Ok, because I am a Patriots fan, I suppose I know the thought process. First, you tend to question whether there was a rule violation if you can. For Spygate, I thought BB's reading of where you can film was a better reading of what the rule at the time said and that the interpretation they got him on was not matching up to the rule. As a lawyer, I felt the league could not make it stick before a neutral judge, therefore Goodell stinks.

The next type of mental gymnastics is the "well, even if it did happen, we still won after that so it made no difference. This is sort of the F.U. Tour. Perfect regular season after the Jets game in the spygate season, trouncing the Colts in the 2d half after the ref grabbed Brady's soft balls. The line about the Astros road record being better than home is like this.

If the lead comes from someone who was inside your team, then there is a villain. Mangino, Floyd Landis. I will guess some folks are thinking this about Fiers.

Doubting the proof is a 4th thing you do. Deflategate? Noble gas law shows that the pressure drop was caused by the temperature change. There wasn't enough time for the guy holding the balls to deflate them in the bathroom. Don't know the Astros equivalent.

Someone needs to tell the knicks how to cheat

they just are very good at throwing games. Practice makes perfect

Wins may be a crappy measure of how good a talent a pitcher is but they are significant in representing the results which I wish the awards would consider again.  Pitching really well and not having anything to show for should be good for the pocket book but you shouldn’t get an award for it.  I question guys winning mvps for raking on a team that hasn’t played a meaningful game since June as well.

There already are awards for results and team performance. It’s the commissioner’s trophy. I believe the Nats have one now.

Zuck writes:

Four Nationals players received top 10 MVP votes this season. In addition to Rendon, Juan Soto received 45 points to finish ninth overall, Stephen Strasburg received four points to finish in a tie for 15th place and Max Scherzer received one 10th-place vote to finish tied for 22nd place.

Gotta be Zuck, right?

He only had a cy young vote.