Brewers: Christian Yelich Claps Back at Sign-Stealing Accusations
The off season just keeps growing more and more chaotic. The trading rumors, the firing/hiring/retiring of managers, and the newest ingredient to the recipe? Stealing signs, and Brewers MVP, Christian Yelich is the newest accused in this outrageous series of events.
The Houston Astros were already under fire once in 2019 for an incident with the assistant general manager Brandon Taubman when he was taunting female reporters. It was said that these disgusting comments were directed at one or more female reporters, one involving a comment made about Roberto Osuna towards a reporter who was wearing a purple domestic-violence awareness bracelet. Osuna served a 75 game suspension last season for violating the Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy.
Once again, the Astros find themselves in the hot seat as former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers supposedly admitted to The Athletic that the team used a hidden camera in the field during the 2017 season. Not only did they use cameras, but they were coming up with creative ways to steal signs and help their athletes at bat. The camera that was supposedly installed in center field, linked back to a TV in the tunnel that leads into the clubhouse. From there, once they were able to figure out the catchers’ signs, they banged on a garbage can, signaling what type of pitch the pitcher was going to deal. Hopefully the Astros face some fines and penalties for this, despite it happening in the 2017 season.
Social media was on fire when Bleacher Nation decided to post a tweet, accusing Brewers star Christian Yelich of sign stealing during Yu Darvish of the Cubs’ start in Milwaukee. This then started a whole war involving Cubs fans and Brewers fans.
Now, people are accusing Yelich of sign stealing for apparently locking eyes at Darvish, glancing into right field quick, then going back to Darvish where Darvish then steps off the plate. The video given doesn’t show much, just shows an athlete at bat who looks at his surroundings. Some felt that Yelich was looking towards the bullpen, which was quickly squashed as he looked into right field. In the right field of Miller Park is seating, the bullpen is located just off center field, going into left field.
Darvish tries to defend himself by saying he was unsure on what Christian was trying to do and that’s why he stepped off of the mound, but people were quick to jump at Darvish’s throat and continue to accuse him of accusing Yelich of sign stealing.
Yelich was quick to reply to Darvish on Twitter, some taking the tweet to be a rude and aggressive way of handling it, and some thought Yelich was doing the right thing by standing up for himself. People took things the wrong way when Yelich commented, “Nobody needs help facing you”, saying it was an insult, an unnecessary comment. This all comes after Yelich came in second place to Cody Bellinger for the NL MVP award for the 2019 season.
What are your thoughts? Do you believe Yelich was sign stealing? It seems that he was just looking around, but, guess you have to be looking into the soul of the pitcher you’re facing the entire time you’re up at the plate otherwise you’re a cheater. Will love to see how this could potentially be brought up again in the 2020 season as the Brewers face the Cubs opening weekend at Miller Park. It could be a really interesting series, to say the least.