Bartolo Colon has failed an MLB-issued drug test and has been suspended for 50 games, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Both the Athletics and MLB have confirmed the suspension. Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports says (on Twitter) that he tested positive for testosterone.
Colon, 39, resurrected his career last season after undergoing an experimental stem cell treatment on his injured shoulder, a procedure MLB investigated last summer. Colon is scheduled to become a free agent after the season.
The veteran right-hander has pitched to a 3.43 ERA with 5.4 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 in 24 starts and 152 1/3 innings for the Athletics this season after signing a one-year, $2MM contract. After missing all of 2010 and most of the 2006-2009 season, the 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner resurfaced with the Yankees last season and posted a 4.00 ERA in 164 1/3 innings.
Brett Anderson returned to the Athletics' rotation last night, pitching seven innings and allowing one earned run. He projects to join Brandon McCarthy, Tommy Milone and Jarrod Parker in the rotation for the remainder of the season. Dan Straily, Tyson Ross and Travis Blackley are also rotation options for the Athletics, who are deep enough in starting pitching to withstand the loss of Colon.
Holy cow. I didn’t see that coming. Welcome back Straily. I mean Ross 🙂
Bummed about this but not completely surprised.
At least the A’s have depth in their rotation. And with Anderson back along with McCarthy almost as well, the A’s still have a lot of starters they can throw out there. Straily will most likely be back up as he was demoted when Anderson came off the DL.
I think you’re missing the point.
…No. He’s saying it’s a bummer that we’re losing Colon, but at least it’s not the end of the world for the A’s. I’m not surprised either given how good he’s been this year compared to the last 5 years.
It amazes me that guys are still juicing with all the testing that goes on.
The testing isn’t that great. Some think up to 50% are still doing something. So who knows.
Try and get past the MLBPA that owners want more extensive testing and see how far you get…
yup. the worst thing about these steroid busts is the relative silence of the yet-to-be-caught majority
if most of you aren’t cheating, you should be openly furious about those that do – and encourage severe punishments
It doesn’t work like that in real life most of the time, why would it in baseball…
I think the pitchers would be all for it. Last I checked pitchers were players too. Amazing how much offensive numbers have gone down and pitching numbers up since Cansecos book
BTW Why isnt McGuire Bonds Giambi etc banned from the game?
That was Conte’s quote and I tend to find him as trustworthy as Canseco.
Conte made that comment during the Olympics. He also made a comment about leagues that use a 4:1 standard as the base level, saying that a player might try to stay under that threshold.
it disappoints but does not amaze me. there’s big money in the PED and PED-masking industry
Exactly. These players earn multi-million dollar salaries and sometimes a little extra boost could raise that salary. You gotta believe someone else wants to cash in by making sure they can beat a doping test.
Didn’t Manny get busted for a PED masker? Are they gonna make masker maskers soon?
Is that like a Trace Buster Buster?
i think he was caught using something you take after a steriod cycle to jump-start your body’s own production of testosterone and to block the production of estrogen, which sometimes happens as a side effect of steriod use.
it was something that a man would only use for two reasons, he had used steriods or he has breast cancer.
“with all the testing going on”?!?! look up the percentage of MLB that get tested annually. furthermore, a urine test is not a blood test. if the MLB really wanted to catch players, the testing policies would reflect that intention.
100%.
Every player gets tested at the beginning of Spring Training. Every player is then tested again randomly during the season.
It’s tough to know when he even started juicing. Maybe it started last year in the off season, then he has a good year for NYY, doesn’t flunk any tests and gets a bigger guaranteed contract for this season.
something to keep in mind is that certain steriods and HGH are not illegal in alot of Caribbean and Latin American Countries. so often these guys juice at home in the offseason and just hope they get it out of their system before they get tested. Cabrera got nabbed when, july?
Does the CBA allow for offseason random testing? they want the policy to have teeth they need to add that.
Yes, it does. I was actually just reading about it when we heard about Melky’s suspension. The agreement allows 200 tests between the end of this season and the beginning of spring training, but only for performance-enhancing drugs (not drugs of abuse). It goes up to 225 next offseason and 250 each offseason after that.
However, a few things to point out:
1. That’s not very much. The drug program applies to anybody on a 40 man roster and there are 30 baseball teams, meaning only about a 200/1200 chance of getting picked at all (just under 17%). At its peak it will be about 21%.
2. I saw nothing whatsoever about off-season drug tests being authorized for the offseason that just passed. I don’t know why that is. Was it authorized under a previous agreement? Was there simply no offseason testing allowed this year?
3. You still have to get caught. Some people suggest there are steroid creams which can exit the body in days, which greatly narrows your window of actually getting caught even if you get tested.
Fringe players (or formerly fringe players). They have nothing to lose and if they don’t get caught, plenty to gain.
Bad week for west coast challengers.
i love baseball but this stuff really bums me out. i’d like to see much harsher penalties
I know I take testosterone to have a body like Bartolo
i just roll with cosmic brownies and coca cola. its cheaper and you still get the same great 46 inch waist.
His punishment should be a 50 day gym membership.
I’m a ISA-Test guy myself, can only imagine how bomb pure Test is….that stuff will shrink the nuts and have to PCT off of it to get your nuts back…lol no thank you.
Had to give in and change my name because Disqus wasn’t buying the Yahoo sign in anymore.
Anyway, 1st this is disappointing.
Second, I am shocked, he would do it.
Third, this is good news for the O’s because if the O’s and the A’s got to the wild card game and faced each other. I suspect Melvin would have started Colon.
Orioles hitters can’t hit Colon even with an ironing board, he always shut down the O’s
What needs to be investigated is if there is any common link between Colon and Cabrera, especially give that they both tested positive for testosterone. More significant is that both players are on teams contending for the playoffs…and so you have to wonder who else is using PEDs, especially players trying to extend their careers or having breakout seasons in a run-up to free agency.
You’ll recall that Braun also tested positive for testosterone…he just was lucky enough to get off on a technicality. So that’s 3 in less than a year.
For what drug did Guillermo Mota test positive back in May?
Wasn’t a PED but some chemical in children’s cough syrup he took at least that’s his story. But to his credit MLB player’s association didn’t discredit his story which is why the Giants FO is ok brining him back to pitch middle relief.
maybe its in the water out west.
Like it or not, the bottom line is that players will keep doing PED’s because it’s worth the risk.
I think PED’s are more rampant in sports today than it ever was. Baseball for whatever reason will always be the poster child for it. Modern medicine is always evolving and it wouldn’t surprise me if the NFL, NBA, and NHL were all in on the PED usage. Nevertheless it really hurts the one sport I truly love.
After MLB officials went to suspected Testosterone user Bartolo Colon’s house all they found after entering the premise was a fork, knife, bib, and half a eaten San Francisco Giants hat.
The Giants hat contained the banned substance, it had a Balco tag stitched inside. Colon could claim it wasn’t his fault.
Authorities are led to believe that Bartolo Colon, in order to get ready for the stretch run, ate Melky Cabrera to gain a competitive edge.
I had suspicions (even if he rather fat). You dont get tht much better that quick!
That’s the beauty of testosterone in it’s many forms, you don’t have to work out to gain it’s benefits like you would with steroids.
Colon blow!
National Lampoon’s Baseball League!
50 days with no Colon. Isn’t that what Elvis had?
Steroid use is still rampant in the game. Probably 70% or more of the players are using one banned substance or another.
i would sure love to see your numbers
it would be interesting to see what type of testosterone he used. Remember he is 39, typically men in the late 30’s early 40’s lose or have natural drops in testosterone. It would be interesting to see if what he was caught using was a medically prescribed topical testosterone supplement. Many many many men use these legal, prescribed creams every day to bring their testosterone back to normal natural level to help them stay healthy, alert, lose weight, keep their libido up, help them be mentally healthy. If your test level drop to or below 300 thats when doctors prescribe these creams, It would just be interesting to see if bartolo(or who ever else this will happen to, more names will come out) have actual medical issues but still get suspended because its still against the rules
I want to make this clear im not trying to come up with some sort of excuse for him, he did the wrong thing he got caught thats all, I dot really care either way about bartolo I’m just saying it would be interesting if this guy or other older players(again more names will come out) are medically allowed to use a test cream but still not allowed to use it in MLB
There is a therapeutic use exemption to the drug penalties. All he has to do is have a valid prescription for a condition requiring the drug, and notify the group responsible for the testing programs. Technically it’s possible they could deny the exemption but I don’t see why they would if that was truly the case.
Thanks for the info. I thought there would be some sort of medical exemption but thanks for clarifying.
The body rarely goes over 4 parts testosterone to 1 part epitestosterone, however. That is the basis for the 4:1 standard…chances are that this had to be significantly more. In addition, if there was a prescription, MLB should have known about it.
He probably thinks he’s got a good excuse, but MLB wouldn’t buy it.
Verdict: Colon is full of it.
Cabrera and Colon … it’s an MLB conspiracy to keep the
Bay Area teams out of the post season to keep the TV ratings as high as possible.
I’m joking! They obviously failed the test.
But, what if MLB is turning a blind eye to “other” teams
and not busting their players due to screwing up the chemistry of the teams
that might get better post season ratings?
Wonder if he ordered this from Melkey’s website?
You’re not the only one thinking that! Testing positive for the same substance, no less.
News Report: Bartolo Colon tests positive for PED usage. He is said to be blaming it on his eating of Melky Cabrera.
late to the party there
39 year old pitcher putting up 29 year old numbers? Well, this is completely shocking.
Wow, he was on that dreamer bulk.
If you think about it, this guys know exactly what they’re doing. Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon were awful, Bartolo at 39 gone for a year, and Melky had just been non-tendered because the guy couldn’t hit, and took horrible routes to balls. If Bartolo had never taken steroids or whatever he took, he wouldn’t have been able to throw 94 mph and pitch like he has.
So on the one hand, Bartolo has 2 options, he doesn’t take steroids he never makes it back and he stays in Dominican Republic. In the other hand he takes steroids, he makes it back and make 2.9 million(a little bit less since he won’t be paid for the final month. He has nothing to lose. Neither did Melky, and he made who never would have made 6 million this year if he wouldn’t have taken steroids.
Teams don’t give a rat’s a$$ unless you get caught, they just wan’t bargains and performance. Now Bartolo at age 39 probably won’t come back, but Melky will and since he already took them, he won’t be the player he was with Atlanta, nor will he be the guy that played for the Giants, but I guarantee a team will take a chance on him, and he’ll be solid.
So like I said, the opportunity cost of Melky even if he got caught(which happened) is much greater than not taken them.
this.
IF (HUGE if) Melky’s performance was heavily influenced by the PEDs he took, he just made himself more money. Not the 50MM more, but still better than the minor league and league minimum deals he’d be taking if he was still his 2010 self or close to it, even in spite of getting caught and suspended for 50 games.
Same thing with Bartolo. If the PEDs were actually effective (assuming he probably used them through last year as well), he got himself a ~2MM deal for this year instead of a minor league deal.
Bartolo Colon might have been a poster boy for inexpensive fixes, for cash strapped, small market clubs. Instead he joins a list of players no one wants to consider…
He tested positive for MSG.