Former Cardinals exec sentenced to prison for hacking Astros

The former scouting director of the St. Louis Cardinals has been sentenced to almost four years in jail for hacking the Houston Astros’ player personnel database.

Authorities say that after the Astros took security precautions involving Ground Control following a Houston Chronicle story about the database, Correa was able to still get into it. Authorities say he hacked the email system and was able to view 118 pages of confidential information, including notes of trade discussions, player evaluations and a 2014 team draft board that had not yet been completed.

Chris Correa was sentenced to 46 months in jail on Monday for hacking the Astros’ database.

Correa also admitted taking measures to hide his identity. “Pending the outcome of the Commissioner’s investigation, we will have no further comment”. The information he accessed was given an estimated value of $1.7 million by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Hughes said Correa’s actions were primarily about a loss of trust.

St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak (right), assistant general manager Mike Girsch (center) and baseball development analyst Christopher Correa (left) arrive at Lambert-St. Luhnow had previously worked for the Cardinals.

Chris Correa pled guilty to 12 counts of what amounted to Corporate Espionage after word began leaking out he figured out how to look at the Astros scouting information. According to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan, the information published by Deadspin in June 2014 doesn’t represent the entirety of the hacked data.”There was more out there”, an anonymous source told Passan.

In court, Correa alleged the Astros had taken proprietary information from the Cardinals, but was denied a subpoena to attempt to validate those claims. On March 24, 2013, Correa viewed an Excel file of every amateur player eligible for the draft as well as the Astros’ internal evaluations and the scouts’ proposed bonuses to offer the players.

Correa was dismissed from his position with the Cardinals a year ago.

The Astros used a database called Ground Control to house their player scouting data. Although never mentioned by name in the documents, two of the former employees being described are believed to be Luhnow and Sig Mejdal. At baseball’s trade deadline, July 31, Correa peered into Houston’s notes on trade discussions. In this role, he provided analytical support to all areas of the Cardinals’ baseball operations.