MLB: Another day, another sign-stealing accusation

On Tuesday we found out that the Boston Red Sox were using Apple watches as a tool to help steal signs against the New York Yankees and other MLB teams. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Angels alleged that the Oakland Athletics were stealing signs in a more traditional way.

In the fourth inning of Wednesday’s series finale and the final game that the A’s and Angels will play against one another this season, Oakland’s rookie third baseman Matt Chapman and Angels catcher Juan Graterol exchanged words as Chapman dug into the box, causing the backstop to shoot up from his crouch and the umpire, Mike Everitt, to pull Chapman aside for a lecture while tossing him from the game.

It was a bright, sunny day in the Bay Area, and while the heat wasn’t record-breaking, the assertion being made by the Angels was that the A’s batters were looking back to see where Graterol’s shadow was to get an idea of pitch placement.

In the Chronicle, Chapman is quoted as saying that he was trying to stick up for teammates that were accused of stealing signs, thinking that yesterday’s incident stemmed back a couple of days when the Angels thought the A’s were stealing signs from second base.

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Unlike using Apple watches, stealing signs isn’t illegal or even immoral in baseball. The common rule is that if your signs are easy enough to decipher, then they deserve to be stolen. If a player is looking back at the catcher’s signs, there is a little more grey area there, but if the batter is looking back at a shadow, that’s just making use of a competitive advantage. The Angels could do the same thing if they wanted.

The response from the ejected A’s rookie is well beyond his experience level, which happens to be all of 61 MLB games. He also makes a valid point, which is that the A’s and their young squad were getting disrespected by the Angels, and I’ll even say that home plate umpire Mike Everitt showed a great deal of disrespect by pulling him aside like he was placing him in time-out.

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In the Chronicle article, some of the A’s also said that they think it was Mike Scioscia‘s crew trying to play mind games with the young team. The A’s ended up winning the contest 3-1, snapping an eight-game skid (another indicator they hadn’t been stealing signs), which also bumped the Angels from the second Wild Card spot, leaving them a half-game behind the Minnesota Twins entering play on Thursday.

According to Susan Slusser, one of the most respected journalists in the game, a scout in attendance said that if anyone was stealing signs, it was the Angels.