As MLB ruling nears, new details of Cardinals' hacking of Astros account

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A federal judge has unsealed details about former St. Louis Cardinals executive Chris Correa's hacking of the Astros' email and player evaluation databases, clearing the way for Major League Baseball to impose sanctions against the Cardinals as soon as this week.

Three documents entered into court records but made public by U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes on Thursday reveal new information regarding Correa's intrusions, for which the former Cardinals scouting director is serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty in January 2016 to five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer.

The Cardinals fired Correa in 2015 after an internal investigation into the hacking reports but are still subject to sanctions from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.

Some details of Correa's actions were disclosed during the July 2016 sentencing hearing, but others remained undisclosed to the public until Hughes' order to unseal the documents.

According to the documents, portions of which remained redacted, Correa intruded into the Astros' "Ground Control" database 48 times and accessed the accounts of five Astros employees. For 21/2 years, beginning in January 2012, Correa had unfettered access to the e-mail account of Sig Mejdal, the Astros' director of decision sciences and a former Cardinals employee. Correa worked in St. Louis as an analyst under Mejdal, who came to Houston after the 2011 season with Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, also a former Cardinals executive.

"(Correa) knew what projects the Astros' analytics department was researching, what concepts were promising and what ideas to avoid," said one of the documents, signed by Michael Chu, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case against Correa. "He had access to everything that Sig Mejdal ... read and wrote."

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Correa also attempted to gain access to the accounts of Bo Porter, the Astros' manager in 2013-14, and pitching coach Brent Strom, and he used passwords belonging to Luhnow, Astros analyst Colin Wyers, and three Astros minor league players to gain access to the Astros system, the documents show.

A third document includes a subpoena from Correa's attorney to obtain documents from the Astros, based on Correa's statement that he was combing the files looking for information taken from the Cardinals. Hughes denied the request, which sought access to emails from Mejdal, Luhnow and former Astros assistant GM David Stearns and analyst Mike Fast regarding a variety of topics, including Cardinals minor league pitching coach Tim Leveque, Cardinals assistant general manager Mike Girsch and the Cardinals' player information database, known as RedBirdDog.

While the Astros declined comment on the bulk of the material unsealed, the team's general counsel, Giles Kibbe, said Saturday, "As we have previously stated, we did not have any of the Cardinals' proprietary information in Ground Control or our database. What these documents confirm is that Mr. Correa was illegally accessing Ground Control in order to assist in evaluating players that the Cardinals wanted."

The unsealed government sentencing report details the degree to which Correa used information from the Astros to influence the Cardinals' draft and trade decisions. Prosecutors also noted that several months after his intrusions from March 2013 through June 2014, Correa in December 2014 received a promotion from the Cardinals.

Documents also reflect the degree to which Correa was motivated by jealousy of the attention Mejdal received from Sports Illustrated for the Astros' data-driven attitudes toward scouting and player development. A June 2014 cover of SI famously pronounced the Astros, then coming off three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons, as "Your 2017 World Series champs."

"Mejdal was one of Correa's rivals," Chu wrote, noting that the two had "heated discussions" when both worked for the Cardinals. "And now, this rival was being praised, even though his team had not yet begun to win."

Prosecutors offered other insights into Correa's motivations. On April 3, 2013, two months before that year's amateur draft - the second of three consecutive years in which the Astros had the No. 1 overall pick - Correa accessed the Astros' list of players they considered drafting, ranked in preferential order, the document shows. He also accessed the scouting observations of Astros amateur scouting director Mike Elias, national cross-checker David Post and regional scout Brian St. Pierre.

Christopher Correa leaves the Bob Case United States Courthouse at 515 Rusk St., Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Houston. Correa plead guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to computer information.

Christopher Correa leaves the Bob Case United States Courthouse at 515 Rusk St., Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Houston. Correa plead guilty to five counts of unauthorized access to computer information. Photo: Jon Shapley, Staff Photo: Jon Shapley, Staff Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close As MLB ruling nears, new details of Cardinals' hacking of Astros account 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

That same day, Correa checked the Astros' latest reports on Marco Gonzales, a lefthanded pitcher from Gonzaga who two months later the Cardinals drafted with the 19th overall pick, and Brandon Trinkwon, a shortstop from UC Santa Barbara. Trinkwon became a seventh-round pick, 214th overall, of the Los Angeles Dodgers. With the 215th overall selection, the Cardinals drafted a different shortstop, a Southern California high schooler named Chris Rivera.

On April 30, 2013, Correa accessed the Astros' reports on Hunter Dozier, a third baseman from Stephen F. Austin who became the eighth overall pick, by the Kansas City Royals. In addition to examining the hitting reports compiled by Elias and an Astros area scout, Correa viewed the signing bonuses the Astros recommended Dozier be offered if selected.

Correa intruded again the day before the June draft, revisiting the Astros' preferentially ranked list of draft prospects and also viewing the Astros' page for the Cardinals, their main scouting page and their notes as it related to trade discussions with the Cardinals.

On the third and final day of the draft, Correa filtered through the Astros' rankings of still-available players and reports on two players in particular: Washington State third baseman Adam Nelubowich, whom the Astros drafted in the 18th round, and University of Texas second baseman Erich Weiss, whom the Pittsburgh Pirates took in the 11th round.

The document also shows Correa before the draft accessed private medical records the Astros had collected for Gonzales and two first basemen whom the Astros later drafted, Conrad Gregor (fourth round) and Chase McDonald (12th round).

Chu also wrote Correa studied the Astros' trade notes "at least 14 times" as the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approached and again before the annual general managers' meetings and winter meetings the following offseason.

"Ultimately, Correa was not intruding to see if the Astros took any information — rather, he was keenly focused on information that coincided with the work he was doing for the Cardinals," Chu concluded.

Chu wrote that even if Correa hid his activity from his Cardinals colleagues, "his access to the Astros' information was still invaluable. Before he proposed an idea, he could quietly check what another analytics-minded organization thought. He also could supplement his own ideas with the ideas of the Astros' analytics department because he knew what projects the Astros' analytics department was researching, what concepts they found promising, what ideas they had discarded."

Chu also disclosed in the sentencing report his belief that "it must have been Correa" who leaked confidential Astros information to Deadspin.com concerning 10 months of Astros confidential trade discussions after also posting details to Anonabin.com and Pastebin.com, two bulletin boards that allow anonymous posting of data.

As a result of the Deadspin leak, the prosecutor wrote, "general managers through Major League Baseball were forced to awkwardly reassure their players. ... Ultimately, the Astros were forced to issue private apologies to every team in the league. It was a humiliating episode for the Astros."

MLB officials for months have contemplated sanctions against the Cardinals for Correa's deep dives into details of Astros player evaluations, scouting files and trade discussions but were stymied by lack of access to details of certain documents, including the government's sentencing recommendation for Correa, that were placed under seal.

Hughes, federal prosecutors and Correa's attorney met Dec. 8 to discuss unsealing the documents, and Hughes did so on Thursday.