Bill Ripkin on Mike Trout’s comments about the Astros

Los Angeles Angels superstar and Millville native Mike Trout spoke out about how major league baseball handled the Houston Astros cheating scandal telling reporters it was a "sad day for baseball"

"I don't agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything," Trout said. "It was a player-driven thing. It sucks, too, because guys' careers have been affected, a lot of people lost jobs. It was tough. Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming -- it would be pretty fun up there."

As it turned out, Commissioner Rob Manfred only suspended manager AJ Hinch and General Manager Jim Luhnow, who were later fired by the team.

Should players have been included in the suspensions? I asked former player and current MLB analyst Bill Ripken who has a new book out called "State Of Play," which deals with the culture war between old school baseball and analytics.

"I don't necessarily feel the need to see every one of these players around baseball having their own little soapbox," Ripkin told me. "If you went after the players in this particular case, and none of them that are talking knows what it's like to sit in the commissioners office, I think we have to respect that this dude's (the commissioner) pretty smart, he does a pretty good job, he's not afraid to make some decisions and be innovative for baseball and for  the good of baseball, and in this particular case, his directive out was for the manager and general manager if this was going to move forward and if you start going after a player, now you're a member of the players association and the union and for these guys that are looking at that, that's against your own brethren there."

Ripken who played for the Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers from 1987-98, adds, "I get sort of the sentiment for me, I'm just gonna stick to what I know a little bit more than that, and that's not an area I think all these guys need to go out there and just start kind of spewing stuff."

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