MLB Bullets brings down the hammer

I’ll edit this article later so that I have something clever written up here.

I do feel sorry for Astros fans. They’ve done nothing wrong but in the span of less than a month, the image of their team has gone down the tubes.

• The Astros sign-stealing scandal continues as Ken Rosenthal and Even Drellich follow up on their original story and report that three current MLB managers—Astros’ A.J. Hinch, Red Sox’s Alex Cora and Mets’ Carlos Beltran—were all a part of the 2017 sign-stealing scheme. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Jeff Passan has a lot of the information in that article for those of you who don’t subscribe to The Athletic as well as the current state of the investigation. Passan reports that the Astros are facing punishment in which “the severity could be unlike anything seen in the sport’s recent history.”
• Bob Nightengale spoke to the general managers of other teams at the GM Meeting and reports that the other GMs want the Astros to get hammered hard for these violations. Record fines, multiple draft picks and international signing penalties were all mentioned. Two GMs even want the 2017 World Series title to be vacated.
• Michael Baumann explains why it’s no surprise that the Astros were caught doing this and lists the many way that the Houston organization (and the men that make up the front office and ownership) have behaved as if the rules don’t apply to them.
• Tom Verducci demands quick and decisive action on the part of MLB. I’ve got to say, I’d rather commissioner Rob Manfred gets this right rather than gets this quick. The last thing we need is for Manfred to make a Bowie Kuhn-style big move, only to get it overturned by an arbitrator or the courts.
• Michael Rosenberg thinks the best thing for the game and for the Astros would be to just admit what happened and take their punishment. Houston hasn’t demonstrated that they’re real good at admitting their mistakes lately.
• Emma Baccellieri looks at the history of sign stealing and even finds a quote from Ty Cobb about why sign stealing by a player on second base was OK but sign stealing with the use of technology was out of bounds.
• Tim Brown says that MLB must establish that the games are on the up-and-up. And he doesn’t just mean sign stealing, but he lumps the baseball and tanking in with this as well.
• Speaking of the baseballs, Dr. Meredith Wills continued her study of the baseballs to see if the 2019 postseason balls were different than the regular season balls. They were, but there are serious questions about whether or not she was studying the baseballs actually used in the games. (The Athletic sub. req., but you can get the gist of the article here.)
• The Gabe Kapler era in San Francisco is off a great start. And by “a great start,” I mean bad start. (And you can check out McCovey Chronicles to see that the Kapler hire is not popular with the fans.)
• R.J. Anderson has a “best-case” and “worst-case” for all the new MLB managers.
• We have a free agent signing already! The Braves have signed reliever Will Smith to a three-year, $40 million deal.
• Mike Trout is the American League MVP and it’s about time to consider re-naming it the “Mike Trout Award.”
• Ken Rosenthal reveals his MVP ballot and explains why he voted for Trout over Alex Bregman. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger edged out Christian Yelich to be the NL MVP.
• Tim Brown explains why sharing this moment with his father brought Cody to tears. He may have one more MVP award than dad, but dad still has three more World Series rings.
• The Brewers weren’t pleased that Bellinger won the MVP award over Yelich, leading to dueling social media gifs.
• Justin Verlander won his second AL Cy Young Award and he explained to Bob Nightengale why this one means even more than the first one. Verlander also said that he wants to win 300 games before retiring. He’s got 75 to go and he turns 37 before Opening Day. Unlikely, but I won’t say it’s impossible.
• Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom won his second-straight Cy Young Award.
• Matt Ehalt writes that deGrom’s consecutive Cy Young Awards has him on a path to Cooperstown. Tell that to Tim Lincecum.
• After a “recount,” Dodgers hurler Hyun-Jin Ryu finished second in balloting and because of that, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer “lost” $100,000.
• Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a fine rookie year, but he didn’t win the Rookie of the Year Award like everyone predicted and he didn’t deserve to win it. Devan Fink explains why Guerrero didn’t live up to expectations.
• Mark Feinsand has six observations from the GM Meetings.
• Agent Scott Boras said that teams are more willing to sign free agents earlier this winter.
• Twins pitcher Jake Odorizzi and White Sox first baseman José Abreu accepted their qualifying offers. The other eight players turned them down.
• Daniel Kramer looks at free agent Josh Donaldson’s big 2019 season and why he’ll be much more in demand this winter than he was last year.
• Buster Olney looks at the best fits for free agent catcher Yasmani Grandal. (ESPN+ sub. req.) The Cubs are on the list, but way down near the bottom.
• Eric Stephen has a “holiday gift guide” for MLB teams. It’s really just a look at all the top free agents done in a cute way.
• Winter previews for each team in the NL East, NL Central and NL West.
• Katherine Acquavella has a more in-depth preview of the Dodgers off-season. Nine-teen-eighty-eight, (clap, clap) Nine-teen-eighty-eight.
• Craig Calcaterra reminds everyone to pay no attention to the statements coming from front offices about their offseason plans.
• Mandy Bell has four possible trade destinations for Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor.
• Craig Edwards uses his “WAR IQ” stat to help determine the worst team of all time, as well as the worst team in every franchises history. The worst team of all time (or since 1903) is not the 1962 Mets, by his stat. Also, the worst Cubs team of all time had four Hall-of-Famers on the roster.
• Mike Piazza is the new manager of the Italian National Baseball Team.
• And finally, the minor league teams participating in the Copa de la Diversión promotion this year announced all their wacky Spanish-language team identities, so check those out. South Bend is going to be “Los Cabritos Maldichos” and I think I’m going to have to buy a cap.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.