Astros manager calls sign stealing jabs ‘a joke’

Astros manager AJ Hinch blew his own whistle on sign stealing and pitch tipping: He’s had enough of allegations about Houston hitters going out of bounds to decipher what’s coming at the plate.

Hinch eagerly weighed in again on an issue that won’t seem to go away this postseason. He was asked before Thursday’s Game 4 of the AL Championship Series about reports that indicated the New York Yankees suspected the Astros of whistling from their dugout during the opener to communicate pitch selection to their batters.

Major League Baseball reportedly looked into it and concluded Houston didn’t break any rules. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

“Man, I’m glad you asked that question, and I thought it would come up today,” Hinch said at the start of his Yankee Stadium news conference. “And then when I get contacted about some questions about whistling, it made me laugh because it’s ridiculous. And had I known that it would take something like that to set off the Yankees or any other team, we would have practiced it in spring training.”

Hinch also said he will remove his team from the field if fans at Yankee Stadium again throw objects at Houston players. Right fielder Josh Reddick said fans tossed water bottles, baseballs and other objects at him during Game 3 on Tuesday night. A’s front office update: Keith Lieppman, one of the most instrumental behindthescenes figures in the history of the A’s organization, will step away from the director of player development duties he’s handled for the past 28 years and will become a special adviser in the front office, the team announced.

Former A’s third baseman Ed Sprague, 52, will take over as Oakland’s director of player development after serving as the assistant director for the past year.

Lieppman, 70, has spent 49 years with the A’s, starting in 1971, when he was drafted in the second round out of Kansas, where he also played football. Lieppman managed at every level of Oakland’s system during the 1980s, managing many of the core group of players who went to the World Series from 19881990. He earned the prestigious Sheldon “Chief” Bender Award for distinguished minorleague service in 2010.

Sprague was a member of Stanford’s national championship teams in 198788 and was Toronto’s firstround pick in 1988; he played for the Blue Jays for seven years, including in the World Series in 1992 and 1993, before being traded to Oakland in 1998. He also played for the Padres, Pirates and Red Sox in his 11year career; he was an AllStar with Pittsburgh in 1999.

Sprague coached the University of the Pacific baseball team for 12 years, from 20042015, then joined the A’s as the minorleague instruction coordinator in 2016.