Yankees: 3 annoying Astros things you probably forgot about

2. Astros Sent Kris Medlen Into Retirement

Plenty of ink has been spilled on Mike Bolsinger and his Astros-related lawsuit over the past few seasons, and it’s true that Houston’s bang-filled offense ended the pitcher’s marginal MLB career in illicit fashion.

Every time we talk about Bolsinger, though, we should also talk about Kris Medlen, the ex-Brave who fought for years to get back to MLB only to watch his flame get extinguished by Houston in one fell swoop.

Braves star Freddie Freeman certainly never forgot about his old buddy Medlen, and he shared the righty’s story when asked to address the Astros’ cheating scandal in the wake of the early 2020 revelations.

If that doesn’t get you, you don’t have an emotional bone in your body — or you reside in the cushy Houston suburbs, wake up at 10:30 am everyday and immediately take to Twitter to flame Joel Sherman or something equally boring.

Medlen was a force for the 2012 and 2013 Braves, posting a 10-1 record with a 1.57 ERA in ’12. Unfortunately, things sped downhill in 2014, when he left a spring training start with elbow soreness and was told he required a second Tommy John surgery, a rarity in the modern game, though something current Yankee Jameson Taillon has also dealt with.

Following the procedure, Medlen fought back to pitch solidly for the 2015 World Champion Royals, but eventually backslid, battled rotator cuff soreness, got non-tendered, and battled like hell to make the 2018 Arizona Diamondbacks call-up list, receiving one final opportunity to start against the Houston Astros.

To be fair to Houston (why), this game did not take place at Minute Maid Park. We’re still in the realm of not giving them credit for anything, though, and we still can’t endorse Medlen, after all that hard work, getting knocked around for seven runs in 4.0 innings against these bozos and then calling it a career.

Never forget the hard work other people put in between 2017-2020 that was completely undone by the Astros machine. Freeman certainly didn’t.

1. Astros Were Literally Caught Cheating in 2018 and Nobody Cared

If you come away from this article remembering one thing (why would you, though?), remember this.

The Houston Astros can deny all they want that they cheated after the 2017 season. They can claim the buzzers are fake. They can claim that what they were “punished” for is the sum total of illicit things that happened.

However, a year and a half before anything came out about the team’s behavior in ’17, an SB Nation article was published midway through the 2018 playoffs detailing some strange actions from Astros employees and the growing suspicion that they were indeed behaving in unsavory fashion throughout the ’18 season.

“The Astros Have Been Cheating All Season, Maybe” is one hell of a 2018 headline that we’ve largely forgotten.

As Marc Normandin detailed above, an Astros employee with a camera was kicked out of the dugout area against the Red Sox in the ALCS. He claimed he was only trying to prevent the Red Sox from cheating (And, you know what? With Alex Cora’s presence in the other dugout … valid!).

Then, unfortunately for this fella, it came to light that the Cleveland Indians had complained about the same thing a round prior. And the A’s did so over the summer. And then Jeff Passan went to work.

Quoth Normandin:

MLB acknowledged that Astrogate* happened on Tuesday, but considered the matter closed. It doesn’t look closed, though: It turns out the Red Sox knew about this guy because the Cleveland Indians, who had lost to the Astros in the ALDS, tipped Boston off to him. Reportedly, multiple Astros employees were ejected by MLB security during Game 3 of the ALDS for similar behavior. *I’m comfortable using -gate here only because this involves spying and counterintelligence efforts And that’s when things unraveled. Jeff Passan revealed the name of this wannabe spy, Kyle MacLaughlin, as well as his connections to the Astros. He also dropped the bombshell that the A’s had complained to MLB about this behavior by the Astros back in late-August, and that there was an elaborate clapping setup in the Houston dugout to relay stolen signs to hitters.

Was this what got the ball rolling on Passan’s detective work, ultimately leading to the Mike Fiers revelations? Quite possibly!

Lost, somehow, in all our screaming about the Astros was that they behaved bizarrely throughout 2018, too, a season which they’ve been swearing up and down was completed cleanly. How have we all forgotten about this? Thank goodness, in retrospect, that Cora was over there in the other dugout cheating one step better than Houston.

Or, wait, maybe not. OK, yeah, wait, I’m actually angrier about that still. Yeah, 2017-2020 has been awful in every way. Sorry. My bad.

Yankees: Alex Cora and Red Sox apology statements are embarrassing

New York Yankees fans will be furious about Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora's awful apology statement about his rampant cheating.