Quote:
Originally Posted by SpaceOdyssey
Connect the dots
Houston followed by Red Sox = Alex Cora
|
Hate to admit it but I think you are right.
This said, I wonder if everyone isn’t doing this and these two teams are the easiest targets? The reason I say this is that when you look into how they were doing this it seems so easy that you’d have to try not to do this (corporate world calls this a firewall). In addition, the last year or two has seen an increase in hitting numbers. People have speculated that MLB is juicing the ball but how exactly would they do this? I mean how’s a pitcher not going to notice? MLB has admitted they changed the stitching which resulted in a decrease in seam size but I don’t believe this alone explains better hitting numbers.
A couple other thoughts. Does this impact what a team might be willing to offer for Betts? He’s a great fielder but most teams are likely interested in his bat. If his numbers are partially a result of cheating then what will his productivity look like going forward? This said, he was good before Cora arrived but I still wonder.
One other thing I wondered about is if teams are routinely stealing signs, doesn’t this favor pitchers who work rapidly on the mound or are hitters able to get the signal regardless of how fast a pitcher tries to work?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk