Dodgers: Former Dodger Shuts Down Astros’ Cheater Josh Reddick Online
Josh Reddick spent two months in Dodger Blue and he didn’t make many fans, posting a .643 OPS and making four errors in right field. After coming over in the trade that brought fan favorite Rich Hill to Los Angeles, the Dodgers were happy to let Reddick walk after the 2016 season.
The next year, he had the best offensive season of his career, batting .314 with an .847 OPS and a 130 OPS+, all career-highs. That was for the Houston Astros. The 2017 Houston Astros. Remember those guys?
Yes, Josh Reddick’s best offensive season came when we know the Astros were cheating. Data suggests that Reddick might have cheated less often than his teammates, although the analysis was only able to check for the banging of trash cans — the most famous part of the disgraceful cheating — while the commissioner’s report on the cheating cheaters says they also used clapping, whistling, and yelling at times, and also that the lack of a bang while the banging scheme was in place simply meant a fastball. So, in reality, we have no idea how often any specific player cheated, which is part of what makes it all so frustrating.
Reddick, of course, wants to paint his actions in the kindest way possible, so it’s in his best interest to insist all teams cheat (or cheated) the way the Astros did. He has a willing audience, too, as many Houston fans were quick and loud to declare that the poor wittle Astwos were being singled out and scapegoated by the commissioner.
Last week, Reddick, now playing for gimmicky Savannah Bananas of the Sad Little Former Ballplayers League, took to Twitter to declare once again that the 2016 Dodgers cheated while he was there, and it’s only his Dignity and Integrity that keep him from spilling all the tea, as the kids say.
Little Red Typing Hood starts by making a false claim that it has been proven that he didn’t cheat, while also implying to the Dodger fan he was replying to that the Dodgers weren’t innocent:
Bc it’s been proven moron. I’m sure you think your team was innocent too huh?
— Josh Reddick (@RealJoshReddick) August 29, 2022
The Dodger fan then asked for proof, and Reddick gave the always reliable “cuz I said so.”
I was there. So there’s my proof.
— Josh Reddick (@RealJoshReddick) August 29, 2022
Shockingly, that didn’t satisfy the Dodger fan, but Reddick reassured him that he has “plenty of proof.”
Plenty of proof. Just not a snitch ?????
— Josh Reddick (@RealJoshReddick) August 29, 2022
So, if you’re keeping score at home, here’s what we have so far:
- Reddick falsely claims it has been proven that he didn’t cheat in 2017.
- Reddick claims that in addition to the cheating teams he has been proven to have played for in 2017 and 2018, he also played for a cheating team in 2016. And he thinks that makes him look better.
- In addition to proudly declaring that he played for three straight cheating teams, he boasts that he’s just too darned loyal to turn on his disgraceful cheating teammates by showing the copious proof he definitely, absolutely, for sure really does have.
Most of Reddick’s former teammates are understandably ignoring Reddick’s blustering, if for no other reason than that they’re still major-league baseball players with major-league baseball games to prepare for.
But Scott Van Slyke, Reddick’s teammate on those 2016 Dodgers, was asked on Twitter about the accusations, and his career is over so he had time to humor Little Joshy’s desperate cries for attention.
No cheating when I was a dodger. https://t.co/WThH5M09fF
— ScottVanSlyke (@ScottVanSlick) August 30, 2022
So now we have a proven and admitted cheater’s word that the Dodgers cheated, and the word of someone who hasn’t been proven to have cheated saying the opposite.
How will we ever know what the truth could possibly be?
Here’s the deal, Joshstopher: Put up or shut up. Because when you say “I could prove it if I wanted to, I just don’t wanna right now,” everyone without a desperate need for their favorite team to have been unfairly scapegoated can see through you pretty easily.
Dodgers lost the World Series yo the Astros in LOS ANGELES – not Houston. Get over it
The World Series isn’t just Game 7 ding dong. It’s fairly obvious to anyone that the Astros were cheating in Game 5. They only swung and missed at one of Kershaw’s breaking pitches out of the 51 that he threw. They knew what was coming with their other pitchers. The Dodgers scored 12 runs in that game. If the Astros aren’t stealing signs the Dodgers win that game easy. They go back to LA up 3 games to 2. They won Game 6 and that would have ended the series. There is no Game 7 needed. By the Asssstros cheating if only in Game 5 they stole the series.
Well said BBJ.
Houston also won Game 2 in LA, where they could not have been stealing signs with their system. If you lose two games at home, you are probably going to lose the series. And if stealing signs is such a slam dunk, how did the Dodgers win Game 5 in Houston?
Fair obvious to who? You? All the whining crybabies in LA? Boohoo, get over it. The Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox all guilty of cheating as well. It was part of the game of baseball to outwit your opponent, what is now considered cheating was simply part of our guessing your opponent. The Astros didn’t use iphones, or apple watches or tar on their gloves.( LA 1988) It’s a never ending boohoo whiners from LA, get over it, and get ready to have your azzes whopped again…
Obvious to someone with some baseball intelligence (not you) once you know what to look for. Sign stealing, watching for tip offs in the pitcher’s delivery is part of the game with the naked eyes of those participating ONLY. It was NEVER part of the game to use a VIDEO CAMERA in CF and a TV MONITOR set up close to the dugout to see the opposing catcher’s signs then relay them to the batter. That’s not out guessing. That’s crossing the line and cheating. That was the Asstros.
ALL 30 teams steal signs and ALL 30 teams do it in violation of the rules (if you want to call that “cheating” – best look in your own team’s back yard before you do).
Some teams are better at hiding it than others. Think about it – the ONLY reason the Astros got caught: a disgruntled former player who broke the unwritten “what happens here stays here” rule.
For me the Astros thing was totally mishandled by MLB and it was a lot of “to do” about NOTHING that all 30 teams do.
The Dodgers got their Mickey Mouse WS ring in 2020, so stop crying. Or are you just mad you were only able to get a ring in a year that barely mattered?
You lost the WS to a good team, one that still plays very good every year. The only disappointment here is that a team as good as the Astros felt they needed to cheat to win, when they clearly didn’t. So find a new excuse to justify your losses, you weeping man child. ??
Here’s the thing, boo boo. Maybe the Astros are really good. Maybe they were really good in 2017. But no one will ever really be sure whether they’re actually good or whether they’re just cheating *again* because of what was proven to have happened in 2017. If it wasn’t a big deal, if only Dodger fans were mad about it, wouldn’t Josh Reddick have kept his trap shut? He can’t. He wants to be seen as a winner but he knows he’s a cheater. That’s also why Astros fans keep yapping.
And if the 2020 ring was no big deal, why couldn’t the Astros win it? They just didn’t want to all of a sudden? Or because the cheat engineers had all left?
The Dodgers had Game 5 stolen from them. They won Game 4 because they were changing their signs every 8-10 pitches. Asstros didn’t get a hit until 6th inning.Wood and Barnes took precautions against the cheating Asstros because they heard rumors.
They didn’t win Game 5 because of the cheetos using a camera in CF. The Dodgers won Game 4 because Wood and Barnes changed their signs every 8-10 pitches. They heard something about the cheetos cheating so they took precautions. They got 1 hit the whole game. This helps prove what an advantage the they had stealing signs with a camera in CF because when they couldn’t do it they sucked balls. It also proves the Dodgers were a better team. Wood was their 4th starter and he shut them down. They couldn’t hit Hill, Wood, or Kershaw either without cheating. They got 1 run on him in Dodger Stadium in 11 innings.
That’s why teams change signs frequently, especially in the playoffs and WS. Makes it impossible. Also, the environment was too loud. Kershaw threw a lot of non competitive pitches that game. He wasn’t on his game. That happens. The Dodgers were mostly shut down. It wasn’t the Dodgers year.
Kershaw has always got shallacked when it matters most
They knew when a fastball was coming. He’s always around the plate, throws strikes. How hard is it when you know what’s coming and about where it will be? Slider is his out pitch. It’s usually out of the strike zone when it crosses the plate. If you know it’s coming just layoff and take it. If you people had a brain you could see this but you don’t. Knowing what’s coming is a big advantage.
Dodgers scored 3 runs or less in 4 of the 7 games (2 of which they still won). How exactly did the Astros stealing signs keep the dodgers from scoring?
It didn’t keep the dodgers from hitting or scoring. The cheating kept the astros from striking out..duh
Astros struck out the least in MLB A**
The Astros that season and to-date are a the top of striking out the least. Enjoy the loss . I love watching the series because the Dodgers blew so many leads and got owned in game 7 at home. It wasn’t even a game
Kershaw has ALWAYS been a postseason choker LMAO, he has a postseason ERA above 4?. And anyways the astros were no longer cheating in the 2017 postseason anymore, sorry to burst your crybaby bubble. Plus anyone who was at those games will tell you the stadium was too loud to hear any trashcan bangs. But lets play devils advocate, if you remove the games where he pitched in the 2017 WS, his postseason ERA goes up even HIGHER.?
The astros swinging or not swinging at his breaking pitches has nothing to do with them stealing signs seeing as how they were no longer doing so.
The swing and miss rate on his slider that year was about 34% and on the curve about 20%. They swung and missed one time out of 51 pitches breaking pitches. The numbers on the slider don’t lie. For what you say to be true they would have to guess correctly on 90 of the 94 pitches he threw. Impossible. There’s many different ways they could have signaled the batter if the trash can didn’t work. From the dugout, bullpen with a towel, hand on or off the fence. We are all just supposed to believe that someone is now truthful who was cheating all year? One problem with that is there’s a picture taken of the area by the dugout right after the game. You can see the table and all the wires still there. Haha! Forgot about that one huh? In Game 1 at Dodgers Stadium he had 11Ks in 7 Inn. and 4 more in 4 inn. in Game 7. They couldn’t lay off those because they didn’t know what was coming like they would in Game 5. There is website after website and story after story that agrees. Your last point is so nonsensical it’s laughable. So how did they do it? They’re all psychic, they have ESP, X-ray vision to see through his glove how he grips the ball. They peeked down at the catcher’s signal on every pitch and the Dodgers never noticed. They all have the eyes on an eagle. They stole the signs with a video camera. THEY CHEATED! WS should be vacated Trophy thrown in that trash can.
They are constantly changing signs in the WS. If the Astros were that amazingly good at stealing signs and relaying that info to the hitter in milliseconds they deserve to win. At some point you just have to give the other team credit and move on.
Players can’t even pick their nose or scratch their balls without being caught on screen, and your saying so many cheating hand signals and towel waving was never caught on screen??? ?????
So now you want to pick and choose who you believe. Oh we think Fiers is telling the truth but not Reddick. Get over it and move on. The Astros are still one of the best teams in MLB well after this so called scandal that most teams were taking part in in some sort of way or fashion.
Astros didn’t need to cheat to beat LA in 17.
They were the better team all around. Get over it LA you lost. Whaaaaa???
Might want to tell them that because they didn’t think so. That’s why they were cheating in the reg. season. They didn’t think they were better than the rest of the league so how then are they better than the Dodgers who won 104 games. I don’t have to prove anything all you dummies do it for me.
I can’t get over char greens spelling
Funny how trashtro fans like to leave out the part in the report where it says the trashtros cheated at home AND ON THE ROAD during 2017 regular AND POSTSEASON games.
Your butt hurt is showing through your pants. Is that brown? Or just really dark red? ??
What are you even talking about LMAO the report says the astros were only cheating in home games and mainly in the regular season. Nice try though. The report also said their cheating likely didn’t affect the outcome of any games, not that something like facts is something that dodger fans care about, which after reading this article it’s clear they don’t lol.
Like they all of the sudden just got to the playoffs and said, “Oh we’re going to stop cheating now.” Didn’t happen. If it wasn’t helping why were they doing it in the first place? Look at the strikeout rate for all 30 teams. The 29 teams all form a uniform graph. Then the cheetos are way off to the side striking out far less than even the #2 team. It’s obvious it helped tremendously.
People from texas just are that smart. Smdh like the World Series is one game.
And game 7 would had never been played if the trashcanners wouldn’t had cheated game 5. You know, when they came back 2X against Kershaw down 3. When they went an insane amount of pitches without a single whiff.
I don’t care that the Dodgers lost. I care that a team full of cheaters won a championship it did not deserve to win. I care that the cheating players got a ring they did not deserve to get. And I care that the fans were cheated out of honest games and an honest championship. The cheaters actions put a stain on MLB and the commissioner did close to nothing about it. All the players and managers are out there playing while people like Pete Rose was banned for doing something much less damaging. I care that MLB is now less credible a sport than it was before the Astros and the commissioner ruined it.
The immunity kept them from being banned. Then the cowards ratted each other out like criminals do. 0-2 without the trash cans, Kershaw will be in the HOF while half that team will need to pay to see him there.
Typical Astro fan will defend their actions. Only people that played baseball through high school and college fully understand. The only advantage the pitcher has in todays game is the element of surprise. This type of cheating is worse than having 9’steroid juiced batters in the lineup.
I believe Reddick. He was actually there. A lot of players have come out now. Can’t be delusional and think it’s not possible.
By that logic you should also believe vanSlyke who was there as well?
I do believe Van Slyke. Doesn’t mean there wasn’t pockets of cheaters. There were some Astros not aware of cheating according to the report.
Mark Bruford I would hesitate strongly on believing vanslyke. Guilty parties always deny at first. Look at the astros, Carlos Beltran and other players strongly denied they were cheating until it was proven they were. Then there’s the yankees, they’ve been denying they were cheating and yet the sealed letter was finally unsealed and released and proved they were cheating 2x harder than the astros. And go back further to the steroid era, how many juiced players denied they were using PEDs until it was proven they were juicing, etc.
Nobody from the Dodgers not named Reddick has ever accused the Dodgers of being the cheaters.
Clearly they don’t. They can’t win if you spot them 2 games in the playoffs!
Will cheating dodgers ever stop crying?
I love it how Yankees fan and Dodgers fan both think they would’ve won the World Series in 2017 without the “cheating” Astros in the way! Btw, the Astros continue to dust both teams almost every time they play! ??
The Astros were 8-1 at home during the 2017 post season and hit .273,
compared to a 3-6 record on the road while hitting.208.
No we won’t, why do you care? Mind your own business.
Man you F…… crazy fool
Exactly!!!! Well said!! Freaking cheaters!
The Houston Asterisks got caught, plain and simple. The fact they were allowed to keep the title is the true injustice.
I had a coach that said if referees, umpires were deciding a game , you weren’t good enough. We played a game on another team’s court. The scorekeeper was manipulating the score, et cetera,. We “lost” and in the locker room we were whining and complaining, and our coach told us he was not interested in the whining and told us we weren’t good enough. He said we needed to become better so that the outcome would not be in the hands of someone else, so quit crying and get better. Quit crying, this was 5 years ago, enjoy TODAY. The Dodgers have been the best team almost every year for the last decade and only have one world series, maybe if they learned to quit complaining they would have more.
You should be required to watch baseball and know SOMETHING about it to write about it. It is widely accepted that many teams were cheating including Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers. Also go look up the stats of hitters he knew which pitch was coming vs when they didn’t. The only reason the Astros were punished is because they are the only ones with integrity to take their medicine and move on. This article was written by a biased, baseball ignorant, titty baby.
Stop whining Dodger fans you say?…let me help you recall recent history. The Dodgers did not break the story or report it ro MLB. Sources outside of Dodgers org.
discovered and revealed the deftly devised system, then MLB painstakingly investigated the allegation. So you missed the whole point of this article. You failed a 2nd grade comprehension test and stop your own whining.
Seriously though , sign stealing is common throughout baseball and every team does it to varying degrees. You have to be clever and sneaky when stealing signs, and ball players dating back to the 80’s have admitted to using television cameras to steal signs. Technology has long been a tool they use. The Astros got greedy and stopped hiding the fact they were stealing signs, because nobody could stop them from doing it. So they stopped hiding it. They just assumed because its an unwritten rule of baseball that nobody would actually complain. I mean what would a team say “The whole series they stope our signs but we couldn’t steal theirs?” But the Astros were greedy, they should have known having an unbeatable system would surely attract attention and thus, been more sneaky. Sign stealing always has been, and always will be apart of baseball.
‘…ball players dating back to the 80’s have admitted to using television cameras to steal signs.’
They have? Who has admitted to this?
‘Technology has long been a tool they use.’
It is? It’s ALWAYS been illegal.
They never were hiding it. Few realized what they were doing. It’s certainly part of the game for players to steal signs unaided. An ‘unbeatable system’ that goes against the spirit of the game and is now been made illegal. What if Team A uses bats with aluminum centers. Their pitchers use spider tack undetected or load the ball up some other way. They have a camera on the opposing pitcher that shows how he grips each pitch with runners on base when he’s in stretch position. This is fed to the bench coach who relays it to the batter. All these things go undetected. Team B has none of these things. Team A has a big advantage. That’s not a level field.
‘Sign stealing always has been, and always will be apart of baseball.’ Only if done unaided by the players maybe the coaches. Certainly not using technology the way it was done in 2017.
All these Trashtros fans say to get over it, tell that to all the people who bet on this series. And lost money! The fact is not just Dodger fans that hate the Houston Asterix’s. Nothing you say will ever change the fact that the only WS you ever won was STOLEN! Generations now will never now the true meaning of a Championship! Hope it was worth it!
If the author truly believes that sign stealing scandals in MLB aren’t ubiquitous, he needs to learn some MLB history. There have been a multitude of sign stealing scandals in MLB going back to the 1800s, using technology in scoreboards, lights to signal batters, buzzers under the third base coach’s foot, video rooms (which the Dodgers are very familiar with), etc, etc. Yes, the Astros did do it, but they are far from the only ones. Lots of teams have been caught in well-documented, elaborate scandals, but none have been punished significantly the way the Astros have been.
That’s the most childish writing I’ve ever read.
Top level professional competitors push the boundaries of what is and isn’t against the rules. When they overstep the line and are not caught, they often win. When they are caught, they are punished and labeled cheater. They all cheat, but it’s not cheating until you’re caught. Bottom line, baseball is a children’s game played by adults. Living vicariously through your favorite team/player is an indicator that you need to get a life.
Houston Astros should have been punished.
Hay, don’t bad mouth the Savannah Bananas!!!!
What you really want is the humiliation of cheating their way to the WS trophy to go away. How long will it take? Well people still know about the 1919 WS 100 years later. Got a long way to go. Keep suffering cheaters fan. One WS win and they had to cheat to do it. Shameful.
No they don’t. The Dodgers are 6-5 vs. and the NYY are a game over .500 vs. them in reg. season since 2017. Try again!
People need to let this go. It is over and done with. Have there been teams cheating in baseball more so than before due to the technology advancement, YES. The Astros were the scapegoat, YES. Does it matter NO. Baseball is a game that will always be 10% physical and 90% mental. Cheating has always been apart of the sport, or to use an out dated statement at this point, GETTING THE UPPER HAND. The Astros used the advantage to win the WS, end of story. Everyone else is just upset that they didn’t use it as obvious as them to win it all. This is written from a die hard Yankee perspective.
Kept the title because of immunity. There would not be a story without immunity.
Look the Astros won in 7 games and the Dodgers lost get over it and yes the Astros are still winning
They don’t even play Game 7 without the Asstros cheating in Game 5. The Dodgers scored 12 runs without cheating using a CAMERA in CF. The cheetos needed to cheat to score 13 runs in Game 5. Dodgers win it in 6. But take your trophy not earned and live in shame.
They’re totally ignorant. People involved like Carlos Beltran have even admitted they cheated in the 2017 WS. It definitely hurts someone like Kershaw who relies on deception and batters swinging at balls out of the zone. He doesn’t throw 96-97 mph anymore. Back then his fastball was still above avg.94mph but no movement. Kershaw has excellent control. You know what is coming and it;s going to be a strike. Houston has some very good hitters. If they have 2-3 or more hacks at his fastball they will connect. And they did.