Minor League Pitcher Claims Mislabeled Medical Image Hurt His Draft Stock

On September 19, 2016, a St. Louis Cardinals minor league pitcher filed suit, claiming that due to an error made by a Houston hospital, his draft stock suffered. The pitcher, Pablo Salazar III, originally had been projected as a third-to-eighth round draft pick in 2015; however, he was not actually drafted until the eleventh, a drop that he attributes to the hospital’s error.

Three years prior to the 2015 draft, he had an arthroscopic procedure done on his elbow. Salazar’s claim is that the …

July 28, 2016 MLB

Corporate Espionage in MLB: Astros Password Hack Results in Prison Time for Ex-Cardinals Director

Christopher Correa, former Cardinals director of baseball development, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of hacking into the computers and emails of Houston Astros employees. In addition to prison time, U.S. District Judge Hughes also ordered him to pay $279,038 in restitution to the Astros.

In January, Mr. Correa admitted that from 2013 to at least 2014 he accessed the Astros database called “Ground Control” and emails to obtain scouting information. The hacks occurred after …

July 27, 2016 MLB

MLB Next at Bat Against Cardinals in Scouting Database Hack

On Monday, July 20, 2016, a Texas federal judge sentenced the former St. Louis Cardinals director of baseball development, Christopher Correa, to 46 months in prison for hacking into the Houston Astros’ player personnel database. The move has been considered a form of espionage, noting the unusual nature of two Major League Baseball clubs being involved in high-tech cheating.

In January 2016, Correa plead guilty to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer from 2013 to 2014. Correa was fired, forced to …

June 22, 2015 MLB

Stealing Signs and More: Cardinals Owner Puts Blame for Data Breach on Support Staff

On Thursday, June 18, Bill DeWitt, owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, reportedly stated that the team support staff participated in the breach of the Houston Astros’ internal database. Currently, investigators are looking at four or five people in the Cardinals’ office, and they have reason to believe that the unauthorized access occurred as early as 2012, a year earlier than was previously known.

As of now, the breach does not appear to be very sophisticated, as investigators believe that Cardinals personnel simply examined a …