Tribe picks ups Admitted HGH users Byrds option

[O no]

Does this reduce your fear that teams will back away from players in the Mitchell Report?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/wires/11/06/2010.ap.bba.indians.byrd.2nd.ld.writethru.0543/

"Shapiro said he had not heard from baseball officials about Byrd. The GM added that in deciding whether to pick up the option he would consider only the right-hander's performance on the field."

[blueberryale77]

Omar Minaya made statements yesterday to the effect that it wouldn't really affect his decisions to go after players. That struck me as a little funny coming from him, considering how badly he got burned by Guillermo Mota upon his return from suspension, but when he re-signed him he talked about second chances and how everybody makes mistakes and Mota owned up to it (unlike Byrd, who came up with a ridiculous half-baked story about how he's better than all the other users which much of the public seems to have bought hook, line and sinker). I think what we're seeing is that some GM-types are realists about the level of use and the fact that teams weren't really pure as the driven snow in the whole thing either. Players who have had dropoffs in performance may lose a little more of their value than they would have without allegations, but those who have maintained their level of performance, particularly if what they were caught for was in the fairly distant past and probably not subject to even a far-fetched suspension scheme by Selig, probably will be only marginally affected.

*(I'll try to find the Minaya story but I can't find the link right now. It was somewhere on the internet yesterday, I swear.)

[scOtt]

While Byrd's case is probably the most legitimate use to date... I think Shapiro has definitely sent a (friendly) message to the players. They're not all going to be immediately blacklisted if they're on the list.

Makes sense IMO. If the list is HUGE, what is baseball to do? Restock the league with AA players? Just outing the list, and the problem, and moving forward cleanly is the goal.

[blueberryale77]

While Byrd's case is probably the most legitimate use to date... I think Shapiro has definitely sent a (friendly) message to the players. They're not all going to be immediately blacklisted if they're on the list.

Makes sense IMO. If the list is HUGE, what is baseball to do? Restock the league with AA players? Just outing the list, and the problem, and moving forward cleanly is the goal.

The most legitimate? Prescriptions from a dentist who lost his license and paying with his credit card? If I had to pick whose use was "the most legitimate" I would probably go with Ankiel because while HGH is not approved to help recover from injuries, at least his purchases coincided with what he said he was using it for. The guys like Guillermo Mota who admit it and say they're sorry I have sympathy for. The ones like Gibbons who say nothing, I wish they would step up and be adults about it and admit what they did, but I can kind of see the reasons they choose to keep quiet. Byrd and his smugness, however, I found infuriating. Maybe if he plead ignorance about his condition and said a doctor had convinced him it was legitimate but he knew now it was a big mistake or something I could buy it, but the facts show that he was just as shady about treating his "condition" as every other hormone-taking baseball player. He never applied for a medical exception to treat his hormone deficiency. He stopped buying the prescriptions the same month as MLB banned HGH (I guess at least he followed the letter of MLB rules). He didn't come up with this mysterious tumor until two years after he stopped taking HGH. Wouldn't you think he would have been checked for conditions that could have led to his rare adult growth hormone deficiency at the time he was being treated for it? Wouldn't someone with his financial resources and a serious and rare condition have been under treatment from one of the preeminent experts in the field of endocrinology instead of an "anti-aging clinic" and a disgraced dentist? It seems more likely that if anything the tumor (if it exists) was caused by his prior HGH use. But because Paul Byrd is a Christian who speaks to children's groups, we're not supposed to consider him in the same light with all those other drug using baseball players who didn't come up with such an elaborate alibi? Give me a break! It's not even an original alibi. David Segui had it first, and when he came out with it a swarm of doctors appeared to decry how unlikely it was that an adult man of normal height could have such a problem. Where were they when the all-American success story Byrd made his proclamation about low hormone levels and how he of all people never would have used HGH to gain competitive advantage? I think in some way the fact that people seem like Byrd for some reason is helping put the issue into a little perspective. I just hope they have at least as much sympathy for the others who did the same thing and don't choose to compound their misdeed by weaving a tangled web of misrepresentations, excuses, half-truths, and spurrious religious references.

[DrungoHazewood]

While Byrd's case is probably the most legitimate use to date... I think Shapiro has definitely sent a (friendly) message to the players. They're not all going to be immediately blacklisted if they're on the list.

Makes sense IMO. If the list is HUGE, what is baseball to do? Restock the league with AA players? Just outing the list, and the problem, and moving forward cleanly is the goal.

Blacklisted? Who's ever been blacklisted? Raffy is pretty much the only one I can think of. Everyone who's failed a test has come back to *sound of crickets*. Mota, Alex Sanchez, and all the others... it's a big non-issue unless you're about to break a big record or milestone and you're surly.

[RShack]

Blacklisted? Who's ever been blacklisted? Raffy is pretty much the only one I can think of. Everyone who's failed a test has come back to *sound of crickets*. Mota, Alex Sanchez, and all the others... it's a big non-issue unless you're about to break a big record or milestone and you're surly.

Did Raffy get blacklisted? I thought he just sorta skulked away with his head down and his tail between his legs...

[scOtt]

The most legitimate? Prescriptions from a dentist who lost his license and paying with his credit card? If I had to pick whose use was "the most legitimate" I would probably go with Ankiel because while HGH is not approved to help recover from injuries, at least his purchases coincided with what he said he was using it for. The guys like Guillermo Mota who admit it and say they're sorry I have sympathy for. The ones like Gibbons who say nothing, I wish they would step up and be adults about it and admit what they did, but I can kind of see the reasons they choose to keep quiet. Byrd and his smugness, however, I found infuriating. Maybe if he plead ignorance about his condition and said a doctor had convinced him it was legitimate but he knew now it was a big mistake or something I could buy it, but the facts show that he was just as shady about treating his "condition" as every other hormone-taking baseball player. He never applied for a medical exception to treat his hormone deficiency. He stopped buying the prescriptions the same month as MLB banned HGH (I guess at least he followed the letter of MLB rules). He didn't come up with this mysterious tumor until two years after he stopped taking HGH. Wouldn't you think he would have been checked for conditions that could have led to his rare adult growth hormone deficiency at the time he was being treated for it? Wouldn't someone with his financial resources and a serious and rare condition have been under treatment from one of the preeminent experts in the field of endocrinology instead of an "anti-aging clinic" and a disgraced dentist? It seems more likely that if anything the tumor (if it exists) was caused by his prior HGH use. But because Paul Byrd is a Christian who speaks to children's groups, we're not supposed to consider him in the same light with all those other drug using baseball players who didn't come up with such an elaborate alibi? Give me a break! It's not even an original alibi. David Segui had it first, and when he came out with it a swarm of doctors appeared to decry how unlikely it was that an adult man of normal height could have such a problem. Where were they when the all-American success story Byrd made his proclamation about low hormone levels and how he of all people never would have used HGH to gain competitive advantage? I think in some way the fact that people seem like Byrd for some reason is helping put the issue into a little perspective. I just hope they have at least as much sympathy for the others who did the same thing and don't choose to compound their misdeed by weaving a tangled web of misrepresentations, excuses, half-truths, and spurrious religious references.

I was only going by the fact that Byrd claimed that MLB was informed of his use. I don't really know the particulars.

To Drungo: Blacklisted??? Of course not. Byrd's contract signaled that this case won't go there either. Seriously. I just got the sense that there was a feeling around baseball that many on Mitchell's list might not be welcome back. Obviously (as in the past) this is not the case this time either.

[Dr. FLK]

He bought HGH years ago when MLB didn't even care about it. No big deal.

[clapdiddy]

He bought HGH years ago when MLB didn't even care about it. No big deal.

Great point. In my estimation this whole Mitchell report is going to blow over days after its released and not much is going to be done to the players on it, because there will be so many.

If they've got the proper testing in place, and the players are passing now, this report is meaningless.

I am not an apologist for any of these guys, but what's done is done. Let's move on....