Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout has expressed his disappointment and frustration towards the Houston Astros’ electronic sign-stealing scandal. He says that respect is definitely lost towards the people involved in the issue.
The three-time MVP expressed his disbelief and disgust on the Houston Astros and the rest of the players involved. He was the least expected player to react candidly as he was known for his reserved nature.
‘It’s sad for baseball’, Trout said in an exclusive interview. ‘It’s tough. They cheated. I don’t agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything. It was a player-driven thing. It sucks, too, because guys’ careers have been affected. A lot of people lost jobs. It was tough. Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming? It would be fun up there. A lot of guys lost respect for some of the guys. It seems like every day something new is coming out’.
Trout also said that some of the Astros players involved in the issue reached out to him in the offseason. Most of them tried to explain how it happened, but Trout’s view was already changed.
‘I lost some respect for some guys’, Trout said. ‘A lot of stuff that comes out, you have to see if it’s true or not. I’ll talk to them and see them in the season. All this stuff coming out. It’s tough to see’.
Trout also said that the Astros deserved far worse than losing their Draft picks and fined for $5 million. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were also fired by the team and were replaced earlier in the month.
‘You don’t know what helped them or whatnot’, Trout said. ‘But if you know what’s coming, its going to definitely help them. I don’t know if you take the trophy away or take the rings away, but they should definitely do something. I don’t know what. To cheat like that, it’s sad to see’.
Trout always had a view of the Astros hitters at the plate. He could always see from his spot in the centre field and felt that something was up whenever pitches were made by his team.
The extent of the cheating was a bigger thing to bear. Trout did not expect the trash-can banging act back in 2017.
‘I didn’t notice the banging, I noticed the banging off the bat from centre field’, Trout said. ‘It seemed like they weren’t missing pitches. It’s frustrating because you have guys coming in here battling every day and working on stuff and they make a nasty pitch down and away, I can’t tell you when this happened, but I’m sure it did. I can’t imagine what the pitchers feel like. It’s a mental game. You go in a stretch where you’re doing good and you go into Houston and got banged up, it could mentally drain you’.
