Sign stealing was a prevalent topic throughout during the regular season and that has since carried into the playoffs. MLB recently completed an investigation into the Houston Astros after one of their employees was spotted taking pictures in the camera well near opposing team’s dugouts. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies were also brought up in that investigation for actions that took place during their National League West tiebreaker Game 163, although it was not specified which team was being called into question. Given all that has happened in recent weeks, the team the Dodgers are playing in the NL Championship Series, the Milwaukee Brewers, are starting to get suspicious. According to Robert Murray of The Athletic, they are accusing the Dodgers of stealing signs throughout the series: Paranoia has manifested itself in the NLCS. The Brewers head into a game to save their season amidst concerns that the Dodgers have crossed the line by using video to steal signs. https://t.co/gSMgRxbcCT pic.twitter.com/KUo636NnvF — Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) October 19, 2018 The Dodgers are leading 3-2 in the series entering Game 6 on Friday, but if they are stealing signs, it is not necessarily working. In the first five games of the series, Los Angeles is hitting just .220 with a .599 on-base plus slugging percentage. They were shutout in Game 3 and then scored just two runs in 13 innings in their Game 4 victory. Given the Brewers’ lack of evidence, their likely isn’t much the league office can do about these allegations so it would be shocking to see the Dodgers face any penalties. The Dodgers have a chance to close out the Brewers at Miller Park on Friday night, and then they would go on to face the Boston Red Sox after they defeated the Astros in five games in the American League Championship Series. Want to get your content COMPLETELY AD FREE? Click here to follow us on Apple News!<doc-sep>On Friday, an interesting report came from from Robert Murray of The Athletic, who wrote that many inside the Brewers organization believe that the Dodgers had been stealing their signs during the NLCS. “Cheating” has been a hot-button issue this postseason since the Astros were accused of cheating during the ALDS against the Indians and supposedly attempted to do so again against the Red Sox. Major League Baseball did not hand down any immediate punishment against Houston, releasing more of a blanket statement on the issue. Most agree that gaining an advantage through sign stealing is okay. If you’re able to steal someone’s signs, that team should — you know — get better signs. But the method as to how these teams have allegedly stole signs is the bigger issue. The Dodgers allegedly filmed the Brewers’ signs, determined what pitch to which they aligned and relayed this information to the field. This would occur only when the Dodgers had a runner on second base, as the runner would be able to signal to the hitter as to what pitch was on the way. After reading this report, I thought,’if the Dodgers are truly stealing signs, then they must be putting up better numbers with runners on second base, right?’ It’s time to delve into the research that I did to attempt to answer this question. By no means was this the most scientific method. I did not analyze hours of video to try to find any signal that the Dodgers may have been employing any sort of recognition relay system. Rather, I considered the results, with the logic that, if the Dodgers were in fact cheating, then their numbers with runners on second base should be good. So, I went through all the game logs from Game One through Game Five of the NLCS. (I’m not including Game 6, in the event that the Dodgers stopped this action after the report came out.) Any situation where there was a runner on second base — whether this was second only, first and second, second and third or bases loaded — I considered in my research. After doing this, I had 45 plate appearances to work with. The Dodgers’ slash line in these events? A gross .237/.356/.237. This isn’t great. In fact, it’s awful. But, there are a couple of numbers here that interest me. First is the on-base percentage. A .356 on-base is pretty high, especially for a team-wide figure that includes players up and down the lineup (Walker Buehler accounts for two of the 45 plate appearances). This is especially high when considered to the Dodgers’ series-wide OBP of .304. It’s hard to distill this disparity between the Dodgers’ on-base percentage with runners on second base, and in all situations down to sign stealing, but it’s not hard to see where knowing the next pitch would help. If I’m the hitter, knowing the next pitch would allow me to be more selective, obviously. If it’s a 1-1 count and I’m wanting a fastball, and I know a curve is coming, I’m less likely to swing in hopes that I can extend the at bat to eventually get that fastball. Still, though, a .237 batting average is bad, although the Dodgers’ offense has been bad all series. This .237 mark is 17 points above the Dodgers’ team-wide average for the whole series. So, again, while the figure is not phenomenal, it isn’t impossible to rule out the fact that they have been stealing signs. The fact that the Dodgers haven’t been able to get any extra-base hits with a runner on second seemed a bit odd, too. It’s been all singles, albeit productive singles. The Dodgers accumulated 11 of their 16 RBIs in these 45 plate appearances alone, though one may expect a majority of the RBIs to be obtained when runners are in scoring position. So, I must hedge all of these inferences. The statistics don’t immediately suggest that the Dodgers absolutely are (or were) cheating, but they don’t immediately rule out that they weren’t either. I was just mainly curious as to see if the stats would show any obvious trends. If anything, the situation has become more — not less — murky from these numbers. Anyway — who’s excited for game seven? Devan Fink is a Featured Writer for Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter @DevanFink.<doc-sep>The Milwaukee Brewers suspect that the Los Angeles Dodgers are attempting to use video cameras to steal their signs in the National League Championship Series, according to The Athletic. While they said that they have no direct evidence, the Brewers have suspicions that this has been happening throughout the series, which they informed Major League Baseball’s “resident security agents” about. The league said they have not detected anything. “They use video people to get sequences,” a Brewers source told The Athletic of the Dodgers. “It’s known throughout the league. MLB knows it’s an issue.” While this has become an increasing issue across the league, there was one instance in the sixth inning of Game 5 of the series on Wednesday in Los Angeles — in which the Dodgers won 5-2 — that tipped off Brewers catcher Erik Kratz. From The Athletic: Manny Machado stood alone at second base, beginning to lean towards third. With Chris Taylor at the plate and Corbin Burnes on the mound, Machado signaled to Taylor. First it was jumping in the air, then he began motioning with his hands. Seconds later, Taylor struck out. As Taylor departed for the Dodgers’ dugout, catcher Erik Kratz went to the mound to talk to Burnes, both putting gloves over their mouths for the duration of the conversation. They were concerned that the Dodgers were picking up their signs, so they discussed their next move. Home plate umpire Jim Wolf broke up the meeting, and Los Angeles wound up scoring two runs that inning, taking a 3-1 lead. The next inning, they scored two additional runs, bringing the game to 5-1. “So, did we change signs? Or did we keep them the same?” said Kratz. “How do they know?” While the team said they don’t think the Dodgers have “completely” figured out their signs, they have started using multiple signs even when Los Angeles doesn’t have a runner on base — something a rival executive said is a “dead giveaway they think something is up.” The team has also seen repeatedly on video where Dodgers players “move around and use their hands in motions that seem as if they could be signals.” Story continues “I mean, the whole cameras and things, that’s not something we can really control,” Milwaukee pitcher Zach Davies told The Athletic. “But when you see guys do certain things out on the field to relay certain signs to hitters, then you know you’ve got to make things a little bit more tricky or complex. It’s definitely something you’re paying attention to.” Both the Brewers and Dodgers officially declined to comment to The Athletic. The Dodgers currently lead the series 3-2 heading into Friday night’s Game 6 in Milwaukee. While they have no direct evidence, the Brewers suspect the Dodgers are using video to steal their signs in the NLCS. (Getty Images) More from Yahoo Sports: • 2003 rape allegations cost Kobe spot on film festival jury • Controversial call wipes out Astros home run • NFL owners take a knee in waning anthem controversy • Dan Wetzel: Gymnastics scandal secrets may finally go public<doc-sep>
There has been no shortage of drama in this year’s National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers. First it was the play at first base where Manny Machado kicked Jesus Aguilar, which Christian Yelich called “a dirty play by a dirty player.” Then it was The Wade Miley Gambit, where the lefty was scheduled as the game five starter but was removed after one batter as the surprise opener for Brandon Woodruff. Now we can apparently add another layer to the intrigue. According to a report from Robert Murray of The Athletic, some employees of the Brewers, including players, suspect that the Dodgers are stealing their signs. Los Angeles is said to have a reputation as one of the top teams in the league at decoding the opposing signs, but Milwaukee’s concerns appear to extend beyond simple gamesmanship: “There is concern amongst some Brewers that the Dodgers are using video to pick up their signs, multiple sources tell The Athletic. One person inside the organization said that on videos of the games, a coach could be seen running from the hallway into the Dodgers’ dugout whenever a runner reached second base, possibly a sign that L.A. was relaying a pitchers’ sequences to the runner during those at-bats.” Murray explains that the Brewers have reported their concerns to MLB, but that the league’s security personnel had not detected anything along those lines. Still, the concerns apparently remain: “They use video people to get sequences,” one Brewers source said of the Dodgers. “It’s known throughout the league. MLB knows it’s an issue.” Said another: “It’s one thing if your signs suck and the runner on second base can tell, but when you have a video person trained on the signs, that’s not right.” Other than changing their signs around and making them as complex as possible, there probably is not a whole lot that the Brewers can do about this perceived issue at this time. The Astros were just accused of a similar tactic, stealing signs by stationing a team employee in a camera well. But Houston was cleared despite apparent evidence to the contrary, and even if the Astros or Dodgers were found guilty of cheating in this fashion, the penalty would probably be something more along the lines of a hefty fine and loss of draft picks, not the retroactive loss of games or forced forfeiture. With our Menomonee Valley Nine facing a must-win scenario in tonight’s game six at Miller Park, this is certainly a situation that bears monitoring.