Buy Me Some Peanuts And Computer Hacks.

I have to say, for as well acquainted as I am with baseball history, I don't think anything quite like this has happened before: the St. Louis Cardinals, or at least certain employees within the organization, are currently under investigation by the FBI for last year's hacking of the Houston Astros' database. The database, named Ground Control, was compromised last summer when trade discussions, scouting reports and other internal communications were released on the Internet, many of which described GM Jeff Luhnow's (who had worked in a similar capacity with the Cards before his tenure in Houston) machinations during his massive rebuild of the team.

While little has been confirmed in terms of the main suspect(s), it's been speculated that the culprit(s) carried out the hack to get back at Luhnow. This would make a little more sense if the Astros were still in the same division as the Cardinals, but they jumped from the NL Central to the AL West almost a full calendar year before Luhnow joined the team. There's further speculation that the hack, regardless of who carried it out, was also in retaliation for Luhnow supposedly taking "proprietary information" with him from St. Louis. Luhnow, for his part, has yet to comment on the investigation.

Courtesy Sports Talk Florida

Whatever the motivation, this is a huge blemish on an otherwise immaculate franchise. The Cardinals, both on and off the field, have been the game's most respected team over the past decade: they won 2 World Series in that span, played for the pennant 6 times (including the last 4 seasons), and did so both with and without the legendary Albert Pujols. They draft well, develop those draftees efficiently, and turn them into major league All-Stars and MVP candidates. So why undertake such a destructive action against another team? Why kick the Astros when they're down, as they were at the time of the leak? This goes beyond disgruntled employees or basic pettiness; this is a clear, organizational act of aggression. It's a truly ugly incident, one that will undoubtedly tarnish the reputation of everyone involved.

Dave Cameron pointed out on Twitter the shift in perception of the Astros, especially in light of this investigation:

A year ago, Astros were terrible team, botched draft, didn’t protect their servers. Now? Good team, right about Aiken, robbery victims.

— David Cameron (@DCameronFG) June 16, 2015

If those who perpetuated the hack were trying to destroy Luhnow, it appears that they've done quite the opposite. Like Cameron said, the Astros are actually contending ahead of schedule, and Luhnow's much-ballyhooed process seems to finally be paying dividends. In other words, he's starting to deliver on his promise, turning the team in Houston into a reasonable facsimile of the one he constructed in St. Louis.

It's likely that we won't get many details on the identities of the hackers anytime soon, if ever. Major League Baseball can always choose to handle the matter clandestinely once the federal investigation concludes, although if previous scandals are any indication, we'll know the names soon enough. If it turns out that current GM John Mozeliak, owner Bill DeWitt Jr. or any other executive had knowledge of the hack or, worse, approved the actions of those who did the deed, heads are sure to roll with a rapidity we haven't seen since Rickey on the basepaths. Either way, this is corporate espionage of a caliber we've never seen in the game, and baseball must make an example out of the person(s) responsible.