Throughout the 2017-2018 seasons the Astros have been subjected to cheating by other teams. Recently they’ve been questioned and proven to have cheated in their World Series season.

Deciphering signals from the other team is used in baseball, but the Astros did this in an illegal and unfair way. They used electronic buzzers to tell the batter what pitch will be thrown. Cameras in center field were used to see the catcher’s signals to the pitcher. This is unfair because they are using technology to relay the message.

The notorious trash can banging was the main way the Astros stole signs. Players in the clubhouse would get the signs from center field cameras. They then would bang on a trash can to tell the batter which pitches were coming.

The players with the most bangs were Marwin Gonzalez and George Springer. Gonzalez had trash can bangs before 147 of 776 pitches. Springer, however, had 139 bangs out of 933 pitches.

One of the Astros best players, Jose Altuve, had the least amount of signals with only 24 of 866 pitches. Perhaps Altuve didn’t want the signals to mess with his normal pitch reading techniques.

The team was fined five million dollars in addition to being stripped of draft picks as punishment. However, no players were punished.

Mike Trout from the Los Angeles Angels had a few things to say about the situation. “I don’t agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything,” Trout said. Trout thought the punishments should have been more severe.

Sign stealing is a part of the game; however, the Astros took it too far. This scandal will set an examples for what cheating can cause when an organization is caught.