Yankees: Astros’ Strikeout Rates Compared to New York’s Prove Who the Real Cheaters Are

When comparing the strikeout rates between the Yankees and Astros, the “sign-stealing” debate is over.

For all the Houston Astros fans out there who are looking for a little reprieve from all of the (rightful) jabs and criticism they’ve been subjected to this offseason in wake of the team’s sign-stealing scandal, you can keep trying, but you’re not going to get anywhere.

They’ve been all over the Yankees in recent days after a New York judge ruled a 2017 letter be unsealed further documenting the Bombers’ sign-stealing scandal from that season (and potentially some other incidents from 2015 and 2016), but what the critics are failing to realize is that whatever happened came before the MLB instituted new rules.

Commissioner Rob Manfred, after the 2017 regular season, made sweeping adjustments to explicitly make it illegal for teams to use technological means to steal signs, which fully convicts the Astros and Red Sox — both of whom were investigated and punished for their actions. Not only that, but those documents have also been left sealed by the courts.

But the Yankees? Sure, they may have been involved in some unsavory practices, but they didn’t display a callous disregarded for the rules. Not only that, but were they really cheating to the extent all of these rival fans are insinuating? Based on these strikeout rate comparison between the Astros and Yanks, the answer is a resounding “no.”

Perhaps you could make a poor attempt at comedy and say, “The Yankees didn’t cheat well enough!” but nobody would laugh or care what you have to say. If you supposedly know what pitch is coming, how in the WORLD are you in the bottom half of the league in strikeouts? That just doesn’t happen, especially given the success we’ve seen from both Houston AND Boston during the scandals they were found guilty for.

These two lineups were (and still are) very comparably in terms of offensive production. In 2017, the Yankees struck out nearly 300 more times than the Astros and trailed in batting average (.282 vs .262) and OPS (.823 vs .785). In fact, the Astros were first in strikeouts by 66 and OPS by 35 points — with the Cleveland Indians right behind them in both categories.

And yet we have people tweeting out this garbage, even though, once again, the Yankees’ infractions came during the regular season and not during the postseason, which is when the Astros cheating operation was in full force and compromising the game at its peak. Additionally, the Yankees’ behavior reportedly didn’t involve any sort of wide-ranging scheme.

So, please, let’s unseal the Yankees letter and then follow it up by unsealing any Astros’ documents that remain protected by the courts. We’d love to learn more.