Jack Clark Accuses Verlander and Pujos

[Rene88]

https://twitter.com/nesn/status/365851690517266432

[waroriole]

He's an idiot. He says he "knows for a fact" about Pujols because his trainer told him. I guess Jack is confused about what a fact means.

Just some loser trying to stay relevant and get attention for his radio show.

[O's84]

And now Pujols is suing him.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9553275/albert-pujols-says-sue-jack-clark-false-accusations

[Moose Milligan]

I believe Clark.

I know I just got finished defending Brady Anderson in the other thread over in Orioles Talk and I'm sure if Pujols was an Oriole for the previous decade I'd probably feel a bit differently. But let me be clear when I say I don't hate Albert Pujols, I also don't really love him, either. He played in the National League for all those years and I don't really care about the National League or it's players for the most part. As a baseball fan I can definitely appreciate the career he had before leaving for Anaheim but that's the extent of it.

But how many times have we seen steroids whistleblowers make claims like this, then have the general public roll their eyes at them, only to have the truth come out later after the accused athlete spends a lot of time denying everything?

Two things here:

Clark is way too specific about what that Mihfield guy told him. He's using specific quotes and anecdotes, he's obviously not pulling this out of his ass. Why would Jack Clark randomly choose this guy and provide these specific quotes that, apparently, were never said?

Second, I'm tired of athletes saying they've been tested hundreds of times without testing positive. Come. On. How dumb do you think we are? We just saw Lance Armstrong crumble last year after years and years of viciously attacking anyone who mentioned that he was involved with PEDs. And Lance Armstrong, for all that time, had an ENTIRE COUNTRY AFTER HIM trying to bring him down and still passed all the tests. IIRC, the cycling tests are much more strict than anything MLB has begrudgingly administered after the steroids joy ride they went on when interest in the game was high, records were being broken, everyone was having fun and they turned a blind eye to a problem that was staring them right in the face.

I realize each story and each case should probably be looked at under their own scope but situations like this just seem all too familiar. Just because Jack Clark is an ex athlete making seemingly outrageous claims doesn't make him a liar. And just because Albert Pujols passed a bunch of tests, then vehemently denies taking any steroids and then files a law suit doesn't mean he didn't juice.

[Can_of_corn]

I believe Clark.

I know I just got finished defending Brady Anderson in the other thread over in Orioles Talk and I'm sure if Pujols was an Oriole for the previous decade I'd probably feel a bit differently. But let me be clear when I say I don't hate Albert Pujols, I also don't really love him, either. He played in the National League for all those years and I don't really care about the National League or it's players for the most part. As a baseball fan I can definitely appreciate the career he had before leaving for Anaheim but that's the extent of it.

But how many times have we seen steroids whistleblowers make claims like this, then have the general public roll their eyes at them, only to have the truth come out later after the accused athlete spends a lot of time denying everything?

Two things here:

Clark is way too specific about what that Mihfield guy told him. He's using specific quotes and anecdotes, he's obviously not pulling this out of his ass. Why would Jack Clark randomly choose this guy and provide these specific quotes that, apparently, were never said?

Second, I'm tired of athletes saying they've been tested hundreds of times without testing positive. Come. On. How dumb do you think we are? We just saw Lance Armstrong crumble last year after years and years of viciously attacking anyone who mentioned that he was involved with PEDs. And Lance Armstrong, for all that time, had an ENTIRE COUNTRY AFTER HIM trying to bring him down and still passed all the tests. IIRC, the cycling tests are much more strict than anything MLB has begrudgingly administered after the steroids joy ride they went on when interest in the game was high, records were being broken, everyone was having fun and they turned a blind eye to a problem that was staring them right in the face.

I realize each story and each case should probably be looked at under their own scope but situations like this just seem all too familiar. Just because Jack Clark is an ex athlete making seemingly outrageous claims doesn't make him a liar. And just because Albert Pujols passed a bunch of tests, then vehemently denies taking any steroids and then files a law suit doesn't mean he didn't juice.

It was his first week on the job and he wanted to make a splash?

BTW he was fired.

*I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was the truth but it was very stupid of him to say without proof.

[Moose Milligan]

It was his first week on the job and he wanted to make a splash?

BTW he was fired.

*I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was the truth but it was very stupid of him to say without proof.

I guess it made a decent sized splash, but I'd have to go back and see the context in which it was said. If the conversation is steroids and the subject matter turned to Pujols and Clark offered in, I don't really see an issue. If it was advertised as Clark having some earth shattering news about Pujols using and wanted to make a big statement about it, then it's a bit of an issue, IMO.

My point with the part that you bolded is that he's able to reach back to a point and time and a situation where this guy said that he helped Pujols juice. It doesn't appear that he's making it up out of thin air. He's naming names which is different than saying "I think Pujols juiced," or "I know people who have said that they saw Pujols inject himself with steroids but I'm not naming names."

[atomic]

And now Pujols is suing him.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9553275/albert-pujols-says-sue-jack-clark-false-accusations

Lance Armstrong sued a newspaper for the same thing and won.

[TradeAngelos]

Can someone find a similar career arc of a mega star, one of best hitters of all time in baseball like Pujols? Elite once in a generation players like him don't take a complete nose dive starting at age 32. Doesn't happen.

We are talking about one of the greatest hitters of all time here, whose numbers are crashing like nothing we have ever seen before among the all time greats at least that I can remember. That crash usually happens in their late 30's, not their early 30's.

If you want some evidence, here is the average OPS by age for the top 20 OPS career leaders of all time (Pujols is currently 8th)

Age 29 - 1.064

Age 30 - 1.020

Age 31 - 1.051

Age 32 - 1.049

Age 33 - 1.022

Age 34 - 0.986

Age 35 - 0.953

Age 36 - 0.927

Age 37 - 0.696

Age 38 - 0.608

As you can see stays pretty steady with very small declines starting at age 34 or so right up until 37 where it falls of a cliff. But nothing remotely like Pujols the last few years. This has literally never happened before in MLB....ever.

Also, if you look at the top 20, in roughly 300 seasons or so there is zero years from age 25-33 where any of them had below a .714 OPS. Those instances where it did happen were quite rare to say the least. Rare as in it happened...once.

That .714 was McGuire in 91, age 27 who was obviously nowhere close to the hitter Pujols has been. Outside of that season, the lowest was .758 by Frank Thomas in 2001, age 33 year BUT he only played in 20 games that year with only 68 AB's...so throw it out.

The McGuire season was an anomaly in and of itself, and this is from wiki...

McGwire stated in an interview with Sports Illustrated that 1991 was the "worst year" of his life, with his on-field performance and marriage difficulties, and that he "didn't lift a weight" that entire season. With all that behind him, McGwire re-dedicated himself to working out harder than ever and received visual therapy from a sports vision specialist

Take out the McGuire season, and the next lowest is .806..by McGuire again a couple years earlier (These "down" seasons just happened to be right before he "transformed himself", if you get the drift, and propelled himself into the best hitters of all time category)

Pujols is closing in the worst season of all time by a hitter of his caliber at his age, and the last 3 year trend suggests this isn't just some random down year. Unless he just starts tracking back to around that .950 mark...fast....nothing like that has ever happened before.

When you see odd career arcs like that, just like how Bonds magically went on an offensive tear from age 36-39, you have to look to outside reasons because it is completely out of the ordinary and defies logic.

[atomic]

Pujlos OPS has been down for 5 years in a row. Perhaps he isn't really the age he claims to be. I mean it would be the first time a player from the Dominican Republic lied about their age.

Anyway this year he appears to be hobbled from injuries. His contract signing could be turn out to be on of the worst in major league history. Only 8 more years of this. I wonder how many years they will be paying him outrageous amount of money to sit at the beach.

[TradeAngelos]

Pujlos OPS has been down for 5 years in a row. Perhaps he isn't really the age he claims to be. I mean it would be the first time a player from the Dominican Republic lied about their age.

Anyway this year he appears to be hobbled from injuries. His contract signing could be turn out to be on of the worst in major league history. Only 8 more years of this. I wonder how many years they will be paying him outrageous amount of money to sit at the beach.

The age thing is about the only other explanation, it could also tie into the injury factor as well.

That said I believe the "injuries" are being used a convenient excuse, as he averaged 155 games since the day he set foot on a baseball field and never had any issues in the past 12 years. Now all of the sudden he has all these injuries that he has been battling forever? Bu$%^&*.

That is just more evidence that something else is up, all of the sudden he is the walking wounded hobbled by these injuries that have never been an an issue before and can't get his OPS above .767 at age 32? Too many things just not adding up here. Way too many.

[Ohfan67]

Lance Armstrong sued a newspaper for the same thing and won.

In England though. They have very different libel and slander laws. Much harder to win a case like this in the US.

[Rene88]

Clark and his co-host were fired today. Probably because their organization was threatened with a big lawsuit.