Eliminating signs, eliminates sign stealing ... and speeds up the game.

Duh.

The Houston Astros are accused of using technology to "steal" catcher's signs, interpret them and relay them to Astros batters before the pitch is delivered.

Some of the descriptions of these activities defy logic but that's not the point of this post, which is that having the catcher on each team use his fingers to send signs to the pitchers for each of about 150 pitches per game per team is an absurd anachronism, one which should make MLB embarrassed.

The solution is simple:

Eliminating signs, eliminates sign stealing.

Don't ban technology, use it to solve this silly problem.

The difficult part is interpreting quickly.

With all the online betting and with professional leagues complicit in that betting, MLB has much bigger problems than protecting the finger signals of it's catchers. Sign stealers are not going to win the Turing award for contributions "of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field".

Geez, put a headset on the catcher and have the pitcher put his glove in front of his face and tell the catcher what he's throwing. Or have a coach in the dugout call the pitches. Just throw the damn ball. Come on. Stop jerking around.

The NFL coach tells the quarterback every play through communications equipment in the helmet of the quarterback.

Finally, what to do about the Astros, if they broke the rules? If you are the Yankees or Yankee fans, act like it and stop whining. You lost to the Astros in 2017 and 2019 because the Astros played by the rules in acquiring starting pitchers Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke while Yankee general manager Brian Cashman sat on his ass and failed to do anything comparable. If the Yankees had better pitchers, sign stealing would have had minimal impact.

Roger Clemens was paranoid about sign stealing and had his catcher use complex signs even with no runner on second base. Randy Johnson tipped all his pitches but it didn't matter.

Cashman also ignored the basic boxing rule, which applies to all sports: protect yourself at all times.

The Astros should be punished. It's doubtful that championships will be vacated, so whatever is done is unlikely to be much of a deterrent. It's analogous to use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) by the players. The risk-reward was so skewed that temptation was too great for many, if not most.

Commissioner finally punishes Cardinals and rewards Astros in information stealing scandal. Tuesday, January 31, 2017