Report: Cardinals being investigated by the FBI for hacking the Astros

mysterionx

10 years ago

There’s that old saying, if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.

Well the Cardinals must be trying… quite a bit.

According to a damning report from the New York Times, the St. Louis Cardinals are being investigated by the FBI for allegedly hacking the Houston Astros’ computer database. Yep, you heard that right MLB’s most virtuous team may have broken some pretty serious laws on computer hacking.

Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston Astros that housed special databases the team had built, according to law enforcement officials. Internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports were compromised, the officials said.

The officials did not say which employees were the focus of the investigation or whether the team’s highest-ranking officials were aware of the hacking or authorized it. The investigation is being led by the F.B.I.’s Houston field office and has progressed to the point that subpoenas have been served on the Cardinals and Major League Baseball for electronic correspondence.

But why would the Cardinals, a team that’s enjoyed plenty of success in recent years hack a team that’s been a bottom feeder (up until this season) the past several years? Apparently the Cardinals decided to go all Edward Snowden on the Astros (again allegedly) because of Jeff Luhnow the former member of the Cards’ scouting department who left to become the GM in Houston and create computer database for the team called Groundcontrol. It was St. Louis’ belief that Luhnow, when he left the Cardinals while taking some staff members with him also stole proprietary information.

Investigators believe Cardinals officials, concerned that Mr. Luhnow had taken their idea and proprietary baseball information to the Astros, examined a master list of passwords used by Mr. Luhnow and the other officials who had joined the Astros when they worked for the Cardinals. The Cardinals officials are believed to have used those passwords to gain access to the Astros’ network, law enforcement officials said.

Deadspin even compiled a list of confidential leak that occurred with the Astros concerning some internal trade discussion.

6/17/2013

[Giants assistant GM] Bobby Evans called [Houston AGM David Stearns] to check in on Norris. DS told BE that it’s probably a little early for us to consider dealign Norris but are always willing to listen. DS said that when we do trade Norris we will likely be looking for quality over quantity.

6/26/2013

[Orioles GM Dan Duquette] called [Astros GM Jeff Luhnow] and expressed continued interest in Norris. JL said that for us to consider it at this point it would have to revolve around Bundy or Gaussman. DD said no on Gaussman but did not dismiss Bundy out of hand. DD said he ahd to talk to his doctors to really see what was going on.

6/28/2013

[Dan Duquette] said he would not do Bundy. Suggested Mike Wright and Pedro Strop

SF indicated to [Luhnow] that they would do Blackburn plus another piece but couldn’t include Crick.

SF said they could not do Blackburn and Crick but that they would like to keep talking and keep in touch on Norris.

6/30/2013

PIT reached out to [Luhnow] and expressed interest in Norris.

7/19/2013

[Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos] texted [Luhnow] and asked what it would take for Norris. AA said Aaron Sanchez is off the table but might be willing to talk about anyone else.

The Cardinals officials being investigated haven’t been fired or suspended by Major League Baseball. However this does bring to light once again the boundaries between sports and government that always seem to arise when something like this happens. Should the government of gotten involved during PED scandal? No it should have been kept as a baseball matter. Should the government get involved in a computer hacking scandal? Absolutely. Much like the government should have gotten involved in the whole FIFA fiasco.

So what should happen from this point on? Well first off it appears like the investigating will be left entirely up to the FBI as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred already acknowledged that the league will not conduct its own independent investigation into the matter. In today’s day and age though this is a golden opportunity for Major League Baseball to really nip this issue in the ass considering it may be somewhat surprising if this is the first time something like this has happened factoring in our daily dependence and use of computers. Chris Chase of USA Today’s For the Win suggests possibly banning the Cardinals from the postseason for two years, similar to what the NCAA does when they finally have to take action against one of their own teams. This may be tough since St. Louis is one of the more prestigious franchises in all of baseball but at the same time it should be a punishment that’s going to act as a good deterrent for other organizations.

When it comes to the punishment though there’s probably a few things you can be certain of. One, the punishment will probably be light since they always are. Two the Cardinals will probably roll over on some poor IT guy that had nothing to do with the hack. Finally, three baseball will probably not go with Brandon McCarthy’s idea for a punishment which oddly enough is the best idea of them all…

in keeping with baseball tradition, a Houston exec should walk into the STL offices and hit their best front office guy with a fastball

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) June 16, 2015