Astros Hacked: Will Ground Control be grounded?

Shortly after being predicted as 2017 World Series Champions in a Sports Illustrated cover story, we find out that the Houston Astros internal database has been compromised and private trade discussions have been made public. There’s your SI jinx.

Deadspin published an article on Monday linking to Anonbin, a site used by hackers to post stolen information. Jeff Luhnow spent most of the day doing damage control — contacting executives of other teams whose private conversations were leaked.

"“When you have a conversation with a team,” Luhnow says, “it’s a conversation between the two individual or two clubs. It’s not meant to be shared with the world. I feel bad about that. I talked to other teams and expressed my apology and that’s about all I can do at that point.“It’s unfortunate it’s out there and it’s unfortunate that other teams are affected and individual players.” h/t Bob Nightengale"

In a statement released by the Astros the team said they had been made aware of the breach over a month ago. The Astros believe that the information came from an outside source and they are intent on prosecuting the responsible individual or individuals. The team also reports that MLB security and the FBI have been contacted.

Bud Norris, whose name comes up repeatedly in trade talks published in the report, has yet to comment publicly. Norris, who was traded to the Baltimore Orioles at the 2013 trade deadline, has been openly critical of the Astros handling of players.

Although some of the data has been verified as genuine, the Astros insist that at least a portion of it has been fabricated. Meanwhile, Luhnow joked that he used a pencil and paper on Monday when talking with other baseball executives about the issue. Despite recent security upgrades, the Ground Control database has at least temporarily been grounded.