Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
As to stealing signs, ironically I had this exact conversation with a friend of mine awhile ago and I've just never bought it. It's especially comical when it gets to 'well they steal signs at home' as often applied to the Jays, as though Toronto has some guy with a flashlight under the batters eye. Yup - 400 feet away there's a guy flashing a light to give away pitch type/location. Even under the 'conventional' sign stealing gripe where the guy at 2b does it, I've not bought it. Catchers set up late enough these days that stealing signs is damn near impossible when you think about the mechanics involved. When the runner is on 2b, pitchers/catchers scramble their signs to the point that I don't think it's realistic to say that baserunners are stealing pitch type. As to location, the catcher generally sets up location right as the windup is starting. As a better you'd have to have some small, nearly imperceptible signal from a baserunner and in that period of time that the pitcher is winding up you'd have to take your eye off the pitcher, look at the baserunner and then pick the ball back up mid-delivery to get a read on spin, etc... With a runner on 2b presumably the pitcher is in the stretch so things are sped up even more.
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The CF stuff is ridiculous and largely driven from a horribly written ESPN story from the second Cito Gaston era five years ago where a few whiners made a baseless accusation. Other than Bautista/Encarnacion, there is literally nobody left on the team among the players/coaching staff from those days. If the Jays have really been stealing signs for all that time out there, they've been doing an awful job of it.