Why’s that? Does he have a reputation in the area for being a good guy or something?
Gordon is not exactly Mark McGwire in terms of his skill set or physical characteristics. He’s a slap and speed man. Furthermore, he is a well established player, not a fringe guy like Chris Colabello who would be more likely to turn to 'roids to grab a desperately needed MLB paycheck.
That’s unfortunate. I like watching Dee play and laughed pretty good when he forced Baez to balk last night. I’m guessing the drugs are why he’s actually getting on base since he went to Miami probably just trying to hit the ball a little harder.
Dee Gordon is like 170lbs, not the image most people have of a PED user. He says he unknowingly took something. Even if true, that’s unacceptable these days.
Yeah, but there’s plenty of history of players like Gordon who have been suspended - the first was Alex Sanchez, a speedy slap hitter. Melky Cabrera isn’t a power hitter, but a batting champ like Dee. The mold isn’t just McGwire/Bonds.
Dee had a 40 point increase in BABIP and slugging 15 over 14 both of which typically correlate with hitting the ball harder. BABIP could also be due to being faster and turning those plays where he was just beat to first into just beating the play. Since sprinters use PEDs I wouldn’t be surprised if he was doing it to get faster as well.
Yeah a bit. I’m sort of sad to see this happen. I have been following Dee since he was a prospect. I had hoped that his breakout was due to a legitimate improvement in skills since he started playing baseball late in life.
Speaking of Dee Gordon and Melky Cabrera, I wonder about MLB’s timing of the announcements of their suspensions. MLB evidently announced that Dee was suspended at about 10 PM eastern time yesterday. Why wait until after last night’s Marlins-Dodgers game? To give the fans one more entertaining game with Dee before the suspension? Last night’s attendance was 44,009, so the Dodgers and Marlins weren’t desperate to sell more tickets.
In 2012, Melky had the highest batting average in the National League, but he was suspended one plate appearance short of qualifying for the title without additional plate appearances being assigned to him. SABR member Colin Wyers summarizes this here. Basically:
I wonder if MLB had considered minimizing the embarrassment by not letting Melky accumulate the 502+ plate appearances.
Apparently PED-taking athletes continue to believe that they will not get caught. Or perhaps they don’t believe that something besides poppy-seed muffins can cost them $5 million in lost salary. That said, I for one had followed and rooted for Dee since the Dodgers had called him up in 2011. As a little guy gradually achieving success through what looked like hard work and a return to his home state of Florida, he has been a popular player. After he returns to MLB, in mid summer, the game will go on. With surely more suspensions.
My understanding is that Gordon’s PED use was detected some weeks ago, and that his deadline for appeal expired yesterday…and that he informed the league after the game that he was not going to appeal the suspension, so that’s when they announced it.
I may be off a bit with some of the timing details, but the gist of it was “he stated that he was declining the opportunity to appeal his suspension, so his suspension was announced at that time”
Five games now. :smack:
Cecil on pace to go 0-32. I wonder when the ast time was a relief pitcher lost five games in a calendar month? Or has it ever happened at all?
At some point you have to let someone else be the go to leftie, just to give Cecil a break if nothing else.
Until the suspension, I had no idea Dee was Tom Gordon’s son.
Perusing the daily logs from retrosheet…Looks like Mike Marshall lost 6 games, all in relief, in July 1975. He was 9 and 14 that year.
Of course, he pitched practically every game that month (okay, 21 to be exact), so he had an unfair advantage. Or something.
I know the thread has moved on over the last few days but I want to note that anytime a ballplayer - or anyone, really - says the phrase ‘I blame…’ without the referent being himself it’s a sign of a troubled situation. Not just the strength coach but a group of people not pulling together.
You guys understand, i assume, that the “blaming” of the strength coach by Belt and Span was good-natured ribbing, right? It was clear to anyone who saw the interview that Span was having fun, and was not being serious about blaming the coach. Numerous media articles after the fact confirm this.
If the strength coach is having a problem in San Francisco, it’s not showing on the scoreboard. The Giants, despite playing in a park that gives up fewer runs than an average ballpark, are sixth in the Majors in runs scored. And despite being in one of the worst parks in the league for home runs, they are in the middle of the pack when it comes to homers.