White Sox Reliever Ryan Tepera Insinuates Houston Might Be Cheating... Again

Really quick here. When we were streaming games 1 and 2 from the NJ gambling house, Chuck Naso and I said over, and over, and over again how big of pricks the Astros' lineup is. Just total cock suckers to pitch against. We were saying that in the best way possible too. It was a compliment. They would take a breaking pitch 2-3" tops off the plate and not even FLINCH on pitches that typically generate swings and misses or weak contact. They'd take these pitches with extreme ease, work themselves into great hitters' counts, and tee off on fastballs once White Sox hitters had to start working more on top of the plate. 

Now I'm not saying the Astros are cheating. I'm saying the Astros were so good offensively in games 1 and 2 that it definitely looked like they knew what was coming. Perhaps they're excellent at picking up pitch tipping. Perhaps they have a good on field relay system for signs that is within the rules. No idea. What I do know is they weren't remotely uncomfortable in games 1 and 2 at the plate.

But game 3 was different. They were chasing, they were expanding the zone, they were being outguessed. It was definitely peculiar to some extent. This is on the heels of Lance McCullers seeing a BIG spike in his spin rate and fastball efficiencies in game 1:

Are they cheating again? Maybe. I'd bet no, but there's def a non-zero chance. If the Astros are cheating, so be it. I honestly don't really care, they'll get theirs if they are. Like Tepera said, if White Sox pitchers execute their pitches, they'll win anyways. They haven't done that too much, even if the Astros have figured out a way to pick up and/or relay signs. 

NOW - I'll say this - I kinda/sorta know a player on another AL West team. He's good friends with a friend of mine and used to be in the White Sox organization. I asked him about this this morning and he said he doesn't think the Astros are doing anything illegal anymore and that you just CANNOT give them free bases. Free bases = runs allowed. White Sox have surrendered a LOT of free bases these first 3 games. There have been so many non competitive pitches by White Sox pitchers through 3 games that they were going to give up runs on runs, cheating or not. 

I think it's a big nothing burger. Let the Astros Astro. 

PS - Dusty Baker dropping the "who are you?" line about Tepera makes him look like a fucking idiot

Guarantee he doesn't even know who Mike Squires is