Indeed, Major League Baseball is my favorite thing.

Still, my approval rating of it’s current commissioner is so low, I actually find myself a little turned off by the product. To clarify, knowing that I support this guy and his ideals and wild machinations, it makes me feel like watching just a tad less.

Now, Rob Manfred has a sit down interview with Karl Ravech of ESPN. The full video is available here. Let’s take a look at some of his highlight quotes on defending the Astros.

This morning MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sat down with @karlravechespn in an exclusive interview where he discussed the Astros punishment. More airing on @SportsCenter https://t.co/9jb3Yqvf8e — Molly Mita (@mollymita_ESPN) February 16, 2020

What challenges did he face in the investigation, and does he absolve the Houston Astros’ of wrongdoing?

“The single-biggest challenge is you need someone to cooperate with you and give you factual information. The challenge here is everyone who knew the facts were within the cone of silence. I don’t absolve the Astros’ players of responsibility. I think some of them, they understand about playing within the rules. I don’t think any feel like they have been absolved exactly.”

Next, Ravech asks what needs to happen next with this whole scandal.

“One of the most important things that can happen – people will never forget – but to move on from it. Owner all the way to the players. To accept responsibility and to apologize – not only to their own fans – but the fans around the league. That’s going to be an ongoing thing, it didn’t get done the other day.”

It feels like Manfred wants to clear the Astros’ responsibility, and everyone to be quiet about it.

“We will continue to work with the Astros to help put this behind them. I think they did a much better job in terms of taking responsibility and expressing remorse. That process is going to continue.”

Following up that comment, Manfred defends the seemed lack of accountability and remorse by the Astros players and organization.

“I would say this to you, Karl. I think that their intentions may be different then the way that it came off. But I understand the reaction to the press conference and I think that the organization almost immediately realized the need to de-mourn.”

Next, how deep did the investigation of the buzzer usage go Ravech asks.

“We were fully aware of that when we worked through the investigation. The piece is that we found no evidence, not a single witness who could corroborate that there were buzzers used during the 2019 season. In fact we couldn’t find that they did anything during 2019 season. Players told us that they did wrong in 2017 and 2018, so it gives them some credibility. Can I tell you 100 percent that the buzzers didn’t happen? No. I will tell you the evidence on this issue is consistent that nothing was going on in 2019.”

I don’t like the way Manfred comes off in any of these responses, but that is really commonplace. Also, what kind of explanation is behind this?

Heres an interesting wrinkle that just got sent to me. In the top of the 9th inning Altuve is wearing an undershirt. He took it off before stepping to the plate In the bottom of the 9th. He didnt have it on all game until top 8 or 9 though. pic.twitter.com/XWEt3aTX77 — Jomboy (@Jomboy_) February 16, 2020

Finally, baseball doesn’t just have a scandal problem on it’s hands. It has a commissioner problem.