Common sense? Seriously? Teams have been stealing signs since there have been signs, and MLB didn't see fit to make a rule against it until this year. And it's not clear that the Astros even violated that rule.
This non-event falls into exactly the same category as Deflate Gate, or it will in the terribly unlikely event that MLB imposes any penalty. Signs have been stolen and balls have been underinflated in frigid weather since forever, and there is no team that has not been "guilty" of these non-crimes. Brady was singled out for punishment for violating a rule every other team had violated because he was Bill Belichick's QB, and for absolutely no other reason. Since I can't think of any reason why MLB would want to look foolish singling out the Astros for violating a non-existent rule that every other team has also violated, for the moment I assume that this will simply fade away, as it should.
And there is a rule against unsportsmanlike conduct that has been understood since the rule was written to include fighting. It applies to conduct by players on the field of play, or to language from the field or dugout. The "conduct" in the Astros "scandal" consists of the batter using his ears. There is no rule governing assistant coaches banging on drums, and MLB has no authority to fine the Astros, big time or otherwise.
I don't think you understand what's going here. This isn't simply using a camera, or cameras, to steal signs, even though it kind of is, and it's done in real time which is the problem, it's what they're doing with the information they're getting from these cameras. We'll see if it ever comes out publicly, but what really is going on is the dorks in charge of this (the Astros have NASA-grade schleps with backgrounds in machine building algorithms on the payroll for this) are taking the data from stealing these signs via the edgertronic camera(s) and dumping this info/coding into a program on a computer, then to an app that's passed on to the players/coaches. Thus they have the sign system for the entire game by the time the Astros are done hitting in the bottom of the first inning. So there's no gamesmanship at play here. No human element, no Don Zimmer type sitting on the bench and reading tipping patterns etc. I'm sure they're not the only team doing it, but since they have the pattern of arrogance that Luhnow & company have, I'm not the least bit surprised they're the first who got/will get pinched for it. So go back and take a look at that Altuve HR off of Chapman. Do you really think he didn't know that slider was coming? He sat on a slider from a dude with 102.
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I don't think you understand what's going here. This isn't simply using a camera, or cameras, to steal signs, even though it kind of is, and it's done in real time which is the problem, it's what they're doing with the information they're getting from these cameras. We'll see if it ever comes out publicly, but what really is going on is the dorks in charge of this (the Astros have NASA-grade schleps with backgrounds in machine building algorithms on the payroll for this) are taking the data from stealing these signs via the edgertronic camera(s) and dumping this info/coding into a program on a computer, then to an app that's passed on to the players/coaches. Thus they have the sign system for the entire game by the time the Astros are done hitting in the bottom of the first inning. So there's no gamesmanship at play here. No human element, no Don Zimmer type sitting on the bench and reading tipping patterns etc. I'm sure they're not the only team doing it, but since they have the pattern of arrogance that Luhnow & company have, I'm not the least bit surprised they're the first who got/will get pinched for it. So go back and take a look at that Altuve HR off of Chapman. Do you really think he didn't know that slider was coming? He sat on a slider from a dude with 102.