Danny Valencia and PED

[weams]

This is what Danny, or his folks said.

"As any innocent person would be, I am shocked and troubled that my name is in any way connected to this story," Valencia said. "I have never met or spoken to anyone connected with Biogenesis, in fact I had never even heard of this company prior to the New Times' story.

"I take tremendous pride in the hard work and dedication I put into being a professional baseball player and have never taken PEDs or failed a drug test of any kind during my career. I look forward to fully cooperating in MLB's investigation in any way that I can, and will explore taking legal action if this issue is not resolved in a timely fashion."

[EddieO'sSC]

While it does not prove anything, Ryan Brauns name had "RB 20-30K" under it. It would seem that is alot of money for a consultation fee for disreputable doctor that had ran several businesses in the ground; however, as always I would rather wait till all the facts are out.

[baltfan]

While it does not prove anything' date=' Ryan Brauns name had "RB 20-30K" under it. It would seem that is alot of money for a consultation fee for disreputable doctor that had ran several businesses in the ground; however, as always I would rather wait till all the facts are out.[/quote']

As a lawyer who deals on an everyday basis with experts and their fees, I can tell you that while that is a lot of money it wouldn't surprise me if an expert tried to charge that much for expert fees when dealing with a guy whose entire career and reputation was on the line.

[crawjo]

Alex Rodrigez has a questionable personal life. He's a party boy and a big casino/gambler type. His agent has all sorts of "issues" with a particular affinity for escort services. He has been known to use them when he is wooing players or negotiating. Manny traveling in the same circles as these two is not a good thing

A professional athlete associated with partying and escorts! My God, stop the presses!

[crawjo]

I want to know why people haven't connected these dots:

1) Leaps forward in performance are often assumed to be PED related

2) The 2012 Orioles made a great leap forward

But no individual player really made a tremendous leap forward, except maybe for a guy like Chris Tillman. The Orioles leap forward was more an accumulation of minor improvements, plus an incredible performance in one-run games. I'm pretty sure PEDs don't help you beat your Pythagorean record by 11 games.

[crawjo]

On the other hand, maybe Manny is taking PEDs like A-Rod and is about to become one of the best offensive forces in all of baseball.

[Can_of_corn]

But no individual player really made a tremendous leap forward, except maybe for a guy like Chris Tillman. The Orioles leap forward was more an accumulation of minor improvements, plus an incredible performance in one-run games. I'm pretty sure PEDs don't help you beat your Pythagorean record by 12 games.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davisch02.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzami03.shtml

[DrungoHazewood]

But no individual player really made a tremendous leap forward, except maybe for a guy like Chris Tillman. The Orioles leap forward was more an accumulation of minor improvements, plus an incredible performance in one-run games. I'm pretty sure PEDs don't help you beat your Pythagorean record by 11 games.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davisch02.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzami03.shtml

Davis, Gonzalez, Tillman, Hammel's peripherals shot up, the top five members of the pen all threw 60 or 70 innings to a 2.40, Wieters caught like 29 games a month without greenies. I hope it was all on the up-and-up.

[DrungoHazewood]

A professional athlete associated with partying and escorts! My God, stop the presses!

If he were an NBA star they'd be nicknaming him Opey and asking why he was such a homebody.

[crawjo]

Also, with regard to the Valencia thing, is there weaker evidence in the world than having your name written on a piece of paper by a PED-supplier? I'm looking at a piece of paper sitting on my desk right now, and it has on it every member of the San Francisco Giants born in Venezuela along with the name of my son, some South African jazz records, and the words "Japan" and "Korea." No joke (and don't ask).

[crawjo]

Davis, Gonzalez, Tillman, Hammel's peripherals shot up, the top five members of the pen all threw 60 or 70 innings to a 2.40, Wieters caught like 29 games a month without greenies. I hope it was all on the up-and-up.

You could make a case for Hammel, but to me Davis's performance was mainly about getting regular playing time and Gonzalez was probably a product of small sample size.

[WalkofLife]

Davis, Gonzalez, Tillman, Hammel's peripherals shot up

Davis you can definitely make a case for, particularly by looking at his ISO.

Gonzalez had never pitched in the MLB before.

Tillman benefited from an absurdly low BABIP.

Hammel completely changed his mechanics.

Honestly, I can imagine the Deputy and Adam using PEDs. I heard something last year about the rise in Jonesy's "just enough" home runs (home runs that barely make it), and to me that indicates the slight boost in power that someone might find by using steroids. I pray to Buck it isn't true though.

[wildcard]

Tillman and Gonzalez had a better defensive team behind them than Hammel, Matusz, Hunter and Arrieta had in the first half. I am not saying that was the major reason that Tillman and Gonzalez did so well but it was a factor.

[DoubleStufOriole]

Valencia spoke to reporters following today's workout in Florida.

From Roch:

"There's really not much to it," he said. "Basically, I've never had any contact with those people. I've never met Anthony Bosch, I've never seen him, never been to that clinic, never heard of that clinic until the story first broke. That being said, I've never, ever taken a PED in my life. Never failed a drug test in my life and I never will.

"I was shocked. I was real upset. I was trying to think how this could possibly be. I don't know. I know just as much as everybody else.

"I really don't know anything. All I know is that my name was on a piece of paper."

Valencia is trying to make the team in spring training, so any negative news works against him, though he seems to have the full support of the organization.

"When I first found out, when I first got the phone call, I knew I was going to be in the clear," he said. "I know I'm not going to get in trouble because there's nothing they're going to find on me. I've never done anything. But the only thing that bothered me at the time was, what's the Orioles organization going to perceive? I thought about what Dan Duquette's going to think, obviously what Buck (Showalter) is going to think, and my teammates. That's what mattered most to me. That was my first feeling.

"I felt upset about that. I called Dan right away, spoke to him the very next morning and I told him what I just told you guys."

I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but several cynical and skeptical people have been posting underneath Roch's column for MASN. Apparently, they are more of the "guilty until proven innocent" belief.

[DrungoHazewood]

I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but several cynical and skeptical people have been posting underneath Roch's column for MASN. Apparently, they are more of the "guilty until proven innocent" belief.

Isn't that the de facto standard? There are people being kept out of the Hall of Fame on less evidence than they have on Valencia.