I’ve heard a lot of ideas online: lifetime bans, taking the 2017 World Series away, suspensions, a 5 year postseason ban.

I do think lifetime bans will be handed out.  I think AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow will get a lifetime ban, a lot of front office people will get lifetime bans.  Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran could get lifetime bans.  I don’t think any current players will get lifetime bans.

But I do think the MLB and Rob Manfred are going to come down hard, I think they have to.  They have to prevent teams from thinking that they can do this type of electronic cheating.  Other teams were/are probably doing similar things, maybe not to the same extent as the Astros, but they most likely are doing something.

So the MLB has to stop it now.  The Astros are the first team to get caught like this, they are at the forefront, they are going to be the example that is going to be made.

As far as taking the 2017 World Series title away, at first I had thought there would be no way the MLB would do that.  But it sounds like that could be a possible deterrent.  Granted they already went through the experience of winning and got their rings, so I don’t know how much taking it away after the fact will do.

That title will always have an asterisk attached to it, so I don’t think you have to take it away retroactively.  The lifetime bans probably have to happen, they’re brutal, but they probably have to happen.

As far as say a 5 year postseason ban, sure you can ban them from the postseason for 5 years, but they already got their title.  Titles don’t happen very often, if teams are lucky maybe once a decade.  So a postseason ban, yeah it would be brutal for the franchise for those 5 years, but again they got their elusive title already.

As far as affecting the players, they went along with it and are guilty.  The front office / coaching staff though, the ones that directed this are the most responsible, they are the ones that pushed and implemented this it would seem.

And not to give the players excuses, but the Astros have a lot of younger players.  I’ve heard the idea floated that when they came up they were probably told that this is how it works in the MLB, all teams are doing this.  So they figured that if everyone is doing it why don’t we do it the best possible way and so they just went along with it.

But overall it’s just a really shitty scandal, shitty situation, it’s going to be interesting to see what the MLB / Manfred do.

What do you guys think the punishment/s will be?  What do you think they should be?  How harsh will Manfred be against the Astros?  Again they are the example, they are the first ones that are going to be made an example of and get hit hard for this technology stuff.  Leave a comment and let me know.

So Garrett fucked up royally, he could have really hurt Rudolph badly.  But Rudolph is not innocent here, Rudolph instigated the whole thing.  Yes, it doesn’t justify Garrett swinging a helmet at his head when he is helmetless, but Rudolph started it.

Rudolph was probably pissed off, his team was playing like shit, they were getting their asses kicked, he was playing like shit.  Maybe Garrett was a little aggressive in his tackle of Rudolph, it didn’t seem that terrible to me.

Rudolph tries to tear Garrett’s helmet off, so Garrett does him one better and rips his helmet off.  Now Garrett is then being pushed back by the Steeler’s lineman, and obviously they are going to protect their QB.

But then Rudolph stands up and starts going after Garrett again.  And then Garrett starts swinging the helmet like a madman.  But it’s football, these defensive lineman are animals, who knows what these guys are going to do.  They could beat the shit out of 99% of the world’s population, and you (Rudolph) are going to go after a guy like that?  It’s just asinine.

I am in now way defending what Garrett did, it was terrible, deplorable, he should be suspended for the rest of the year and maybe a few games next year.  Is he going to be banned for life? No.

But everybody (the media, fans) jumping off the deep end right away and just attacking Garrett  for doing it.  Yes Garrett fucked up, he did something terrible.  But Rudolph absolutely deserves a suspension of at least a game, he’s the one that instigated the entire situation.

But there is this group think in the media, and everyone has to have the same thought it seems.  No one has a differing opinion sometimes, you just see everyone (the media, fans) going after Garrett.

Look at the entirety of the situation.  Football is being played, it’s a defensive lineman that was instigated.  Again, Garrett messed up, he should pay for it, but Rudolph is not innocent here and he needs to pay too.