Atlanta Braves legend Chipper Jones weighs in on Astros cheating scandal

How long until this all blows over?

It’s something that Major League Baseball will have to deal with the entire 2020 season. It’s not going to just go away as they want it to. The steroid conversation hasn’t ended yet and neither has Pete Rose‘s ban from MLB. These kinds of controversies stay around forever.

The biggest takeaway from this was Chipper explaining that the difference between the steroid era and this sign-stealing scandal is that it gives a huge advantage to the hitter. It takes all of the guesswork out of offense at the Major League level.

Steroids help you bounce back from an injury quickly and may help the ball go a little bit farther, but there is still guesswork involved in hitting.

When you remove the guesswork, Chipper’s point was that had he known what pitches were coming he would have likely hit .400 during his career because it narrows the strike zone and they can square a pitch up. According to the former Brave, “these guys can time a jet plane if they know it’s coming.”

I think that’s what a lot of people are missing in this scandal. It’s not about knowing a pitcher is tipping pitches or stealing signs at second base. That’s an advantage and technique that’s been used in baseball for a long time.

However, when you go to the lengths the Astros did, that’s when it becomes a problem. They knew in real-time what pitches were coming and it gave them a major advantage over their opponents in critical situations including the World Series.

But I guess we can’t expect Manfred to care too much about that since the World Series trophy is just a piece of metal, right?

To sum it all up, Chipper thinks the best way to handle facing the Astros this year is to beat them on the field and taunt them after you beat them.

He stated, “That’s just the way I’m made. I’m not going to go out and inflict pain on people myself. Not saying that other people wouldn’t. The biggest pain to give them is to go out and beat them.”

The Houston Astros have a huge target on their back this season and it will be a storyline to follow all year. They certainly won’t be comfortable at the plate because they’ll have to consider if that pitcher is going to throw at them or not.

That’s not a comfortable way for any player to go about their business in the batter’s box. It puts them on the defensive and could affect their performance on the field.

But as Chipper said, this game polices itself and it always will. There will be some suspensions this season because there are some pitchers who will not care. It was nice to hear Chipper echo some of the similar sentiments that others have with this scandal.