Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Max Muncy Wants More From Astros Players

Another day, another Houston Astros related article being released. Pedro Moura of The Athletic sat down with Dodgers’ first baseman Max Muncy this week to discuss his opinion on the Astros response to their scandal. And to put it lightly, Max was not satisfied with the responses.

Moura did an excellent job throughout the interview of giving Muncy time to think about his answers and process his thoughts. Rather than reaching for an emotional quote to create a headline, Moura let Muncy decide the pace of the interview. And Muncy took his time to pick apart the Astros’ responses to being caught cheating, but some parts were surprising.

In fact, Muncy surprisingly praised Carlos Correa for his dedication to his teammates.

I actually applaud him for that: He was standing up for his guy. He was standing up for his teammates. That’s all we can ask out of any of our teammates, is to want to stand up for one another.

This is of course in response to Correa’s reaction to the Dodgers going off on the Astros for cheating. Correa had an emotional outburst with reporters where he seemed to get himself caught up in a series of lies this week.

Yeah, but he contradicted himself. Everything he said in that interview, you can go back through these videos and you can prove him wrong on everything that he said – Max Muncy in response to Carlos Correa’s criticism of Cody Bellinger

Muncy actually catches himself in that statement and goes back to correct that not every single thing he says was wrong. He points out in the interview that while he was not a part of the 2017 World Series run, that their cheating goes much deeper than a championship: it hurt people’s lives.

Say you’re in high school taking a test. You cheat on that test; you get a 100. Whatever your grading scale is, you get the top grade. You get called into the principal’s office the next week, right: “Hey, you cheated on the test. We caight you. But we’re gonna fire a teacher instead of firing you.” So now you’re reaping all the benefits of that and noew you’re applying for college.

And to his point, this is essentially the route that Rob Manfred chose to take in punishment. Rather than have the players who reaped the rewards suffer the consequences, they chose to go after the management who allowed it to happen.

And to be fair, Max himself could not even give an estimate of what a fair punishment should be. But he does know that players will not stand for this.

There’s just a lot of anger being built up in players that is starting to come out now.

If things don’t change soon, 2020 is shaping up to be a rough season for the Astros and for baseball.

NEXT: Calls for Astros 2017 World Series Title to be Vacated Getting Louder

11 Comments

  1. gotta love Muncy. The whole matter has indeed grown tiresome for me as a fan. It’s not resolved yet it’s a few million articles a day with exactly the same empty content.

    Muncy gives the matter a more insightful real look. It is about players who are not Astros wondering what just happened? It’s a game if fun, even trying to be a bit sneaky but all within the rules knowing there could be consequences.

    Muncy definitely makes me feel better about there being an honest accounting. What i want to know is where in the world has the MLBPA gone? They must be out in front to protect the honest players and accept their responsibility to show fans, especially the kids, that cheating is simply not how professional players, or players if any level, compete. As of now the MLBPA is run by those who are as cowardly as Manfred & his gang.

    My hope is thanks ?o reasoned efforts by Muncy, Bellinger, retired HOF’ers…all come together and force the issue to a more professional solution.

    I have no problem with truly Draconian penalties. Vacating the titles including league plus WS is a start. The organization needs to feel this…two years prohibition from postseason and TV. Zero draft picks for 2-3yrs as well. Yes that’s extreme but much more in keeping with the harm thats been done to the entire game. This was worse than gambling and look what that got Pete Rose and the whole BlackSox team, even Joe Jackson who knew but didn’t participate. However he failed to come forward.

    Next Manfred should be toast unless there is more to his plan as the BoSox potential cheating is addressed.

    If players are getting their backup as is clearly happening then the MLBPA must step up publicly or they are as bad as the actual cheating players/teams.

    1. “Next Manfred should be toast ”

      Meaningless. He is paid specifically to take the blame and be a replaceable fall guy. The owners are in complete control. The only question is WHY are they ok with this?

      Is the Houston owner that powerful?
      Do they hope it will just go away?
      Are they afraid of the players union (and would rather completely let the guilty ones go un punished)?

      All of the above?

  2. So what would have been an appropriate response??? Should Astros players beg forgiveness??? Should they jump in front of a train??? What is it that would satisfy the masses???

    1. How about just admitting they cheated period .. Its simple if you make a mistake at work do you admit to it or just keep lying about it. They need to be men and admit we screwed up.

  3. If the Astros want this to go away they’ll have to admit they did it and even though the league isn’t punishing the players they are going to have to do what they can to punish themselves, Give back the trophy and give back the rings and not complain when they get hit by a pitch. Hold a press conference to tell the world they are going to do this. Just because the league isn’t requiring them to do this it would be a gesture to all the other players that they deserve a punishment and are willing to do the right thing.
    If they don’t, all the other players and fans will always hold this against them.

    1. This is the first comment with specifics about what people want the Astros to do.

  4. spot on Willy…i think all athletes can understand getting caught up in the moment and making a bad judgment call. Just own up, be proactive and show try remorse and contrition. Stop acting like spoiled brats caught shoplifting at Tiffany’s!

  5. It’s more than obvious that the Astros players are well protected by the league. So if I had my way I would tell the teams to boycott them. The teams scheduled to play them this year just don’t play them. Make it a players decision not management.

  6. The trophy belongs to the organization, the owner should give it back and renounce the championship.
    The players should give back their playoff & WS winnings. That’s the only way they to show they are truly remorseful.

    But’s let’s be honest, that’s not going to happen. They’ll just continue to deny it was cheating, or that “I” didn’t cheat and laugh all the way to the bank. So sad for baseball.

    1. That would have to be the only way since Manfred can’t do it due to the union but like you said it won’t happen. The last line of defense will be for players to take the fines and suspensions for retaliating and for fans to do their thing during games. If every pitcher decided to do something he can’t suspend them all that would leave teams with few pitchers, the first few on each team will have to sacrifice themselves and take the worst punishment

  7. To keep turning the blade, visiting teams should always include as part of the interview process something like…”since we are in Houston, I guess we should hope that our pitchers are not tipping their pitches, or more directly…visiting Houston is always interesting as you just never know. Hopefully, they haven’t figured out a new system. It would be nice to play a fair game there someday…”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button