In a piece for The Players’ Tribune, Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena discusses his dramatic defection from Cuba as a 16-year-old and the emotions behind his return to his home country last year as part of a MLBPA goodwill tour with other Cuban players. Here’s some news from around the NL Central…
- The Cardinals should be punished beyond just a fine for the computer breach scandal involving the Astros’ player evaluation database, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan opines. Even a substantial fine might not be enough of a deterrent for a wealthy team like the Cards, so Passan believes that Major League Baseball needs to take away future draft picks, or funds from the Cardinals’ amateur draft or international signing pools.
- Tony Sanchez tells Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he wasn’t surprised when the Pirates designated him for assignment earlier this week. “I dug my own grave. When I started having throwing issues, I knew they lost trust in me. And if you can’t trust your catcher, you can’t play him,” Sanchez said. The catcher was the fourth overall pick of the 2009 draft but has yet to deliver on that promise in the majors; Sanchez has a .259/.303/.378 line over 155 plate appearances since 2013. As Sanchez noted, he also had trouble throwing out baserunners at the both the big league and Triple-A level.
- The signing of Neftali Feliz indicates that the Pirates still put a premium on hard-throwing arms, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. The Bucs’ average fastball velocity has increased every season since Neal Huntington took over was GM, culminating in a league-leading 94mph average in 2015. Feliz is also another investment for the Pirates bullpen, as Sawchik notes that the club is projected to be spending about a quarter of its payroll (roughly $23.7MM) on five relievers.
Is that coming from MLBTR or just Passan? Because that’s a bias opinion coming from a Cubs fan Tim Derkis
1) Tim Dierkes didn’t write the article.
2) Jeff Passan’s name is mentioned in both sentences in the blurb I assume you are talking about. Pretty sure that means those ideas are coming from him.
It’s coming from Passan. The article is full of that stuff. They fired Correa when they found out it was him. It would be different if the Cards ordered it or tried to cover it up. But they didn’t. Passan also has been notable in saying to forgive all PED users. Sounds like he thinks the hacking has EVERYTHING to do with the Cardinals being good at drafting and being good the past decade. MLB already said the Cardinals had nothing to do with it. You don’t punish the whole corporation for the illegal activities of one person doing it under their own accord.
It was still done under their watch, and he was a part of their organization, which means they should still be held liable….
Also, once he got caught he had to be fired, anything else would simply look horrible from an outsider’s perspective.
I’m not sure to what extent the Cardinals did or didn’t know about his activities, and neither does MLB nor anyone else outside of that organization…I also do not think they should be forced to lose a draft pick, but the fact of the matter is the cheating happened during his tenure as a Cardinals employee…Unfortunately, that means the Cardinals have to be held liable for his actions, regardless whether or not they benefitted from the stolen information.
Personally, with all of this being said, I believe they should be fined accordingly, and also they should lose some money from their international pool…
Like I said, regardless whether they benefitted or not, because NO ONE will ever TRULY know, they have to be punished because it was the organization’s employee who committed the act….
With that logic, the parents of a murderer should always be punished, whether they had anything to do with the crime or not. Still sore about the infield fly rule?
*I agree that the call was bad and if I were you I’d have thrown my shoe through the tv.
They should be punished though, even if it was the actions of only one guy. He’s still a member of the organization and while I’m not calling for them to lose something absurd (like multiple draft picks), a hefty fine and/or loss of a pick or pool money is fine imo. Similar case to the whole Deflategate scandal. Even though the belief was that the two equipment managers and Brady were the only ones to knowingly cheat (Belicheck and Kraft were believed to have no involvement or knowledge) the organization as a whole was punished through a hefty fine and a loss of a pick.
Legally a company or corporation is liable for any illegal Activia that occur while an employee is “on the clock.” That’s why if sexual harassment occurs the business is named in the lawsuit in addition to the employee.
Come on don’t be a bunch of haters the Cardinals are number one
I agree
Reading comprehension really is a lost ability
Well the Cubs already won the World Series last year so ya know…
The Yankees should get Sanchez for catching depth, i think McCann can try to help him out wth his throwing and maybe posada can help him in spring
How sweet it feels to be a Pirate fan looking down over the mountain at the Yankees far below.
there’s not a huge difference between to two
Super sad when your team is “on top of the mountain” after a few solid seasons followed by 1st round playoff exits. More like standing on top, staring down over an ant hill.
what…?
Joe was a catcher too so loads of help
I think it’s only fair the Yankees should take one of the Pirates’ catchers, considering how we have raided the Yankees for 3 catchers in the past 3 years.
can i like this +1?
Are y’all just intentionally ignoring the imminent signing of Oh Seung-hwan, or what’s going on here?
stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland…
Cardinals should loose 1st and 2nd round draft picks for 5yrs and fine millions of dollars because they cheated
You don’t know what you’re saying learn about baseball and then you talk
I’ve been wondering the same thing. Surprised there hasn’t been a peep out of MLBTR about it yet. Any real reason?
Two closers? The Cards are gonna be sick
I am pretty annoyed by this. With them ignoring the info on The Final Boss, now I know I cannot solely trust MLBTR to cover all rumors around baseball. Disappointing.
Jeff Pasan hasn’t written a credible article in years.
says the cards homer who can’t deal with anyone criticizing his team for such blatant infractions
I’ll agree with you about Passan and I can’t be called a Cards homer because I can’t stand them either. Passan is a horrible excuse for a baseball writer in my opinion.
Pirates stop thinking your going to get treasure or steal somebody . I’m a Cub fan but your run will end if you don’t out do those cheating Cardnals . Go for it get (1) good luck guys:beat those Birds
These comment boards used to be filled by intelligent baseball fans. How come recently it’s being filled with mindless comments like this, mostly from Cubs fans?
MLBTR got too popular. Their Facebook page has had the same issues, though it seems at least that is still moderated. At least more than the website is currently.
Maybe you’re the mindless one…I’m not seeing a problem with this comment…he is simply saying that the Cardinals (as an organization) got caught cheating and that if the Pirates are going to win a WS they need to get past the Cardinals in the NL Central…pretty simple in my opinion and it is relevant to baseball
When they changed from the old comment system most left as the new one wasn’t user friendly at all and its been through changes but what use to make these comments sections fun and filled with tons of knowledge seems to be gone for good.
These suggestions of removing draft picks are just fantastic. This will be another instance of the league going after the small(er) market team that has been successful… just like the Saints “bounty gate.” It will be interesting to see if the Commish states that “ignorance is not an excuse,” just like Goodell. Then it is only a matter of time before the Commish uses ignorance as an excuse for himself (see Goodell re: Ray Rice video).
Queue the “homer” name-calling, ad hominem replies. Go go go!
They broke the rules, they should be punished regardless of how big their market is. It’s not just an “ignorance is not an excuse” issue, this is just how corporate governance works. Deal with it.
Your logic is so flawed it unbelievable. Bet hey a great conspiracy theory: the comish woke up one day and decided he hated the Cards. So he was going to create some crazy scenario where he was going to take away some important draft pics. It just so happened that a serious business crime occurred. If the franchise knew about what he was doing do you really think they’d admit to it. I’d like to believe no one assisted Correa and he was smart enough to conjure this whole thing up by himself. It’ll be a couple of draft picks and a fine holy cow take the medicine and move on. It’s bad for all of baseball.
Cards fan here. Sick of the bias one both sides. Of course the cardinals will be fined, that’s just the way it works. But calling for 3 first round picks or something like that is illogical. Two things: 1). A lot of hate for cardinals is unwarranted and spewed simply because they are a disliked team out the Midwest. People will criticize Cardinals more, not looking at all sides of a situation
2). Fellow Cards fans, join the modern age. Stopped acting as if the Cardinals had nothing to do at all with this. Correa used hacked information to help guide cardinals in their decisions. While that doesn’t mean Mozeliak and Dewitt knew, that still means a competitive advantage was used.
The punishment should be based on how much other people in Cardinals organization knew about he accessed information. If only Correa , then a hefty fine. If more, draft picks need to be involved. We can’t move one and regain any respect by simply ignoring any wrong doing.
But like I said to non-cards fans, stop acting holier-than-thou. Easily every MLB team has done something that was against the rules, and swept it under the rug. We just can’t keep acting like Cardinals are the most villainous team in baseball. Let the facts speak for themselves. And whatever the FBI reports say, so be it.
Well in fairness to Tony Sanchez, it is not so much that he failed to deliver the promise of the 4th overall pick, it is that he should have never been the 4th overall pick to begin with. I remember the 2009 draft and everyone was ridiculing the Pirates for drafting Sanchez so high for signability reasons. Most people were saying he was a 2nd round pick at best. If he were a second round pick, he not nearly as big of a bust.
2009 was a horrible draft for the pirates over all.. Assuming Tony doesn’t come back only one player is left from that draft and i think it was like a 20th rounder who hasn’t even played in years due to injury and being cut multiple times.
The Pirates did get Brock Holt and Vick Black (265th and 45th picks) who have put in some decent mlb games…… for other teams.
Cards broke the rules multiple years on this, then Correa did notify his superiors as well ( he was the fall guy) draft pick and money – btw did you notice since this story broke over a year ago that they’ve. now had to lousy drafts in a row.
The last draft was one of the best Cardinal drafts in recent memory. But no one is ever impressed with a Cardinal draft because they rarely ever target the high upside, low floor players.
What? They’ve only had one draft since the news broke and it’s really too soon to tell if it’s a good one or bad one.. Nice try though Jerry Fletcher.
Jack Flaherty was picked in 2014, and is now a #2 prospect. Nick Plummer, selected in First Round this year, is a high ceiling player who is no one to sneeze at. I would take you more seriously if you did research and didn’t have a biased perspective. I agree Cards need a punishment, but stop acting like the entire organization is responsible for bad decisions made by a ignorant employee.
But at least you can fall back on calling them Cheaters, or the worst team in baseball, or whatever delusional concept you have to take them down a notch,
Somebody should have gotten Tony Sanchez a Victoria’s Secret catalog.
lol rube reference.. love it.
Pirates fan… The cards will be punished, but really it isn’t like it is deflate gate or anything. A reasonable fine and maybe a bit of cash thrown Houston’s way is more than enough. Surrendering draft picks.. unless it is a 30th rounder is crazy.
Now if you can tie others into the breach.. if they knew where all this data came from and how he got it.. well then you got something more serious.
Now the guy who actually did it.. banned from baseball. He knowingly cheated and broke the law in the process.
other than throwing, Tony isn’t the worst behind the plate and shown some pop in the bat. . Someone will pick him up for a depth option.
Good luck Tony!