By now we all know the Houston Astros had quite an offseason as their cheating ways were exposed to the world. The team’s GM and manager were punished by MLB and then fired over the sign-stealing scandal but the players were not punished, because commissioner Rob Manfred is bad at his job.
Players from other teams kicked off spring training by right ripping the Astros players for cheating their way to a World Series title in 2017. And now it looks like punishments are going to be handed out by opposing pitchers, via fastballs to the body.
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That’s what happened Tuesday when Aledmys Díaz, who wasn’t on the 2017 team, was drilled by Miami’s José Ureña on the fourth pitch of the game:
Fourth pitch of the game and Ureña beans Aledmys Díaz pic.twitter.com/12yY9E9jcV
— 2020 Astros Shame Tour (@AsteriskTour) February 25, 2020
Was that done on purpose? We don’t know for sure but a high fastball up and in like that so early in spring training game sure seems fishy, especially considering how this team cheated their way to a World Series title. As I said before, Díaz wasn’t even on the 2017 team but you have to think pitchers don’t care about that – they just care about taking frustrations out on the team itself.
It feels like pitchers are going to be doing this a lot this season, despite Manfred’s threats to offer bigger punishments for those who appear to target the Astros on purpose.
Hopefully this doesn’t get too out of control, as players safety should be a thing that is taken seriously.
But yeah, the Astros are going to face a a lot of up-and-in pitches this season.
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