Yankees: Highway robbery times three and the honor of the game

Astros need to be made an example of

If Houston is found guilty of cheating during one year (or, worse, multiple season), what price should the ‘Stros pay? How should the MLB punish the team?

What about disavowing Altuve’s 2017 MVP Award and giving it, instead, to Judge? How about negating Houston’s victory over the Savages in the 2017 ALCS and awarding the series to the Yanks instead? And for you Dodgers fans, should the MLB discount the Astros’ victory in the 2017 World Series and declare the Dodgers, the real winners?

These are all possible actions the MLB could take. However, the league is unlikely to go so far given how it has handled similar cases in the past.

What is more likely to happen is that the Astros’ manager, AJ Hinch, will be fined and suspended but not removed if he is found to have known about the cheating. One has to wonder how such a system could have been executed and sustained without his knowledge. And if Hinch didn’t know about it, what does that say about his leadership skills and ability?

What is more than likely to happen is that Houston will be heavily fined a large sum of money.

There is also a possibility that the team will be required to give up future draft picks. While these potential outcomes may be fair depending on how severe the penalties are, alone they will not compensate Judge nor the Yankees who played fair while Houston cheated. Even worse, modest penalties may not effectively deter future teams from similarly cheating in the future.

All three cases bring into serious question the integrity of Major League Baseball and those who are associated with the national pastime.

If certain baseball writers have a bias against the New York Yankees and the team’s players, they cannot be impartial and fair in their award voting and they should be excluded from the voting process. Likewise, teams that cheat must be severely punished not only to deter future cheating, but also to protect the honor of the game.