AL East players linked to PED clinic (Yankee and new Blue Jay)

[Can_of_corn]

500 HR and 3,000 hits seems pretty cut and dry to me.

High offensive environment.

Accumulator.

Never truly great.

[El Gordo]

Raffey's problem is not his numbers, nor even his positive test. His problem is that he pointed his finger. All this PED hysteria is about perception not substance. Think Joe McCarthy.

Don Catlin. This guy knows what he is talking about:

"When the estimated annual amount spent worldwide on anti-doping testing, legal matters and research at ~$246-396 million represents 2-4% of the more than $10 billion in resources available to athletes perhaps we begin to see the scope of the problem. Those who want to dope can afford to beat the system; at present the monetary gap is simply too great for the system to overcome." http://thecatlinperspective.wordpress.com/ Seems a lot cheaper to spend on a good PR firm, than to spend what it would take to actually clean up the sport.

[weams]

Now Jeter strikes me as someone that would use intermediaries.

But it wouldn't shock you if it was discovered that he was a user?

It would shock me if he got caught only.

[crawjo]

I don't know, so far a lot of voters are signaling that they aren't going to vote for any player linked to PEDs. Palmeiro, McGwire and Sosa all would have been first ballot HOFers if not for the PED issue. If the voters continue current trends, I don't think Rodriguez is getting into the Hall of Fame anytime soon, to put it mildly.

[crawjo]

Also, there is no player in baseball that I would be "shocked" to learn took PEDs. None.

[weams]

Wasn't there an issue in the past about him getting advanced warning before tests? Maybe he still thinks he is untouchable.

Balco all over again.

Rodriguez, referred to as "Alex Rodriguez," "Alex Rod" or "Cacique," received HGH, testosterone cream and insulin-like growth factor, all banned under MLB's PED policy. He also was given "troches," a lozenge that has 15 percent testosterone, and other types of growth hormone, according to the report.

[VeveJones007]

Hopefully Machado has kept clear of all of this in Miami and around A-Rod. As O's fans, that's probably our primary concern with this whole story.

[Can_of_corn]

I don't know, so far a lot of voters are signaling that they aren't going to vote for any player linked to PEDs. Palmeiro, McGwire and Sosa all would have been first ballot HOFers if not for the PED issue. If the voters continue current trends, I don't think Rodriguez is getting into the Hall of Fame anytime soon, to put it mildly.

You need to look at their stats a bit more closely. No way Sosa or McGwire are slam dunk HoF members. I will concede that Palmeiro has a stronger case then either of them, but I won't put him in a class with Arod, Bonds or Clemens.

[SrMeowMeow]

Simply reinforces my belief that the vast majority of baseball players use PEDs.

[Can_of_corn]

Simply reinforces my belief that the vast majority of professional athletes use PEDs.

You have to admit it is more accurate my way.

[waroriole]

You have to admit it is more accurate my way.

Why would they not? There isn't a strong enough deterrent to stop them. 50 games? So what, they stand to make millions more, and the chances of getting caught are apparently pretty small. That said, I'm sure the NFL, MLB etc. realize this and are just paying lip service to demands for tougher restrictions.

[Can_of_corn]

Why would they not? There isn't a strong enough deterrent to stop them. 50 games? So what, they stand to make millions more, and the chances of getting caught are apparently pretty small. That said, I'm sure the NFL, MLB etc. realize this and are just paying lip service to demands for tougher restrictions.

I agree. I would seriously consider using. Like I said earlier I bet the PGA guys are using. How much is 10 more yards average on your drive worth on the tour? Even if you know with certainty you will be caught at some point the money is so big that it is worth rolling the dice.

Feel free to give me 20 million then vilify me in public.

[sevastras]

The drug policy isnt a no tolerance policy, it is a policy that allows levels to be within certain limits.

8/18/12

“I would say,” Conte said, speaking slowly, “maybe as much as half of baseball.”

Wait, you’re saying that 50% of baseball players might still be cheating today, when the steroid era is supposed to be over?

“I’m not going to name names,” Conte said, “but I’ve talked to a lot of top players in Major League Baseball, and they tell me this is what they’re doing. There is rampant use of synthetic testosterone in Major League Baseball.”

…”What these guys are doing is using fast-acting testosterone, creams, gels, patches and micro-dose injections,” Conte says. “They put this stuff on after a game, let it circulate in their blood stream, and eight hours later, it’s out of their system when they take a drug test. It’s so simple.

“There’s such a loophole, you really wonder if Major League Baseball has a genuine interest in stopping these guys.”

The drug testing labs check a players urine for its ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, which is normally 1 to 1 for adult males. A test is not considered positive until the ratio reaches 4 to 1, so players know the line they need to stay under. The fast-acting synthetic testosterone dissipates rapidly from the body, and sleep and hydration help speed the process. Conte says that six hours after the synthetic testosterone is taken it’s essentially out of the system as far as the drug test is concerned. It’s only if the players A and B samples exceed the 4 to 1 ration that the lab conducts a more precise isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) test to determine whether the testosterone came from outside the body. That’s the test that would catch all of the MLB users, but it’s not done until a player’s urine tests positive.

This is what I said back in October and got some people wanting to argue with me, but I will repeat it.

[crawjo]

You need to look at their stats a bit more closely. No way Sosa or McGwire are slam dunk HoF members. I will concede that Palmeiro has a stronger case then either of them, but I won't put him in a class with Arod, Bonds or Clemens.

Uhm, no. You need to look closer at the history of Hall of Fame voting. One does not need to be anywhere near the class of Bonds or Clemens to be a first ballot HOFer. Kirby Puckett was a first ballot HOFer. So was Robin Yount, and Dave Winfield. I could go on and on. When he retired just about every list of the best players of all time (Sporting News, Bill James, the All-Century Team) had McGwire on it. He would have been in the HOF in the first year, if there's no PED issue. Sosa almost certainly would have also. The guy hit over 600 home runs. There was no way the voters would overlook that.

[crawjo]

I agree. I would seriously consider using. Like I said earlier I bet the PGA guys are using. How much is 10 more yards average on your drive worth on the tour? Even if you know with certainty you will be caught at some point the money is so big that it is worth rolling the dice.

Feel free to give me 20 million then vilify me in public.

If there was a pill that made me much better at my job, I'd probably take it, even without millions of dollars on the line. We live in a highly medicated society, which makes all the outrage over steroids that much more hypocritical.