A blog by A.J. Gonzalez

They say some things are too good to be true. In any walks of life, that statement is....true. In sports, it happens all the time. Good teams get older and have to rebuild with younger, inexperienced players. By doing that, the dynasty that had been made is over. 

But at this instance, the dynasty might have ended prematurely.

On Monday, MLB made their long-awaited decision on the sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros. 

-One year suspensions for GM Jeff Luhnow and Manager A.J. Crane.

-First and second round picks taken away for 2020 and 2021

-$5 million fine

Owner Jim Crane laid the hammer down outright firing Luhnow and Crane. It had to be done. Crane purchased the Astros for $650 million dollars in 2012 and doesn't want a black eye on his investment. As a lot of people think that the punishment was too light and a slap on the wrists. (Side note: I am actually suffering with wrists issues, so a slap on the wrists would be bloody painful.) Losing Luhnow is beneficial for any team who isn't the Astros. He built a team with a keen eye on young talent and made shrewd trades to mesh well with the young talent. (The Verlander trade, anyone?) He is one of the brightest minds in professional baseball and will get another job once his suspension is lifted. Hinch was establishing himself as the one of the best manager in the game. The problem is that he was in the dugout and was around the players when the sign-stealing occurred, so he is technically the fall guy in this situation. In college sports, this is called lack of institutional control. I believe some of the players should have been punished. I agree with that. They went through with the sign stealing and basically, got away with it.

Now let's discuss the elephant in the room. A slew of people are bitc.....I mean, upset about MLB not vacating the Astros' World Series in 2017, the season were the sign stealing happened. I've read many comments about this and I'm okay with that considering that the title is that T word, tainted. It sucks that a certain person sat in a bathroom stall before his shift at work crying for 10 minutes after the Astros won it all. Yes, it is tainted. It's like receiving dirty money. While I'm okay with the title being vacated, what I'm not okay with is handing the title to another team when they didn't earn it. CC Sabathia stated the Yankees were "cheated" out the title. Last time I checked, the Yankees' bats didn't show up in Game 7 and cost the team a shot at the World Series. 

The scandal has turned the game and sports world upside down. Many opinions and gripes have been thrown and spewed. ESPN correspondent Jessica Mendoza blamed Mike Fiers for going public on this. While many are chastising her for saying that, I agree with her. He sounded like a person with an axe to grind for not making a World Series roster.

This has other teams being affected. The Red Sox, who are in the verge of a high profile investigation themselves, decided to "part ways" with manager Alex Cora. Cora allegedly used the same method with the Red Sox and he was the bench coach for the Astros in 2017. Boston won the World Series in 2018. I'll be waiting for everyone's vile comments regarding them. Carlos Beltran was on that 2017 team and this scandal followed him as he became the manager of the New York Mets. Two days ago, he stepped down as manager. By the way, that's four people who lost jobs, because of this and Beltran didn't have a chance to manage a game. Also, typical Mets.

It has been a long week considering the venom spewed by fans and other players about this. Sign stealing WILL NOT GO AWAY. Has there been other teams doing the same method also and the Astros were just caught? That is a possibility. I saw this coming. It started with the former assistant GM taunting female reporters about Roberto Osuna and was dismissed. Now three months later, his boss is dismissed. It's been a dark snowball effect for the Astros since.

Really a crappy way to prematurely end a dynasty. For now.

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