‘Ground Control’ hacker Chris Correa alleges Astros benefited from unauthorised access

Former St. Louis Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa is serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison but he somehow found a way to tweet from jail on Tuesday. Correa’s statement comes after MLB announced the Cardinals would be forced to give the Houston Astros two 2017 draft picks and $2 million dollars.

Correa pointed the finger at the Astros as the true benefactor of unauthorized access to proprietary data.

Correa outlined that an Astros employee accessed a Cardinals server in 2011 and continued to use that information for the next three years. He went on further to say that the Astros used the proprietary data help create Houston’s own baseball decision-making tools.

“On December 21, 2011, a Houston Astors employee accessed proprietary data on a st. Louis Cardinals server. Later, I would learn - through unlawful methods - that Cardinals' data were used extensively from 2012 through 2014. Houston Astros employees used the data to replicate and evaluate key algorithms and decision tools related to amateur and professional player evaluation. Many individuals throughout the Houston organization, including the General Manager and Assistant General Manager, were included in e-mail discussions about these efforts.”

Correa went on further to admit wrongdoing but stated that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime without similar punishment of the Astros.

"I accept responsibility for my wrongful actions and am paying my debt to society. The Cardinals organization must now pay a heavy price as well.

But the punishment does not function as a deterrent when the sanctions are applied arbitrarily.”

The comments ignore the fact that the recently unsealed documents from the case detail the fact that Correa had accessed the system over 40-plus times over this time period with access to the Astros evaluations of amateur and professional evaluations. The unauthorized access included trade notes and medical evaluations.

The timetable, if true, is interesting because Luhnow was hired by the Astros on Dec. 8, 2011. Correa’s comments state that an Astros employee pulled data from the Cardinals 13 days later.