 down to the Astros resulting from Major League Baseball's investigation into their sign stealing to recap Houston gets hit with a five million dollar fine it's the highest allowed under Major League Baseball's Constitution. The club also forfeits first and second round picks in each of the next two drafts and one-year suspensions go to AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Lunow both of whom have also been fired. Good to have you back once again we've gotten several takes on what's happening certainly here from the set from Buck Showalter as well. Michael Kaye joins us now our yes colleague and Michael you would chatted about this a lot on your radio show what was your takeaway about first these suspensions and then the firings. Well I thought the suspensions were warranted and I think that what Jim Crane did was pretty much a referendum on how he did not want to be stained by this so he wanted to act decisively and said okay they're suspended but I want to go further than that I don't want them associated with my organization so I think that makes him look a little bit better although I don't think anybody's hands are 100% clean. The biggest argument that we were getting on the radio show especially from callers why were players not disciplined and it's a decent question because they kind of got off scot-free other than the fact that you know their resumes are going to be somewhat tainted. The MVP that Altuve won in 2017 will be tainted. The World Series Championship they won will be tainted. The contract that Altuve got will be tainted as well but the bottom line is he still has them and he still has the World Series rings and I think a big part of why they didn't discipline the players it's as simple as this you're gonna have to deal with the Union. I don't think the Union is going to allow their players to be disciplined for something like this and even if they were going to allow it they were gonna fight it it was gonna drag through the season it would be an ugly cloud that would be over the team. I don't think that would be good for baseball and I think that what Manford did was lay down punishments that could be upheld that would be done and finished and accomplished when it when it was announced. If you all of a sudden start discipline players then I think that becomes a long-standing fight that you're gonna have to deal with with the Union that you also have to you know you have to negotiate a basic agreement with down the line. You know Michael when Jim Crane was making his comments he mentioned that the team this year the Houston Astros they're still a good team and they're gonna have a good year. I'm curious how you think they're going to handle it out on the field next year. Well I think they're gonna be there they're gonna be vilified everywhere they go on the road obviously the games that they play Yankee Stadium they will be the enemy like no other enemy other than the Boston Red Sox it's gonna be loud it's gonna be constant it's going to be in every single city where they were never the villains before from fans they're gonna be the villains they're gonna be looked at whether it's fair or not as cheaters and I think that what they do in 2020 is gonna be really a good test on how much of their success came from knowing what pitches were coming or not so I don't know how they're gonna do I don't know who their manager is going to be and they're also one of the teams that spent the fewest amount of dollars on free agent so they knew that something was coming down and they're gonna go they're gonna roll with the team that obviously did so well last year will they do well without any kind of advantages glean from any electronics when we talk about those electronics and the technology the center field camera the monitor near the dugout Michael how does major league baseball legislate this going forward do they have to figure out a way to keep all sorts of technology out of the dugout Jack I've said this over and over again I sound like a broken record the thing that has really slowed down the game more than anything is the replay challenge rule and you've got people in front of a bank of monitors watching replays over and over and the manager to stand on the top step of the dugout and kind of stall until he gets a cue from the people in the video room whether or not the challenge if you would just make the challenge system as simple as this you challenge with the naked eye the same way the umpires made the call if your player feels that he was safer out he signals to the dugout and the managers decides the challenge if you want to get rid of electronic surveillance or any kind of advantage that teams would have those rooms must be eliminated those rooms must be moved up into the clubhouse and only be used by personnel that are not part of the games you've got to keep players in the dugout they cannot wander back there to look at their bats or anything like that sorry the advantages of electronics have to be ended and maybe this will be the impetus to do it and the first thing that has to go is the replay challenge system the way it is it slows the game down it gives teams an advantage that have better eyes in that room and I think if you got rid of that room a lot of this would go away as well Michael want to drill down on something you just mentioned a little while ago is how do the Astros now deal with this in terms of circling the wagons kind of having to say to themselves hey we're not cheaters because as you pointed out every stadium they go to they're gonna hear it they're gonna feel it they're gonna have to answer questions about it it's gonna be a real rallying moment they're not gonna do it with Luna or AJ Hinch running the show so it seems like somebody in that organization is going to have to help them do that yeah it's going to be interesting to see who they pick as a manager is it going to be uh Joe Espada who was with the Yankees ironically up in 2017 will he be the guy that moves up will they have a bigger search will uh will crane go out and try to get the next great analytics guy but also the this begs the question if their analytics are so good and so great that put them ahead of anybody else now why did they have to cheat that's the big question too but uh it's good if i think of all the things that happened to the ashes today the five million dollars that that's ashtray money for Jim crane the draft picks they're going to be low in the first round anyway in the second round it'll hurt but it's not going to destroy them i think the loss of Luna is probably the biggest blow to them because Luna was a legitimate visionary in the front office and all of a sudden you've lost the guy who's guided this team from the tanking four years into a championship run he's gone so this is a rudderless ship one of assistance is also gone after what happened in the postseason so you've got a team without a gm without a manager a lot of this is going to fall on Jim crane and most of it during the 2020 season at least is going to fall on the players that are there they certainly have the pedigree but now are they going to be able to hit a pitch that they they don't know whether it's going to be a fastball or a breaking ball and the sad part about all of this is the 2017 and eventually when the the punishment comes down on the red sox and the 2018 world championships those are going to be in doubt everything that those teams do now moving forward or having led to that point going to be in doubt i'm sure yankee fans today are incensed you can't expect to be named the 2017 champion but now you have to wonder did joseo too they know that uh where all this chat was going to throw a breaking ball when he hit the home run that ended the yankee's dream of going to the world series all of these things now are up for debate whether it's legitimate or not you have opened it up for debate with documented cheating in 2017 and no no matter which side you come down to on this guys this is a really really lousy day for baseball yeah we're talking about baseball but we're talking about it for all the wrong reasons it's a brutal day for the sport michael one of the names that was prominent in the report carlos beltron kind of one of the key figures in the system he's now managing the new york mets how is this going to affect his future uh you know what john i'm not sure why he was the only player whose name was mentioned in that report there had to be a reason that was the only name that was mentioned also in text messages uh i believe to joel sherman and one other writer he denied any involvement in the astro science steaming scandal so obviously that's a lie when he spoke to the investigators he came clean and told the truth i think the biggest question now rests did the met ask him if he had any involvement did he lie to them or did he tell him the truth now if he lied to them then they have every reason to get rid of them if he told them the truth that it's on them if they could live with the fact that jim crane is fired h.a. hinch in all likelihood if a big suspension comes down on cora john henry is going to fire him do the mets want to be involved with that stink or will they hide behind the fact hey major league baseball didn't discipline him why should we discipline him i think it's going to go we it's going to be really difficult for carlos and and it also points this stuff out guys and i said this on the show earlier winning and the ultimate glow of a championship is such an aphrodisiac that good people will do bad things to accomplish that goal and you know jack and john you know this there are very few people in major league baseball that are better people than carlos belchon he is a gem of a person he is a loved teammate on every team that he's ever been after yankees when they had him on their team as well and he was a big part of this so you can't be surprised by anything anymore the ball is in the mets court whether or not he lied to them or whether or not they want to they want to live with this stain having a manager that was so closely involved in this well this thing certainly has tentacles no doubt about that michael appreciate you joining the show look forward to seeing you again soon