No, the Astros’ league-leading HBPs in spring training are not retaliation for their cheating – Yahoo Sports

The narrative jumps out as soon as you look at MLBs spring training leaderboards.

The Houston Astros at the top of the league in HBPs with seven in five games, right in line with how fans and some MLB players have indicated the Astros should be ready to take a few pitches in the back.

Some fans may see what's happened in recent Astros games and think that retaliation is clearly now beginning, as Astros manager Dusty Baker feared and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred warned against. No one would be surprised, given the jeers and signs weve already seen decrying baseballs worst cheaters of a generation.

Except, that is almost definitely not what is happening.

So, seven HBPs. Most in the league. Except there are currently four other teams Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals right behind the Astros with six plunkings.

To our knowledge, none of those teams are currently embroiled in the fallout of a massive cheating scandal, and yet theyve experienced 85 percent of the pain the Astros have. Maybe if the Astros led the majors in HBPs by a wider margin, you could say its a trend. But having 14 percent of the rest of the league right behind them indicates we might just be dealing with, yknow, out-of-practice pitchers.

The narrative further erodes when you actually look at the Astros who have been hit by pitches. That list is Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Alex De Goti, Aledmys Diaz, Osvaldo Duarte and Dustin Garneau.

So, two well-known faces of the infamous 2017 team, two players who were not part of the Astros organization in 2017 (or 2018), and three minor leaguers. Probably not a group of players the league thinks had it coming.

But Altuve and Bregman got plunked! The other HBPs might just be organizational depth facing pitchers in the second week of their throwing programs, but those must have surely been deliberate, right?

Why dont we take a look at the plunkings before declaring that. Heres Altuve:

Well let Baker interpret the placement of that pitch.

He was hit in the foot, Baker told reporters after the game. That aint nothing, you know what I mean? It wasnt intentional.

And heres Bregman getting hit by a pitch that is much more well-placed as a plunking, right between the shoulder blades.

That sure looks like a deliberate plunking ... until you notice the count was full and the ball thrown was a breaking ball.

It was a splitter, Bregman said after the game. It just got away from him.

The pitcher in question is also Cardinals minor leaguer Ramon Santos. He has never thrown above Double-A, meaning a) his command might not be majors-level and b) he probably isnt personally angry enough at the Astros to blow a strikeout opportunity while trying to maintain his place in the Cardinals organization, which demoted him to Class A Advanced last year.

The Astros are getting hit by a lot of pitches. It is also spring training. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

So thats what the Astros retaliation is right now. Five players who werent on the team that actually cheated, one player getting hit in the foot and another getting hit with a full-count splitter. Thats either an incredibly stealthy, inefficient campaign to stick it to the Astros while skirting MLB discipline, or, and this might sound crazy, spring training.

Even if it all was deliberate, isnt the point of retaliation to send a clear message? Why muddle the message with breaking balls from minor leaguers and balls in the dirt in games that werent even televised?

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None of this is to say the Astros wont face retaliation on the field in the future, especially once the regular season starts. Its inevitable given how openly livid players across the league have been with both the Astros cheating and lack of player discipline. Astros hitters will get deliberately hit which, by the way, is very dangerous no matter how good your command is at some point.

However, interpreting nearly every hit by pitch against the Astros as retaliation as some are doing now would lead to a lot of pitchers getting ejected for balls that simply got away from them.

Some fans clearly want to see the Astros some kind of comeuppance, but acting like thats whats happening right now is just wishful, weird thinking.

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No, the Astros' league-leading HBPs in spring training are not retaliation for their cheating - Yahoo Sports