Heyman: Cruz and O's agree on deal (1 - $8M)

[srock]

Wrong.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2439525/

Sorry for that crappy website...

Is that written in Greek?

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[scOtt]

Is that written in Greek?

Maybe the html....

[wildbillhiccup]

This isn't how steroids work. Use it or lose it.

On the other hand Cruz never tested positive for anything he was just in the biogenesis stuff. We have no idea what exactly he was taking or when am it's hard to predict his future based in PEDS.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm going to call you on your layman's take on steroid use. Since the biogenesis scandal hit the fan before the 2013 season started can we agree that Cruz would not have been brash enough to take steroids last season? So the numbers he produced last season were "natural" based on your own rational that there are no positive residual effects to steroid use. So why then can't we expect the same kind of production from him (projected over 500+ ABs) this season?

[wildbillhiccup]

C'mon folks. It's not like they signed someone who knocked out his girlfriend (too soon?). I love this move. And the irony is the PED ties are what made Cruz an attractive and affordable option. I'm assuming that he was off steroids last year (if he even took them) since biogenesis scandal was front and center, and he still produced. Why can't he continue to produce? And he gives them a MUCH needed LF contingency plan. Cruz for one year is a much better signing for this club then Morales would have been for 4 years, which is what it probably would have taken.

[scOtt]

I'm going to call you on your layman's take on steroid use. Since the biogenesis scandal hit the fan before the 2013 season started can we agree that Cruz would not have been brash enough to take steroids last season? So the numbers he produced last season were "natural" based on your own rational that there are no positive residual effects to steroid use. So why then can't we expect the same kind of production from him (projected over 500+ ABs) this season?

Only the aging curve hinders him.

[TonySoprano]

And he gives them a MUCH needed LF contingency plan.

Well, as I've noted before he has 733 games in RF versus 59 in LF, and no more than 18 games in LF in any season. Curious choice for a contingency plan there for sure.

[Diehard_O's_Fan]

I wish the Orioles would have signed Nelson Cruz to a two year deal. I don't like the thought of Nelson having a monster year and then signing with another playoff team after the season. Let's hope the Orioles put a player option or a team option in his

deal.

[weams]

Roch Kubatko

"Obviously, there aren't isolated cases, so it is something I've thought about. I think every case, you can't throw a blanket over all of them, but we have a tendency to. I'll have a good answer for you if that happens. It's something that every manager and coach and potential teammate thinks about."

Showalter harkened back to other deals made over the winter that extended beyond Cruz, Ubaldo Jimenez and Suk-min Yoon. He also remains sensitive to how the signings in spring training impact other players in camp.

"I get almost as excited when (Carlos) Diaz and (Jomar) Reyes, even Henry (Urrutia) and (Dariel) Alvarez last year," he said. "Just because they don't have a major league track record, it's part of creating that depth. We're talking about Jimenez and Yoon and potentially somebody else.

"I know, as a manager out there, there are some people who aren't pulling for these things to happen. I also like the idea that we can keep our depth in fold. This isn't a normal thing to do to your body. You're going to have some injuries along the way, so it may feel good to us to add these guys, but I try to stay empathetic to people who don't like it. But people are going to seek their level sooner or later."

[weams]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2oPtcgtcM_Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[atomic]

I preferred Morales until he started asking for one year player opt out. Boras screwed that one up.

I think Cruz is underrated in the field. He has decent range out there and his arm isn't bad. Better than Reynolds and McClouth. No chance of Orioles giving QO next year. 1 year deal makes me like the deal better. And has to be better than the clowns we have had at DH the last couple of years.

Hopefully deals like this will light a fire under Davis and Wieters to sign extensions.

[Ommaculate]

Ubaldo was pretty bad in 2011 and the first half of 2013.

2011: 4.68 ERA, 1.40 WHIP

2013, first half: 4.56 ERA, 1.49 WHIP

His ERA+ in 2011 is 93 and that is average. I wouldn't call it pretty bad. As for 2013 he made up for it in the 2nd half, and we are going to get a continuation of that.

His ERA+ in 2013 is 114 and that is fantastic. It's better than Tillman.

[joedogg9999]

Just to catch myself up on the debate: are people so firmly opposed to this move for strictly moral reasons (ie, we don't want someone who used PEDs in our team), or for practical reasons (Cruz isn't worth 8m year, and his production is likely to drop off without PEDs)?

There will be tons who know more about this than me, but my basic intuition would be that coming off PEDs probably isn't going to affect his performance too much, as he's already gained the muscle that led to the performance bump in the first place, over the last ______ years he's been taking them, and it should be relatively easy to maintain such muscle, or at least to the point where he's not going to see a major drop-off in production...

I also assume this would be the thinking of DD and other experts who know a lot more about sports science/sports analytics than I do, hence why they've gone ahead with the signing, but again, I am not informed on the debate and am totally open to evidence that contradicts me.

If you stop taking steroids you will definitely lose the vast majority of your muscle mass and other enhanced athletic abilities such as muscle regeneration and replenishing after haed physical activity. Its why steroids users must take an even stricter post cycle regimine of drugs that is more sophisticated and complicated than the steroid itself. They do that to keep as much as thwy gained as possible inbetween cycles. Thats just to prevent loss between cycles, cutting off the roids completely will result in loss of muscle mass to the point of the person natural limit.

[weams]

I'm going to call you on your layman's take on steroid use. Since the biogenesis scandal hit the fan before the 2013 season started can we agree that Cruz would not have been brash enough to take steroids last season? So the numbers he produced last season were "natural" based on your own rational that there are no positive residual effects to steroid use. So why then can't we expect the same kind of production from him (projected over 500+ ABs) this season?

As natural as we will get. Yes.

[crawjo]

They might also see Cruz as a potential one-year bridge to somebody like Urrutia becoming a full-time player. Let Urrutia get more experience this year facing some right-handers and if he does well, there you go.

[ledzepp8]

Hahahahahahahahahaha