A recent article in a popular, American sports magazine, which will remain nameless, has come out with allegations that the Toronto Blue Jays are stealing their opponents’ signs.
The article goes on to say that a mysterious man, wearing a white T-shirt, was witnessed in the outfield relaying signs to the batter. The unknown, alleged spy would lift his arms into air if the pitcher was going to throw an off-speed pitch, and would keep his arms down if a fastball were on it’s way.
I think the accusation is absolutely ridiculous.
I will say this, though. Sign stealing is common in baseball, but usually it’s done when a runner is on second base. That runner has a better chance at seeing the signs the catcher is giving to his pitcher, and can easily relay the information to the batter.
There is no rule against that, but it’s up to the catchers to keep the signs as complex, and as different as possible, so the runner on second can’t give the batter an advantage.
Stealing signs from the outfield? Really?
As a batter, there isn’t enough time to see the alleged hand signals, especially from more than 400ft. away, and still have time to react to the oncoming pitch.
Secondly, the “spy” would have to have eagle vision or powerful binoculars to even see the signs a catcher is relaying to his pitcher, and he would have to decipher them to gain any sort of advantage.
Already you can see how weak the allegations are. Plus, the Jays have a home record of 30 wins and 30 losses. I guess the alleged sign stealing hasn’t provided the team with any sort of advantage.
Duh, because they aren’t doing it.
The article quotes four unnamed ball players that the writer uses to reinforce his unfounded charge against the ball club. As a journalist, it’s kind of ridiculous that the writer of the article would decide to keep his sources unnamed although they make damning accusations. Not naming your sources is a no-no, and making up sources is the apocalypse in this industry.
Opposing team pitchers in the visiting team’s bullpen apparently noticed the mysterious man in white last season. The members of that bullpen shouted accusations at Jose Bautista as he took his position in right field and one threatened to throw at Bautista’s head if the Jays’ continued the sign-stealing. The team was identified as the Chicago White Sox.
Obliviously, this charge has no merit.
Rogers Centre is one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in Major League Baseball. The Jays’ top two sluggers, Bautista and Adam Lind, are pretty evenly split between their stats at home and on the road. Bautista’s OPS at home is 1.115; on the road it’s 1.030, though his home run totals are evenly split. Lind has an 0.807 OPS in Toronto, but 0.754 away from home.
If someone is stealing signs, then the batters aren’t getting enough of an advantage and the mysterious man in white needs to be fired.
Another point I’d like to make is that when the Detroit Tigers visited Toronto earlier this year, the Tigers ace, Justin Verlander, no-hit the Jays. The batters were not able to get a hit all game against Verlander. Was that mysterious man in white on vacation, in the bathroom, or too drunk to see the signs? Are the Tigers better at mixing up their signs than most teams? Or is Verlander such a dominant pitcher with disgusting stuff that he just no-hits everybody? Obviously, that last question is incredibly false.
I don’t know, but if you’re going to make allegations as serious as these, then maybe you should back it up. Just saying.
