A little music, to set the mood.
Today, we learned the penalties that the St. Louis Cardinals will face due to the unprecedented hacking scandal from a few years ago involving the Houston Astros. And honestly… it doesn’t seem like it’s all that much in the scheme of things.
Regardless of what the Astros’ general counsel said, losing two draft picks and being fined $2 million dollars just feels small.
In case you’ve been under a rock lately, a rogue employee who had a blood vendetta against Jeff Luhnow and the Astros organization used a password that some people who left the Cardinals org to hack into the Astros’ “Ground Control” baseball software. Deadspin has a huge, in-depth article here, which I suggest reading for more information.
The Boston Red Sox recently was slapped with sanctions in regards to some hinky mess in the international free agent market, things that other teams had done in the past, however not the the extent that Boston had done it. However, this employee of the Cardinals organization – rogue or not – literally hacked into the Astros computer database on numerous occasions and even attempted to over his tracks.
To whit: The Red Sox lost their international signing privileges for a year. Every player signed due to the package deals that were ruled inadmissible were retroactively declared free agents, which meant the Sox lost them as well, plus any bonus money paid to the player was kept by the player and therefore Boston lost that money, as well.
This is a huge penalty that affects the Boston farm team for years to come, as well as their bottom line this year. By comparison, the Cardinals lost two draft picks – #56 and #75, and $2M, and that’s it.
Nearly three years of insider information and directly hacking into a competitor’s database would destroy a public sector business. Hell, Martha Stewart did prison time for less. While the actual criminal in this case, Chris Correa, will also do his own stint in jail and has been banned for life from baseball, the organization that benefited from his illegal deeds effectively gets a mildly stinging slap on the wrist.
The Deadspin article goes into huge detail, and the TL;DR version at MLB Trade Rumors is pretty darn good, too.
Fan Interference 
This is some seriously weak-sauce punishment. First off, they are really only taking the Cardinals 2nd round and a competitive balance pick. (Which they shouldn’t fucking have anyways.) Their 1st round pick was forfeited when they signed Dexter Fowler. Second, this guy cheated, outright cheated for YEARS enough to the point where he earned a massive promotion as a result, for deeds that highly benefited his employer. They stole draft information, scouting information, hell they leaked potential trade information in an attempt to weaken the team’s position. And this crappy penalty in no way acts as a deterrent for any future poor behavior. They honestly should have lost all picks for minimum two years.
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I find it really difficult to believe that Correa was the ONLY person in the organization that knew where his information was coming from. Something smells about this whole thing.
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(via deadspin)
“U.S. Attorney Suggests Password Cardinals Used To Access Astros Scouting Database Was “Eckstein123”
“Eckstein123. Thats amazing, I have the same password for my luggage!”
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That’s the same password I use to log into my top secret server at Los Alamos to keep track of our progress with the new guidance system and firing lens of the GBM-227 deep-ground penetrating tactical nuclear smartbomb warhead!
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“That’s the same passowrd we used to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email server!”
= Vladimir Putin
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Speak friend, and enter.
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Mellon…
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Phew. I thought that one was going to pass unnoticed. Then I really would have felt old.
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Eckstein 123 is also the code phrase trump uses to order his Russian sex workers
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I thought it was GoldenShowers4U…
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Here’s his theme music
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thats his tinder name
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…wait, no. I just visualized that. Abort mission, abort
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Hey, at least some justice was done. I didn’t have much faith in the MLB system. It would have been a lot more fun if the Cards hadn’t signed Fowler and given up their the first pick, but Mozeliak may have had that in mind when he signed him.
But two picks allow them to play with extra money and over-slots to some good players, and 2 Million$ ain’t chopped liver when you are running a minor league operation. Some good may come of it yet.
And Correa’s future is pretty much wrecked. I’d say as much justice was done as you can ever expect in this life.
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If punishment had been handed down earlier and the Astros given the Cardinals 1st round pick…that would have been great for the Cardinals…then signing Fowler would have only cost them their 2nd and they’d still have the comp B pick.
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