The good news is, Major League Baseball starts this week and brings the annual resurgence of hope to baseball fans across the nation.

The bad news is, there's still a cloud over the league because there was no real resolution in the sign-stealing scandal -- and the Houston Astros still hold the title they got by stealing signs.

Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger spoke out yesterday, and Morning Joe covered it this morning.

MIKE TROUT: It's sad for baseball. You know, it's tough, you know, they cheated and, you know, just I don't agree with the punishments, you know, the players not, you know, getting anything. You know, it was a player-driven, you know, thing. You know, it sucks, too, because a guy's career has been affected, a lot of people lost jobs, it was tough. It would be me going up to the plate knowing what's coming, that would be pretty fun up there. Like I said, a lot of guys lost respect for some of the guys. It's tough, taking the trophy away, taking the rings away, I think they should definitely do something. I don't know what, but just to cheat like that and not get anything, it's sad to see.

AARON JUDGE: Yeah, I just don't think it holds any value, you know, you cheated and you didn't earn it. That's how I feel is, it wasn't earned. It wasn't earned the way of playing the game right and fighting until the end and knowing that we're competing, we're competitors, and the biggest thing about competition is laying it all out on the line and, you know, whoever is the better player, better person, you know, comes out on top, you know, and you just lay it out there. You know, to know that another team had an advantage that nothing you can really guard against, I just don't feel like that's earned or, you know -- yeah, that's -- it's not earned.

CODY BELLINGER: I thought the apologies were, whatever. I thought Jim Crane's was weak. I thought Manfred's punishment was weak, giving him immunity. I mean, these guys were cheating for three years. You know, I think what people don't realize is, (Jose) Altuve stole an MVP from Judge in '17. Everyone knows they stole the ring from us.

"And, by the way, let's just stop talking about 2017. They were cheating in 2019 and, by the way, Altuve at the center of it with his buzzers. I mean, until he denies it and the league denies it, the guy had buzzers going around third base. and like you said, Chapman was smirking after he hit the home run off of him because he knew he stole the sign. There is no way a mere mortal could have hit that ball out of the park. But these players for good reason want justice and they're not getting it from Major League Baseball," Joe Scarborough said.

"And Aaron Judge made that point yesterday. He said you're telling me they cheated in 2017, it won them a title and then they all of a sudden stopped in 2018, 2019? Come on," Willie Geist said.

"I think you and I were both surprised not that the guys spoke out about this, but that they spoke out so strongly and to have the two reigning MVPs in Trout and Bellinger and Aaron Judge, the biggest star in the New York Yankees, these are arguably the three of the five highest profile players in all of baseball, the faces of baseball saying they cheated, they stole titles, they stole MVPs. This scandal just got a lot bigger yesterday."

The MLB could maybe stop trying to introduce gimmicks into the playoff system and clean up this mess first.