to bat. It's also technology that drives the data that leads teams to employ defensive shifts. Technology is there to help. It would be organizational malpractice to not use it to the fullest capacity.
This shouldn't be considered dishonest or unethical. It should be considered smart and savvy.
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So if you have cameras focused on the catcher’s fingers, fine. If you have one focused on a third base coach as he relays signals to batters and runners, great. Think of it as an alternate definition of advanced scouting. The onus is on the opponent to hide its intent. If they’re not hiding it well enough, it’s just another example of sloppy baseball.
“They’re really good at picking things up. And on top of that, they play at a really high level," Yankees Game 1 starter Masahiro Tanaka said about the sign stealing, according to the Post. "We tried to make it more complicated. We definitely paid more attention to changing things up and tried to make it harder for them.”
The Yankees won that game, 7-0. Good for them. Baseball's chess-like nature shouldn't be limited to pitching changes and pinch hitters.
Should there be limits? Certainly. For example, teams shouldn’t bug their opponents’ clubhouses or dugouts. They shouldn’t have hidden cameras away from the field. They shouldn’t employ spies to work for other organizations or hack computers to steal information. But on the field, during a game, in public, with more than 100,000 eyes in the building, there should be no limits, as long as the same opportunities are there for everyone (and they are).
So if a team wants to employ someone to sit in the stands to study the opposition’s signs with a fancy camera and text information to the dugout, that should be fine. If the home team wants to put secret codes on a scoreboard, go for it. If a team wants to give its batters earpieces to tell them which pitch is coming, why not? OK, maybe that last one is a bit extreme, but I’d posit that it’s still not out of bounds.
Technology is everywhere in the game. It’s not going away, and it’s only going to become more prevalent. This is just a natural step in the evolutionary process of finding every edge and taking every advantage.
By the way, every team tries to steal signs. This has always been the case. It’s silly to think otherwise. And most of them are probably using technology to do it. Some are just better than others. The Astros appear to be the best. But Houston is already the best at nearly everything else, so why should this be different?
