We're Sorry (But We're Not Trying To)

The more things open up in detail, the more things get uglier for the Houston Astros. Even before the scandals were revealed, they were not a team that was well regarded despite the success since 2014. Ways in handling the media and the sport, it's become more frustrating for MLB. Why I think the idea of the new playoff format idea came was possibly to stop people from hearing more about this. I don't think anyone expected this to keep being the story everyone is glued to heading into Spring Training.

There haven't been any legit apologies from the organization. Whatever ones did happen felt half-assed in an attempt to get it off their backs. But as we hear more and hearing about Operation Codebreaker (Jeff Luhnow being involved) and Carlos Beltran having a lot of power with the sign stealing, you wonder how much more they could have cheated and got away with it. And with the stories that keep coming, I don't believe we've seen the last of any other incidents within the last three seasons. What I fear is the potential war between Rob Manfred and the Astros, and the other teams and players against Manfred, Tony Clark, and a few others.

No doubt, teams are going to try and hurt or kill Astro batters. Someone will be aiming for Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman's face. A broken leg could happen to Carlos Correa. Anybody, really. An NL ballpark, who knows if someone will go after guys like Verlander. Because no player got punished and unfortunately, those players are protected by the players union. The more time goes on this, the more I believe players should be in trouble. If nothing is done, there will a damn bloodbath because the Astros altered lots of teams careers. Add in a lawsuit from a former player, and it keeps becoming this huge carnival of disasters that doesn't stop. You think it would, but it doesn't.

Jim Crane still lives in his own delusional world that nothing occurred. Is Manfred afraid of going after the players? Because he could be gone soon. Same for Tony Clark as this happened under his watch and a number of careers for pitchers got derailed because of the Astros and he did nothing. Some never played in MLB again. I know it's Spring Training, but until a punishment is made, it will be the story of the year for the sport of baseball. Houston will have it very rough and rightfully so.