I am a Red Sox fan. A ‘watch every game and schedule my life around it’ type of fan. Let me emphasize that I don’t believe that David Ortiz uses steroids. I am shocked though that I have never heard someone so much as suggest that he might. He was with the Twins before the Red Sox and managed 20 HR in his best season. He is now among the two or three most fearsome power hitters in the game.
As to the OP, what was the deal with Brady Anderson in 1996. Did he try steroids in the offseason, hit 50 homeruns and then decide he would prefer to be a singles hitter and get off the juice? I was an Orioles fan in those days and that was one of the stranger statistical abnormalities I have seen.
I’d be somewhat more impressed with accusations around Tejada if he’d had some sort of weird power spike. Tejada’s career high in home runs is 34, which is less than the career highs of such immortals as Ed Sprague and Bob Horner, and he has pretty much the same power numbers every year.
Lemme just say that I’m really surprised you would have ever suspected these guys. Aside from their greatness, I can’t think of an argument which would make any sense. Hell, Griffey’s constant muscle injuries almost is evidence against him using.
I think it’s well accepted that one of steriods key benefits (along with added muscle mass obviously) is a shortened recovery time. We can all probably agree that pitchers would probably benefit more than any other position from that. Also, I could imagine that there are a variety of steriod types. Some which primarily add strength/muscle and others which greatly speed recovery and/or lessen fatigue.
So, I think it’s pretty reasonable to argue that pitchers are likely to benefit at least as much as hitters. It’s not wholly accepted that 'roids help hitters as much as people claim either, some arguing that hand-eye coordination and hand speed are more critical. IMHO there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that 'roids helps both hitters and pitchers equally.
While I agree that Palmeiro is of dubious credibily, there certainly has been a apparent culture of abuse in the Oakland clubhouse that greater than anywhere else. Tejada, fairly or not, becomes much more suspicious as a result.
Secondly, people always dismissed Canseco’s claims because of his dubious credibility. Alot more of what he said turned out to be true than people expected, due to that I’m going to be less quick to dismiss a fellow players accusations.
Wasn’t Ortiz at the center of that story which claimed that the steroid policy was predjudiced against latin players? Essentially arguing that due to the language barrier it would cause more latin players to get busted since they wouldn’t understand what was and wasn’t allowed, or to know what is or isn’t in the supplements’ ingredients.
IIRC, many people thought this was a pre-emptive PR spin to cover any potential positive tests that he and people close to him might have. I’m not making a judgement on how true this claim is or isn’t, just saying that I think he has been subtley accused. (His spike in perfromance between Minnesota and Boston was obviously part of the equation)
Many people are accusing Sosa, for obvious reasons, but I’ve always found it somewhat surprising that he’s never actually been credibly linked to anything.
Most of the big names who’ve been somewhat legitimately accused have connections to BALCO, Oakland/SF, and trainers for players who’ve “accidentally” tested positive. Many were named in various legal proceedings, or were otherwise outed by former players.
Sosa, however, has never been attached to any of those stories. There’s no doubt that he bulked up alot over the second half of his career, but it was never especially sudden (see Boone, Brett). The fact that he’s shrunken over the last two years could easily be attributed to the fact that he was injured and unable to train as rigorously, and even more likely if you have watched him over the last few years that he simply quit caring and just stopped training out of apathy and laziness.
Of course I’m largely playing devil’s advocate here, and I’m not Sosa lover. However, he’s one of those defacto steriod guys that seems to fall out of the mold under closer inspection. Worth thinking about.
In fairness to David Ortiz, in Minny he was playing 1B and standing on what amounted to concrete every day, with the predictable effect on the knees of a big man. In Boston, he doesn’t take the field at all (except in interleague games) and his knees have been fine. He’s definitely pumped, you’re right - but Ramirez is about his equal as a power hitter and is still fairly rounded.
If I were going to accuse Ortiz of it (and I’m not, just making a point) this would be evidence against him. The fact that when he was healthy in Minny he put up pedestrian numbers, then came to Boston with a trashed body but suddenly becomes a machine…I’d say that looks suspect.
Ortiz looks to me like he’s just a big fat guy who can hit the ball a long way, a la Cecil Fielder. He’s visibly a better HITTER than he used to be. He could always hit it hard, it was just getting a consistent power swing that he needed to do.
I think we’d want to look at guys who suddenly experienced power losses the last couple of years - i.e., guys who stopped doing it when MLB started testing. My guesses:
Brian Giles: 37 HR/year from 1999-2002, about 20/year since then
Mike Lowell: 28/yr from '02-04, 8 this year.
Mike Piazza: Precipitous drop in power after '02 season (though may be because he’s getting old)
Yeah, that Sosa-Reilly thing was pretty dumb. Frankly I lost respect for both of them in that. Pesonally, I think what Reilly did was about as low as it gets. Trapped him into a no-win situation. Then again, Sosa could have had a better reaction that didn’t look like implied guilt. Though I still think, clean or not, there’s no way he should have to put up with what Reilly did.
As for the Ortiz thing, I don’t get the logic. You say he’s “healthy” in Boston and that why he’s playing well, but he’s too beat up to play defense? That’s not my definition of healthy. Sure he might have been sore and gotten worn down in Minny, but he was younger and healthier. I’m thinking you’re implying that his move away from the concrete floors of the baggie-dome was a big part of the reason for his boost in performance. I don’t buy that.
Giles turned 32 in 2003, a normal age for a player to begin declining, and he also moved to a new team in a park that’s notoriously hard to hit home runs in. He did look awfully super-muscular to me, but there are other reasons.
Lowell’s collapse can’t just be steroids. It’s not like he’s just not hitting homers anymore - for the first couple of months of the year he was hitting like a pitcher. I wonder if he’s hiding an injury.
Piazza’s collapse was entirely predictable. He’s an old catcher; old catchers usually fall apart after catching 1200-1400 games. The same thing is just beginning to happen to Ivan Rodriguez, though he lasted quite a bit longer than usual.
Piazza’s collapse, though, was pretty sudden - down about 100 points on his slugging from '02 to '04. If it were aging, I’d expect a more gradual decline.
For Lowell: homers are only the most obvious indication of power - his strikeout numbers this year are about the same as usual (slightly lower, actually), which tells me that he’s still putting the ball in play but not getting it past the fielders. That’s an indication that he’s just not hitting it as hard as before - could be an injury, could be 'roid withdrawal, could be both.
Of course Pudge is one of the guys that got fingered in Texas. Take that for what it’s worth.
The Giles thing could pretty easily be attributed almost entirely to the move to Petco. That place is death valley. I’m not quite ready to give him the red flag.
I agree with you on Piazza, most likely is just age.
Lowell, frankly, just was never all that great IMHO. He had a few decent years, but nothing good and consistent enough to make me think the decline is steriod related. It’s certainly just possible that he’s just going all Derek Bell on us.
Jim Thome is a guy that is generally presumed innocent woho should probably be watched over the next year or so to see if he bounces back from his injury.
No, he’s become, and remained, healthy in Boston because he no longer gets worn down playing defense.
I’m not implying it, I’m saying it. And it isn’t from me btw; I’m paraphrasing Doug Mientkiewicz, who played with him (also at 1B) in both places. Why you’re not buying it is baffling.
He doesn’t play much defense because he’s not considered a very good defensive player, not because he’s hurt. Also, Ortiz has had considerably more at-bats in Boston than he ever had in Minnesota – 574 already this year (compared to 412 in Minnesota in '02).