A veteran of the Marines who has reported on Major League Baseball for NBC Sports and The Sporting News and made guest appearances on various radio, podcast, and television programs including High Heat and MLB Now at MLB Network, Ryan Spaeder may not be a national name amongst MLB fans, but he has plenty of baseball bonafides.
So, while perhaps they should be taken with a grain of salt, the mountain of cheating allegations he dumped onto Twitter after tossing and turning all night should not be discounted. “I’ve had enough,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I think I am coming out with everything tomorrow … going to sleep on it.”
Here’s most of what Spaeder had to say:
Everything that I am about to say was verified by more than one player. I do not mean to burn anyone, and I love baseball… I’ve just had enough of this bullshit.
The Royals were the first team with a full analytics and video department close by their dugout, doing so in 2015, their World Series Championship year. How they used it, I do not know.
The Yankees had cameras in left, center, and right, all pointing at the pitcher’s glove, rather than the catcher, to pick up his grip.
Aaron Judge 2017-18 home – .312/.440/.725
Aaron Judge 2017-18 road – .256/.404/.531
The Dodgers had an employee who was caught setting up cameras at Minute Maid Park wearing an MLB Polo Shirt, when he should have been wearing a Dodgers Polo, during the 2017 World Series.
This one hurts to say… my favorite player ever… “Chase Utley was the biggest cheater of all-time.”
As insane as this sounds, I’ve heard this from multiple players, Adrian Beltre had a buddy with binoculars in dead center who would wave a beater (undershirt) if he was getting something off speed in 2017.
Beltre 2017 home – .362/.440/.586
Beltre 2017 away – .271/.333/.489
Everything Kratzie already said about the Rockies…
The Astros “sign stealing” method all came from Beltran, New York and Texas.
The Dbacks used humidor balls when pitching and non-humidor balls when batting at home — I do not have a time frame on this, but I’m confident it happened.
From a player who asks to remain nameless:
“Don’t forget the Twins at the Metrodome — would open right field doors creating suction when Twins batted then close them when opponents hit!”
Everyone knows about the Astros stealing signs in 2017, but Spaeder made it a point to illustrate his belief that the Yankees were doing the same thing by mentioning Aaron Judge again.
After getting chirped by a few non-believers, Spaeder stuck to his guns and retweeted MLB commissioner Rob Manfred previously admitting multiples teams had cheated.
“Something I want to be made very clear, I blame no players or teams, I blame Major League Baseball for constantly enabling and skirting any responsibility in every scandal that is brought to their doorstep,” Spaeder said in closing.
Later, after the his tweetstorm went viral, Spaeder said he regretted unleashing it.
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