I'm so disappointed at these things, I'm sure AC would have been a great manager without the need to cheat so systematically, that makes this so hard to swallow. But I think the role of the manager and these dodges are over-rated. GMs and organisations essentially win titles (and create lean years if they get the balance wrong).
I don't personally want to forget what the players did achieve in 2018, I genuinely don't think there was much of an impact from the spying. Most key players hitting performance during the regular and post-season doesn't seem to be inflated unnaturally. Mookie had a career year almost exactly where you'd expect, JD repeated his 2017 season, Benintendi and Bogaerts had slightly better seasons than 2017, but Devers, Mitch, Bradley Jnr and Vazquez had relatively poor years at the plate by their previous standards.
The 108 win and championship were a result of outstanding pitching and solid hitting from a team specifically put together at great, and future inhibiting, expense. 176 innings of 3.58 ERA from Price, 191 innings at 4.28 ERA from Porcello, 129 innings of 3.82 ERA from Edro, and especially 158 innings at 2.11 ERA from Chris Sale, backed up by solid pitching, a really good bullpen, and spectacularly gutsy post-season bullpen cameo appearances from the likes of Sale, Price and Eovaldi are the reason we won it all.
