Even code words won’t really work. Most pitchers have two good pitches and occasionally they’ll have 4. The average at bat is just under 4 pitches. The third time you hear omega after seeing two other fastballs you’re going to know what’s coming. Even if the code is dependent on the count your third time through the order you’re going to have a good idea what is coming.
If they went to head sets a click system would probably be what is used. Just triggering the mic on and off would be inaudible to the hitter and as long as it was loud enough to be heard and counted it should work.
I do think MLB should have come down harder on this. Using video technology built into the stadium is very different than having a guy on second take a look.
I don’t know enough about the mechanics of the sport to understand the level of advantage knowing the pitch gives the batter. Is it a question of knowing when not to swing or does the batter have a measurable advantage if they know if the next pitch is a fastball or changeup?
With all the movement a professional pitcher puts on the ball the Catcher has to know what pitch to expect or there would be passed balls all over the place. And the pitcher would have a much harder time signalling in secre to the catcher while the batter is starring right at him.
One could argue that given the fact that this scandal involves potentially games in two different World Series (let’s not just assume that Cora didn’t take his tactics with him when he went to Boston), this could be the biggest MLB scandal since the 1919 Black Sox debacle.
Alex Cora, Joe Jackson and Pete Rose welcome you to eternal baseball hell.
One could argue that given the fact that this scandal involves potentially games in two different World Series (let’s not just assume that Cora didn’t take his tactics with him when he went to Boston), this could be the biggest MLB scandal since the 1919 Black Sox debacle.
Alex Cora, Joe Jackson and Pete Rose welcome you to eternal baseball hell.
The pitcher in the catcher need to be on the same page when it comes to pitch location and speed. As mentioned, it’s much easier for the catcher to signal the pitcher and keep it hidden from the batter.
Pitch selection is both a science and an art. By looking at lots of film and studying what the batter has done in the past the catcher and pitcher work out a series of strategies to keep the batter off balance. Sometimes they will use pitches to set up future at bats in the same game or even in other games. It’s really fascinating.
Batters have to make decisions in a fraction of a second. Great hitters make judgments about what to swing at or not the moment they first see the ball as it leaves his hand, and they decide even before that moment if the pitcher (or someone else) “tips” the pitch. Good pitchers learn to conceal the ball as long as possible until their delivery. Having worked out a system using electronic devices gives the hitting team an enormous edge – it’s like having an eye in the sky in a casino telling a card player what hands other card players have.
But there’s nothing preventing MLB from changing that rule. I know baseball loves to pretend it’s still the 1920s, but come on - an encrypted radio between the pitcher & catcher isn’t going to ruin the game any more than playing games at night did.
Baseball has decided using your unaided eyes and ears to steal signals is not just ok but a lauded and traditional part of the game but using any form of electronics to do so is not.
This really is a case of a slippery slope. Once they allow slightly more advanced technology to be involved, it’s going all the way. Manfred has basically said so himself - that he’s still trying to figure out if it should be allowed in the future or they keep things the same. Doesn’t change the fact it was not allowed today, but that seems to be the direction the world is headed.
Also, there’s some debate on how much the cheating helped. Note all the stats cited above include both home and away games - you’d think a team getting an unfair advantage should see a distinct advantage at home rather than away but this didn’t happen. The Astros players more or less stopped doing it themselves in 2018 not because they thought it was wrong but because they thought it didn’t add much value.
I brought it up above, but there’s also the question of how much MLB just wants this story to end without seeing how far it goes. Beyond the other teams I mentioned above (Brewers, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers), the Indians, Diamondbacks, Cubs, Blue Jays, and Nationals were also suspected by the league office (note the linked article is from early October - well before the Astros story broke).
I can see MLB wanting to make one big example and have the problem go away but that’s not usually how the world works.
Well my attitudes about team sports go further back. I think that in any sport only the players on the field should be playing the game and making all decisions. The team captain on the field should make decisions about substitutions, etc. Alll communications between managers/coaches and players should be banned during the course of a game. Managers and coaches should be sitting in the stands Along with spectators with no means of communicating with players.
Good. Grease that slope. I don’t want batters in exoskeletons but technology could definitely curb cheating and make calls more accurate. You could even say that instant replay already started this.
Well, yeah. The way I see it, it’s a game, so any help to the players is kibbitzing. You aren’t allowed to receive instructions from coaches when you’re playing chess or Jeopardy, so you shouldn’t have access to the advice/instruction coaches when you’re playing baseball, basketball, or football. It should be considered unsportsmanlike.
In football you can legally lay out an opponent with a hit that breaks bones. You should be able to do that in chess because football and chess are both games. Anything else would be unsportsmanlike.
But there are a lot of posters stating with certainty it’s a major competitive advantage, and the data doesn’t firmly support it. There’s the feeling that it should convey an advantage for various reasons, but that’s all that it is at the moment - a feeling. We have ‘just so’ stories on how it’s supposed to help but nothing to back it. And from the other end, players have stated sometimes they don’t want to know - mistakes can be made and knowing what’s coming can sometimes throw off your timing.
Of course players can and will try to take advantage based on hunches (baseball is notoriously superstitious after all) but it just brings home the fact that they went to a lot of effort and a few people got hit with major penalties for potentially little or no benefit. That’s a bit pathetic.