Blue Jays stealing signals?

[fredr123]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...-rogers-centre

ESPN's Outside the Lines investigates the latest allegations that the Blue Jays are stealing opposing teams' signals at the Rogers Centre.

The players weren't exactly sure how the man in white knew what was coming -- maybe, they thought, he was receiving messages via his Bluetooth from an ally elsewhere in the stadium who had binoculars or access to the stadium feed. But they quickly picked up the wavelength of his transmissions: He was raising his arms over his head for curveballs, sliders and changeups. In other words, anything besides fastballs.

When the Pats found themselves in the midst of Spygate, baseball and its rich tradition of trying to crack the opponent's signals was often cited in defense of Bill Bellichick. Reading these allegations and the involvement of off-field personnel seems to take what the Blue Jays beyond the realm of fair play. On the other hand, if you can't BUY ALL THE PLAYERS to compete in the AL East you have to consider less conventional means to stay competitive.

[fundmark19]

Dirty cheaters!

[d_phaneuf]

jparencibia9 jp arencibia
Teams/pitchers need to accept when we kick their ass in the rogers centre n not give excuses... Looks like we had verlanders signs #nohitter
5 minutes ago

jparencibia9 jp arencibia
Just read the dumbest article on ESPN about us getting signs? I'm hitting 200 and we get signs at home, that makes sense? #clowns

[tanguay'sstillgood]

I wonder if ESPN tried talking to any former Jays players who have been traded. Seems like you might be able to get someone to confirm it anonymously that way. For example, if it has been happening for a few years, Scutaro might speak up if the Red Sox are one of the teams complaining about it.

[d_phaneuf]

Joey Bats hit 61% of his HR at home last year, rest of the guys in the top 5 hit an average of 67% of theirs at home

Blue Jays are 4th last in the AL in home wins

and to the post above completely agreed, its BS

[Saint Troy]

Lol.

Pretty embarrassing piece by ESPN.

[kirant]

From one of the images

Toronto's home run rate on contact was 5.4 percent at home in 2010, meaning Rogers Centre boosted the Jays' rate by 1.8 percentage points, or about 50 percent. Their opponents' rate was 0.2 percentage points less than at a neutral park.

The second value is purely just trying to make something up, while the former just acknowledges the fact that the Blue Jays were a power hitting team in 2010.

[JayP]

The Yankees whine about stealing signs and ESPN calls it investigative journalism.

The poor Yankees only spend 4x more in payroll than the the vast majority of the league and yet they have to resort to this garbage? If the roles were reversed this wouldn't even be a story.

[Knut]

DownGoesBrown Down Goes Brown



Leafs used to steal signs too. Whenever the other team wound up, Toskala would gaze up into the stands to find out what kind of shot it was.

[flamingreen]

But no "man in white" for the lefties? Sounds like another version of the "no way can Bautista hit all these homeruns" article.

[ricoFlame]

Yeah, and they're gonna have a guy making hand gestures to the hitter from centre field...right. Times have changed since 1951, i'm sure mlb TEAMS are stealing signs, but if it's hand gestures...it's crap.

What a load of crap.

[JayP]

The article is even more hilarious when you re-read it.

All of this is based on the accusations of 4 Yankee players. Why didn't the writer go to Toronto and get a seat in the section this "man in white" is in and give firsthand accounts?

The best is when there's a quote about how this man in white is perfectly positioned over the the batter's view of the pitcher's head - which would be straight-away centre field. Anyone who's watched the Jays knows the two sections there are tarped off and the hotel is directly above that. Why couldn't the writer use their ESPN access to get onto the field during a game-day and confirm this?

This passes off as an "investigation" these days? Buy a plane ticket to Toronto and some $5 outfield bleacher seats during a 10-game home stand and you could be able to come to a real conclusion pretty quickly.

[CofR]

If we take a look at ISO home and away splits on a team by team basis we learn that Toronto has the highest rate at home and the second highest on the road. However, both the Rockies in the thin air of Colorado and the White Sox in Chicago have a larger positive difference in home and away splits than Toronto. In fact, the Blue Jays’ biggest accuser of fishy business, the New York Yankees, have a .046 difference in ISO between home and away, while the obvious cheats in Toronto have a .047 difference in ISO for the 2010 season.
The difference between home and away splits among the top five teams at home in terms of ISO:

1. Toronto Blue Jays, +.047
2. Colorado Rockies, +.074
3. New York Yankees, +.046
4. Arizona Diamondbacks, +.037
5. Chicago White Sox, +.056

Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to look at the entire team’s OPS, and not just a select few? And from there, shouldn’t we look at how other clubs with good numbers at home last year performed on the road compared to the Blue Jays’ apparently staggering difference.
Let’s take a look at the difference between home and away splits among the top ten teams at home in terms of OPS:

1. Colorado Rockies, +.212
2. New York Yankees, +.090
3. Boston Red Sox, +.027
4. Texas Rangers, +.084
5. Toronto Blue Jays, +.063
6. Chicago White Sox, +.087
7. Cincinnati Reds, +.042
8. Arizona Diamondbacks, +.102
9. Minnesota Twins, +.026
10. Detroit Tigers, +.049

Of the top ten, five have a higher difference between home and away OPS than the Blue Jays, which to me suggests that if Toronto is stealing signs and signalling to batters from center field, they’re either not doing a very good job of it, or they could learn a thing or two from five other teams in baseball.
Even if you wanted to believe that signs from center field would make a difference for individual players, if he knew that it was coming, wouldn’t you expect Jose Bautista to hit more than two home runs off of change ups at Rogers Centre last year?

Between the picking and choosing of numbers and the lack of comparisons to other teams, critically thinking about the piece ends up weakening their argument in a fashion I assume Nelson and Keating didn’t intend.
As for the anecdotal evidence, I can’t shake the belief that if stealing signs in this fashion was as wide spread at Rogers Centre as its being made out to be in this article, it would’ve gone to the commissioner’s office to be investigated long before it went to two ESPN reporters. The evidence being presented here isn’t a film crew getting caught filming an opposing team’s practice, it’s the meanderings of a few opposing players combined with picked over numbers being used to prove a point that doesn’t seem to exist.

http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2011/0...alse-evidence/

[fredr123]

Bautista confirmed that it was the White Sox that confronted him and all signs (ha!) point to it being the April 13, 2010 game: http://stealofhome.wordpress.com/201...s-but-by-whom/

[NoCupsIn40Years]

Absolutely ridiculous. Maybe the unidentified man in white was Ace Jay? He usually hangs around the CF of ball games, well at least recently. This is garbage.

AA started cussing and looked very upset when this was mentioned. All in all, when I go to the jays game tomorrow, me and my friends will try to get right center seats and we'll wear our white jerseys.

Once the Jays are proven innocent, I hope Beeston sues ESPN for releasing this garbage.

[NoCupsIn40Years]

http://twitter.com/#!/TheManinWhite1

Course 4 guys from the WhiteSox bullpen know me. All of them bought me a beer for relaying signs to Rios, who got the only Home Run #061310

Bet Alex Rios could use me now.

Thanks to new RogersOnDemand and a ton of impostures I will be stealing signs from an undisclosed location tonight.

For tonight's trick, I will bring a white chalkboard with invisible ink only seen by special Oakley sun glasses I gave the whole team.

@Jaysfaninwhite It's just too bad I can't help the Argo's. Those CF seats suck for football

[troutman]

Teams try to steal info all the time. Isn't that why the pitcher covers his mouth when speaking to the catcher on the mound?

[fredr123]

http://www.sportspickle.com/opinion/...ave-been-given

[Karl]

Originally Posted by JayP

The article is even more hilarious when you re-read it.

All of this is based on the accusations of 4 White Sox players. Why didn't the writer go to Toronto and get a seat in the section this "man in white" is in and give firsthand accounts?

The best is when there's a quote about how this man in white is perfectly positioned over the the batter's view of the pitcher's head - which would be straight-away centre field. Anyone who's watched the Jays knows the two sections there are tarped off and the hotel is directly above that. Why couldn't the writer use their ESPN access to get onto the field during a game-day and confirm this?

This passes off as an "investigation" these days? Buy a plane ticket to Toronto and some $5 outfield bleacher seats during a 10-game home stand and you could be able to come to a real conclusion pretty quickly.

Fixed your post.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by NoCupsIn40Years

Absolutely ridiculous. Maybe the unidentified man in white was Ace Jay? He usually hangs around the CF of ball games, well at least recently. This is garbage.

AA started cussing and looked very upset when this was mentioned. All in all, when I go to the jays game tomorrow, me and my friends will try to get right center seats and we'll wear our white jerseys.

Once the Jays are proven innocent, I hope Beeston sues ESPN for releasing this garbage.

i think this could be a trend. Maybe everyone attending Blue Jays games should wear white.