Astros: MLB Analyst opens flood gate of cheating allegations

Believe what you want, but a recent Twitter thread shows more hypocrisy in baseball.

While all eyes have been on the Houston Astros in the light of cheating over the past two years, MLB Analyst Ryan Spaeder released a Twitter thread after he stated that he’s “had enough, I think I am coming out with everything tomorrow.” This was Tweeted on Tuesday night, and after he slept on it, Spaeder released a series of Tweets about recent players and teams cheating in MLB that he has heard from sources.

Yes, cheating has been a reoccurring act in baseball for years. The game has and will forever be the easiest sport to find an illegal advantage in. More recently, we have seen MLB crack down on pitchers using foreign substances for better grip and higher spin rates. But the Astros cheated with trash cans, which is why it sticks around a lot more.

These allegations don’t have video evidence behind them or Jomboy Media wasting countless hours dissecting, but they come from “legit sources” a friend of Spaeder stated. Spaeder says that everything he presented was verified by more than one player. And while the Astros are the face of cheating in baseball, his Tweets say otherwise in the grand scheme of things.

The Astros played the Kansas City Royals in the 2015 ALDS, where they lost in five games. Spaeder says that the Royals were the first team to have an analytics and video department close to their home dugout but doesn’t know how they used it. A player of the 2016 team said that every organization had the set up at that time, but in the end, it honestly doesn’t look like much if there aren’t any reports of cheating.

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In New York Yankee news, Spaeder states that the Baby Bronx Bombers had cameras pointed at the pitcher’s glove to pick up grip from left, center and right field from 2017-18. He then provides Aaron Judge’s home and away numbers over that time, while his line from Yankee Stadium was heavily inflated.

Another 2017 team in question would be the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are claimed to have “had an employee who was caught setting up cameras at Minute Maid Park wearing an MLB Polo Shirt, when he should have been wearing a Dodgers Polo, during the 2017 World Series.” Spaeder also pointed to Chase Utley, member of the 2017 Dodgers, as “the biggest cheater of all-time.” Jacob deGrom has also theorized Los Angeles of doing the same thing.

Looking at our friends of North Texas, Rangers’ slugger Adrian Beltre had someone relay offspeed pitches using an undershirt waved in the air. This is the silliest of them all, but he did play against the Astros in 2017 among other years.

And the grand daddy of them all: “The Astros ‘sign stealing’ method all came from Beltran, New York and Texas.” This has been a fan speculation among a reported allegation over the past year, but it is even funnier to see fans on Twitter react to these Tweets.

Every writer, reporter, insider and analyst has a reputation. Everyone has an opinion and will believe what they want, but Spaeder has possibly opened a can of worms about more things MLB might ignore. In the end, a large percentage of baseball players cheat, but it’s how you get caught.