PED Suspensions Coming

[DrungoHazewood]

So you're saying Matt Hobgood still has a chance? lol

No....

But his indy league manager said he was healthy and throwing 97!

[DrungoHazewood]

I just assume everyone is cheating and don't let it bother me.

I'm more kindhearted. I think some people aren't cheating but there's no way to tell one way or the other.

[weams]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/miami-s-dee-gordon-suspended-80-games-for-peds-054728744-mlb.html

[DJHJR86]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/miami-s-dee-gordon-suspended-80-games-for-peds-054728744-mlb.html

Not surprised at all.

[DrungoHazewood]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/miami-s-dee-gordon-suspended-80-games-for-peds-054728744-mlb.html

Yep, yep. Once again the sign of PEDs is a homer spike. Gordon had half his career round-trippers in 2015.

[weams]

And so here baseball is again, same place it's been for a quarter-century, its stars doping, Bud Selig's promise to eradicate performance-enhancing drugs from the sport laughable as ever, the incentive still strong enough to convince the reigning National League batting champion with a $50 million guaranteed contract to use, the next level of potential punishment likely to go beyond what the union that protects players believes is reasonable, the players themselves wondering aloud whether something as fundamental as guaranteed contracts or due process should be so fundamental, the quicksand of drug hysteria churning as it's wont t

NL Batting Champion

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-sad-case-of-dee-gordon--another-unlikely-ped-user-for-mlb-091338580.html

[weams]

Who is next?

[DrungoHazewood]

Who is next?

A 30-year-old middle reliever with <100 innings in the majors.

[weams]

A 30-year-old middle reliever with <100 innings in the majors.

I think it is very interesting that Bonds has come into that organization when this is going down there.

[allquixotic]

The hardest thing will be marginal major leaguers. You could devise punitive measures that keep established players from using, mostly. Like a three-year ban and voiding of contract for a 2nd offense.

But how do you stop guys who're making $10-30k a year in the minors? If the take PEDs and make the majors it's a ~20x increase in pay. Massive raise. Far, far more than they could make outside the game. If they're caught, so what? Barely worse off than making a pittance playing for Canton-Akron. I don't know how you fix that, the incentives are too great.

Well, the MLBPA would never allow it, but one way that would definitely stop it would be to require that all Major League contracts come with a required line stating that every penny paid out to a player under any salaried MLB contract is subject to being reclaimed by the club that paid it out, if the player is caught using PEDs. First offense, no exceptions, but leave the appeal process in to take care of corner cases like false positives, and allow the appeals panel to decide if they want to lessen the percentage of money that gets reclaimed by the club based on further investigation.

So, effectively, the club you sign with would be giving you an indefinite, zero-interest loan for $XXX, repayable in full if you violate the contract in this one specific way (by cheating with PEDs).

This type of system, even if there is zero missed games penalty, would be a far greater incentive not to cheat than any other proposed punitive measure.

However, getting caught under this system would not necessarily bankrupt a player. For instance, if a player signed with the O's for a few seasons right out of the minors and made a total of $5 million with the club (for example), then left for another club and made $100 million, but only got caught doing PEDs with that other club, they wouldn't lose their $5 mil they made with the Orioles, just the $100 mil. A wise investor could live well for life on the proceeds of investing $5 mil into the right funds.

This would only financially ruin those players who would be within their first MLB signing contract. But it would also prevent players seeking ridiculous wealth (as in, rather than a couple million, hundreds of millions) from being able to cheat and keep their ridiculous wealth. They would still be okay, but they'd have to divest a lot of assets costing them money if they've been living big and owning a lot of properties, etc.

Edited April 29, 2016 by allquixotic

[DrungoHazewood]

I think it is very interesting that Bonds has come into that organization when this is going down there.

Quite a coincidence that Bonds has gotten involved in one of the 30 MLB organizations that have PED users.

[DrungoHazewood]

Well, the MLBPA would never allow it, but one way that would definitely stop it would be to require that all Major League contracts come with a required line stating that every penny paid out to a player under any salaried MLB contract is subject to being reclaimed by the club that paid it out, if the player is caught using PEDs. First offense, no exceptions, but leave the appeal process in to take care of corner cases like false positives, and allow the appeals panel to decide if they want to lessen the percentage of money that gets reclaimed by the club based on further investigation.

So, effectively, the club you sign with would be giving you an indefinite, zero-interest loan for $XXX, repayable in full if you violate the contract in this one specific way (by cheating with PEDs).

This type of system, even if there is zero missed games penalty, would be a far greater incentive not to cheat than any other proposed punitive measure.

However, getting caught under this system would not necessarily bankrupt a player. For instance, if a player signed with the O's for a few seasons right out of the minors and made a total of $5 million with the club (for example), then left for another club and made $100 million, but only got caught doing PEDs with that other club, they wouldn't lose their $5 mil they made with the Orioles, just the $100 mil. A wise investor could live well for life on the proceeds of investing $5 mil into the right funds.

This would only financially ruin those players who would be within their first MLB signing contract. But it would also prevent players seeking ridiculous wealth (as in, rather than a couple million, hundreds of millions) from being able to cheat and keep their ridiculous wealth. They would still be okay, but they'd have to divest a lot of assets costing them money if they've been living big and owning a lot of properties, etc.

I don't like the idea that the clubs escape all blame and get to benefit from PED-enhanced performance right up to the moment someone is caught, then they get out of the entire contract. Right now it's nearly certain that teams sign players they suspect of cheating knowing they don't have to pay during suspensions, this just removes all responsibility from the clubs. The league would be telling the clubs to sign anyone, take advantage while you can because you have total protection from that contract, it's 100% on the player.

[Ohfan67]

Quite a coincidence that Bonds has gotten involved in one of the 30 MLB organizations that have PED users.

Giggle, giggle.

[weams]

Quite a coincidence that Bonds has gotten involved in one of the MLB organizations that have Batting Champion PED users.

Just the rise of Dee and Barry to advise. That's all. He is obviously very skilled at avoiding positive tests.

[Ohfan67]

I don't like the idea that the clubs escape all blame and get to benefit from PED-enhanced performance right up to the moment someone is caught, then they get out of the entire contract. Right now it's nearly certain that teams sign players they suspect of cheating knowing they don't have to pay during suspensions, this just removes all responsibility from the clubs. The league would be telling the clubs to sign anyone, take advantage while you can because you have total protection from that contract, it's 100% on the player.

It would be fun to see the Yankees and Boston get hit with huge penalties when their players are caught. There would be a really fun thread on OH where we were all giggling and laughing. But it would suck when the O's got hammered and there would be an outcry from fans that it is unfair because the club didn't know player x was doping. Can you imagine the 100+ page thread that would start on OH!?

I would like to see a penalty for the club, but MLB owners will never collectively admit that they profit from PED use.