I won’t be rooting for Luhnow. Nobody was a bigger fan of him than I was; he was my idol for awhile. But he flew too close to the sun and got deservedly burned. I believe he knew about the cheating and didn’t do enough to stop it, and that’s enough for me to hope he goes on another path outside of baseball.
Agree, and there’s also evidence of some bangs being incorrect, but in our team’s case, a whistleblower detailed how it took place, and it could be heard via video evidence. If other teams did, say, movement by the 1B/3B coaches as Girardi may have suggested, or someone in the dugout, that’s going to be harder to decipher as they’re definitely not going to always be on camera. Check out signstealingscandal.com, very well done and detailed breakdown, and by an Astros fan. Many bangs are easy to hear, others are much harder, and possibly false positives. It shows there are a sizeable number of “incorrect” cases, either they failed to decipher the sign, or something else. This adds to the point that it wasn’t always correct, and, while in violation of the rules, wasn’t even as beneficial as it was made out to be.
You are absolutely right. It's like once they take the laundry off it doesn't matter anymore. You don't see anybody relentlessly going after Marwin when he used the banging more than anybody else, why? He's on the Twins now. Meanwhile everybody is going raw dog on Altuve right now even though he used it the least. Why? Because he's still in an Astros uniform. The main gripe right now is that the players didn't take enough responsibility for themselves. If that's the case why aren't Marwin and Maybin attacked, and McCann was allowed to retire peacefully in Atlanta? It's just like the Yankees, who have whined the loudest, happily signing Gerrit Cole even though they insist there were buzzers in 2019 and he "didn't do anything to stop them" which people still gripe at Verlander til today. You'll see Springer get offers from the same teams that are cheering him getting beaned and they won't give a s***, just like the Dodgers signing Mookie who came from the 18 Sox who "Screwed" them out of a title. It is all so absurd. That's why Crane shouldve given the eff you to MLB and keep his guys together.
So...the idea of Luhnow making the Mets top dog in NYC over the Yankees is pretty appealing to me. Whether a second chance will be given to him is obviously another story. I think it's certainly possible given 1) how insanely competitive the MLB is, and 2) Luhnow is still objectively really good at his job. I wouldn't be surprised to see one Owner give him the opportunity at redemption. It's obviously personal to Luhnow at this point; I don't see him choosing another line of work if given the opportunity. Now, as much as we all liked Luhnow, he deserved to be fired. Part of me wants him and Hinch back, but it happened under their watch. I'll still defend Luhnow when it comes to unwarranted blows or criticism (of which there is too much but he did bring upon himself), like all of Buster Olney's weird semi-erotic slam pieces where he blames Luhnow and the Astros for everything under the sun. I'll still defend Luhnow and the 'Stros from **** like that, but I think as time passes, and people realize that this was bigger than just the Astros, that he'll get another opportunity to GM again. Until then, screw Buster Olney and ESPN.
arods group out as potential buyer. Seems like Crane got a hell of a value deal considering how much franchises are going to be worth now.
Every sports team goes up in value. There only limited number of them and Fed is printing trillions of dollars for the rich so of course asset values are going to go up.
The question is, will he ever be allowed to be again? If he does land back baseball as a GM, you got to wonder what the other owners will do next to oust him?
Once the suspension is over (after the WS), any team can hire him. He’s also smart enough to navigate the legal ramifications should he not be allowed to be employed again despite serving his suspension. There are people who did far worse in baseball who were eventually allowed back in. Steinbrenner’s suspension comes to mind.
Allowed back and welcome back are a bit different. If I were Luhnow, and a MLB GM job opened and was offered to me, I might think twice about taking it if I thought sniper rifles were trained on me from the get go.
