Chicago Cubs: MLB camera-gate implicates Cubs NL Central Rival

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The Milwaukee Brewers, one of the biggest rivals for the Chicago Cubs, have been implicated in the recent sign-stealing scandal that has rocked the game.

Sign stealing is a dark art, like government spying, it’s both reviled and admired. It used to be the work of base runners on second. Now apparently it seems to have risen to the level front office shenanigans.

It’s pretty common knowledge that former Dodger and current Cubs hurler Yu Darvish reportedly tipped pitches in the 2017 World Series. Picking up “tells” by a pitcher is as old as baseball itself. But sign staling is another thing.

Signs are used precisely to keep the opposing team from knowing your intentions. So those teams and individual players who engage in sign-stealing are scrutinized by opponents and sometimes active countermeasures are used, like in this situation involving the Cubs Javier Baez in 2018 against the Rockies. Now it’s more likely Baez was doing some of that El Mago stuff to get inside DJ LeMahieu‘s head…but who knows?

Players messing with players is one thing. But when it rises above on-field antics and efforts then some scrutiny is bound to happen. Indeed it is happening now.

Chicago Cubs: Looking back to the 2017 World Series

In this article by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich in The Athletic, the Houston Astros reportedly used cameras located in the ballpark to steal signs and relay the pitch to the batter using sounds from the dugout. The Red Sox were disciplined by MLB for this very same offense in 2017.

More from Cubbies Crib

Seems there perhaps was more going on than those two incidents. Now following on The Athletic piece is a report on Bleacher Nation that the Brewers might also have been using technology to steal signs.

So, as if employing PED-use denier/subsequently suspended abuser Ryan Braun wasn’t bad enough, the Brewers might be looked at as a team that broke MLB’s rule prohibiting the use of electronic devices to steal signs, a rule MLB strengthened after 2017.

To be fair the claim regarding the Brewers is based on more circumstantial evidence. For instance, when playing in Miller Park, umm…Wrigley North, the Cubs catchers went to using multiple signs when the situation didn’t call for doing that, and then there is the vast differential in some pitching performances against the Brewers in home and away games.

None of that “proves” the Brewers cheated, but word has been circulating for some time among players and teams. What is Bernie doing in between all those pitches?

Chicago Cubs: Teams take measures assuming the worst

Aside from what the Cubs reportedly did when in Milwaukee, another story reports that in the 2019 World Series the Washington Nationals were so concerned about sign stealing that they took extreme countermeasures.

According to the article, the Nats had five different sets of signs for each pitcher and would switch those sets of signs at irregular intervals to upset any effort to steal signs. Think about that. There were eleven pitchers on the Nats World Series roster. That comes to 55 different sets of signs. The Enigma machine couldn’t have been more complicated.

Now, of course, there’s been a lot of talk about this kind of thing for decades. Nonetheless, it seems there’s nothing some teams or players won’t do to get that added edge in order to win. Fingers are being pointed by everyone at everyone now. The Brewers insinuated that the Dodgers were stealing signs in 2018.

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The Camera Gate scandal won’t rise to the level of the PED scandal of the mid-to-late 2000s. MLB needs to address it all the same but it is fun to talk about when we get weary from all the trade speculation.

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