The Astros are preparing to add additional security on each regular-season road trip this seasonGETTY IMAGES
The Astros' annual Spring Training meeting with the MLBPA ran for more than three hours Friday, and those in attendance said that "most of the talk centered around adequate protection for the players and their families while on the road this season" amid the team's sign-stealing scandal, according to Chandler Rome of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Astros SS Carlos Correa said, "We have to trust the PA. They're the ones that have to protect us." Rome noted under normal, regular-season circumstances, the club has "at least one full-time security official with them on all road trips." But in the aftermath of the sign-stealing scandal's wide fallout and reaction, the Astros are "preparing to add additional security on each regular-season road trip this season and will make other services available to players' families who accompany them." Correa: "Everybody in here is getting death threats" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/23). ESPN.com's Jeff Passan cited sources as saying that the Astros "will receive increased security, particularly when on the road" (ESPN.com, 2/22). YAHOO SPORTS' Hannah Keyser wrote the Astros "know they're not the sympathetic figures in the story that has cannibalized the sport," and they "know that nothing they say will make it better." The club now is "in a tough spot" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/21).
TOO MUCH TECH? In DC, Jesse Dougherty wrote the MLBPA is in discussions with the league about "regulating immediate access to in-game video, the function of replay rooms and how close those rooms are to the dugout." MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark on Friday said that those talks became "more formal last week," but MLB's greater issue is a "culture that is using technology and numbers to maximize efficiency and change the game." Clark said, "It's manifesting itself in how player service time is being manipulated. It's manifesting itself in a way that we're seeing abuses of the injured list. It's manifesting itself (in a way) that is affecting the type of game that is being played on the field." He added, "I know a lot of the headlines say 'sign-stealing.' But the truth is that this conversation about technology is much larger than that." Clark: "There are a number of moving pieces here, and the backdrop of those pieces is technology, and the backdrop of that technology being left unchecked is how we develop this culture of it's okay to do all these things that affect the game." Dougherty noted the implications Clark outlined are that "technology is being used to devalue players and dictate their actions in a compromising way" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/22).
