The offseason sure started off very oddly. So to speak.

After the World Series ended, a former Astros pitcher, Mike Fiers, admitted to the Athletic that the team did use technology to steal signs during the franchise's championship season of 2017. Through the weeks, many websites and videos have shown somewhat evidence of the Astros using banging on a trash can to whistling as a tool to seek a certain pitch from an opposing team. To be clear, cheating in baseball has happened for years (too much pine tar on a bat, corked bats, Vaseline or any substance put on a ball to improve the velocity of a curve ball, etc; etc) and it probably will continue through time as teams want to have an advantage against their adversaries. Take the New England Patriots. They of the six Super Bowl championships. The Patriots had a slew of teams and even the league accused the franchise of cheating which turned into Spygate and Deflategate. Yet through all that, New England continues to dominate the NFL. Every sport has franchises or programs using any type of illegal method to gain advantages. With that, many have been caught and punished for using this. As an Astros fan, it is mind-boggling that a team with tremendous upside has to go to this level for an advantage. So after many weeks of deep thinking, I've finally came to this realization.

THE ASTROS DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

As much as I try to defend the Astros, the evidence is pretty clear and some of the recent moves in the front office just makes it hard to defend them. In 2018, they traded for reliever Roberto Osuna, a man who was serving a suspension for accusations of assaulting his son's mother. The move shocked baseball and I, myself, wasn't happy about this one. Justin Verlander, the team's top pitcher and an advocate against domestic violence, was vocal against the acquisition. Then after Jose Altuve's home run sent the Astros to the World Series, Assistant GM Brandon Taubman told female reporters wearing ribbons against domestic abuse, "I'm glad we got Osuna". It was a stupid thing to say and whether he was drunk or needed to rub it in, he needed to be punished. However, the franchise decided to back Taubman, which drew the ire of the league and the media who covered it. The Astros admitted their mistake and promptly fired Taubman. And by the way, Osuna gave up the tying home run in the top of the ninth. So....the comment itself was boneheaded. After the Series ended, franchise owner Jim Crane decided to shakeup the front office, inserting his son as President, demoting Reid Ryan. Nolan Ryan, Reid's father and the all-time strikeout leader, abruptly left the franchise. My thinking is that GM Jeff Luhnow, manager A.J. Hinch, the coaches, hell even Jim Crane will probably be suspended and draft picks will be taken away. It has to happen, sadly.

Now this is the part where I become salty.

Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that he believes that the Astros were the only team that participated in this type of sign stealing. Stop it with that! If MLB is dead set on eliminating sign stealing, it wouldn't hurt to investigate all the other 29 teams. There has been a conspiracy theory that MLB has tried everything to prevent Houston from being successful, due to their adjective of having a big-market team in the spotlight rather than a small-market team. Any sport that has a huge TV contract wants the most popular franchises in the championship, because that means more ratings which equals more money. Houston doesn't exactly fit that narrative. In 2013, when the Astros were terrible, I had to go to FIVE different stores to find an Astros cap. They are taking the word of a player who was left off the World Series roster in 2017. Maybe he was salty, too. MLB has the resources and time to do the investigation. If not, you basically proved the conspiracy theorists right.

It sucks, really. A team marinating in suckitude for the first half of the decade built a so-called model franchise quickly that it drew envy to other franchises.

Six years ago, after a five store hunt to find an Astros hat, I now own many hats and jerseys of the team and cried when they won the World Series two years. But now, wearing a cap is a scarlet letter as everyone will point and say "CHEATER!"

That is a f---ed up feeling.

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