MLB Bullets has nothing to say

I was hoping we’d have moved on from the Astros sign-stealing scandal by now, but we haven’t. At least the avalanche of stories about it has slowed to a steady stream.

• Jeff Passan looks at the events of the past week and writes baseball has lost its mind.
• Michael Baumann writes that MLB had hoped that their report would put a lid on the sign-stealing scandal, but instead the story just keeps getting bigger.
• Ken Rosenthal asks people inside the game what they think of the penalties the Astros received and they pretty much all feel the Astros got off too easy. (The Athletic sub. req.) Rosenthal does explain why MLB chose not to punish players. (Impossible to figure out which ones were using the system and which ones weren’t. Also, the grievances with the union could go on for years.)
• Buster Olney writes that commissioner Rob Manfred’s problem was that he trusted the players to behave themselves and didn’t come down hard enough at the first sign of trouble. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Tim Brown blasts the Astros players for not commenting on the scandal and letting manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow take the fall for them.
• Matt Snyder looks at the arguments for and against stripping the Astros of their 2017 World Series title.
• Bob Nightengale asked ex-players what they thought of whistleblower and Athletics pitcher Mike Fiers and most were critical of Fiers. I think the only good criticism of Fiers is that he shouldn’t have waited two years until he was on the A’s to speak up. On the other hand, he’s the only one who did speak up so while he committed a venial sin, the rest of the team have moral sins on their baseball souls.
• Former White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell alleges that former White Sox manager Tony LaRussa set up a camera at old Comiskey Park to steal signs back in the eighties. Of course, McDowell was not on the White Sox when LaRussa was managing the club, so this is hearsay and not a direct witness. Still, that doesn’t mean it did or didn’t happen.
• Justin Klugh ponders baseball’s relationship with “integrity.”
• Astros owner Jim Crane expects to hire a new manager in the next two weeks.
• The Astros are going to interview Dusty Baker for their vacant manager’s position. That would be a weird match, but Baker didn’t manage the same way in DC as he did in Chicago or San Francisco. So he can adapt.
• R.J. Anderson looks at some candidates to be the Mets’ next manager.
• Eric Stephen examines just how badly the Mets messed this whole situation up.
• Red Sox DH J.D. Martinez says the team will be exonerated by the commissioner because “there was nothing going on here.”
• The Hall of Fame announced that any player deemed ineligible for induction because they had been banned from baseball (i.e. Pete Rose and Joe Jackson) will not regain eligibility when they die. MLB has said that they no longer consider deceased people to be on their “permanently ineligible list.” The Hall disagrees.
• Nathaniel Rakich predicts who will get elected to Cooperstown this week, based on the ballots we already know.
• Matt Kelly uses Statcast’s new “Outs Above Average” stat to hand out “alternative” Gold Glove Awards. And El Mago gets the alternative Platinum Glove.
• Outfielder Alex Gordon and the Royals are reportedly close to a one-year deal to bring back Gordon to the only team he’s ever played for.
• And sad news for the Royals as their former owner David Glass has died. Glass finalized a sale of the club to John Sherman just two months ago. Glass was 84.
• The Braves have brought back Adeiny Hechavarría on a one-year, $1 million deal.
• Craig Edwards notes that the opt-out clause that Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has in his contract is making it almost impossible for Colorado to trade him.
• Here are the top players expected to be free agents next winter.
• Will Leitch explains which new player’s jersey should fans of each team purchase this year. I’d go with Josh Phegley for the Cubs.
• Former A’s first-round pick and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray says he wants to play both baseball and football at the same time. Well, not at the very same time because that would be awkward taking a baseball bat into the huddle, although it would keep linebackers away. But Murray wants to play both sports in the same season. He can’t under the current terms of his NFL contract, however.
• And finally, Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts had a rough week this week as he finished 48th out of 56 in the Pro Bowlers Association Hall of Fame Classic tournament, failing to make the cut. Looks like he shouldn’t quit his day job quite yet.

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