4 Reasons the Astros' Sign-Stealing Scandal is Actually Good for Baseball

The gentlemanly nature of baseball, which seeks to squash out any sort of controversy, emotion, or non-conformity, has been one of the major reasons that interest around the MLB among the younger demographics has been decreasing of late. That trend could be flipped upside down in the aftermath of the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal, however, which has painted a humungous target on the backs of every Astros player.

Let's try to take an optimistic perspective on this whole messy scenario and visualize how baseball could actually see interest in their sport increase as a result of this.

4. Players Seem More Personable and Authentic Than Ever

The league has a had a problem marketing their stars, mostly stemming from the fact that game-changing superstar Mike Trout is as bland an interview as there is in the world. The likes of Cody Bellinger, Kris Bryant, and even Trout himself sounding off on the scandal finally shows that these players can be emotional, controversial and animated, which could make their games more watchable products.

3. The 2020 Playoffs, Should Houston Qualify, Will Be Legendary

Heaven help the Astros if they get back to the playoffs, because this whole scandal is about to get re-ignited. Every pitch and noise is going to be hyper-analyzed, while 50,000 opposing fans will be united in non-stop boos whenever the Astros take the field. That sort of drama is hard to come by in baseball for the most part, but that will be relatively commonplace for the Astros next season.

2. The League Has More Cross-Sport Interest

Diehard NBA or NFL fans likely wouldn't pay any attention to a random MLB game in June, but this scandal has the eyes of the whole sporting world fixed squarely on the Astros. Sports fans crave drama and interpersonal conflict, two things baseball didn't have much of in the last few years. Now that the cheating Astros are embarking on a another World Series run, that could change.

1. The MLB Now Has a True Villain

Every sport has one great villain everyone tunes in to watch. The NFL has the Patriots, the NBA had the Warriors, and now the MLB has the Astros. If the league figures out a way to properly market the Astros as such, which could include putting them on national TV as much as possible, ratings could be in for a major bump. The Astros are amazingly talented, but now they'll be put to the test now that (we can assume) the cheating is forever gone. That's classic villain material, and it's a license for Rob Manfred to print money whenever they play another marquee franchise.