or even viable during the 2018 postseason and the league added in-person monitors for the replay rooms in the postseason. The rooms were unmonitored during the regular season."
Sure it was a yewt move, and they rightfully are being punished. But I am not going to sit here and say they won just because of that, when the evidence shows that the benefits were mediocre at best. Sign stealing is nothing to be proud of, but it sure is not something that does not happen all the time in baseball.
in the 1980's, the white sox actually used a light on their scoreboard to tell the batter if it was a fastball or breaking pitch, and most damning of all may be the 1951 Giants that admitted to having a buzzer into the dugout to alert players to what type of pitch was coming. (
https://www.newsday.com/sports/through-the-looking-glass-giants-used-telescope-buzzer-to-steal-and-relay-signs-during-1951-miracle-of-coogan-s-bluff-1.426471)
Unlike the astros and red sox, they used it effectively in the playoffs too. I would be much more angry if it was found to have been used effectively throughout the playoffs, or if there was a lot of evidence that it gave them a massive bump (like a 20 game better record at home for instance).