Some items to conclude Thanksgiving Day…
- The Blue Jays are conducting an internal investigation after six minor league prospects all tested positive for PEDs within the last week, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi reports. Thirteen Jays prospects have now been hit with PED test-related violations within the last two years, a stunning increase for an organization that saw just 18 players fail tests from 2005-15. “This situation is very disappointing and disturbing to the organization; disappointing that the players made these choices, but more so disturbing that some failure of our environment allowed this to happen,” Jays GM Ross Atkins said. “It is our responsibility to create an environment and culture where our players know that PED use is not condoned, and to give them resources and education to ensure that they do not make these decisions.”
- Archie Bradley will be stretched out as a starter in Spring Training and could start in case of a rotation jury, though Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that the team is still planning to use Bradley as a reliever. Once one of the game’s top starting prospects, Bradley struggled over 34 career starts before posting dominating numbers (1.73 ERA, 9.7 K/9, 3.76 BB/K rate) in 73 relief innings last season. Bradley showed the capability of being a multi-inning force out of the pen, though Hazen also said the D’Backs could deploy Bradley as a closer next year. Bradley’s versatility gives the team flexibility in pursuing bullpen help this winter, Hazen said.
- Bradley is a good example of how ESPN.com’s Sam Miller notes that closers are still hard to identify, and it is consistently hard for teams to tell which closers can consistently produce on a year-to-year basis, or which pitchers may suddenly emerge from nowhere as ninth-inning options. Citing a similar Baseball Prospectus piece from Christina Kahrl in 2000 about the closer volatility, Miller notes that one big difference between now and then is that teams are increasingly willing to groom pitchers into relief roles earlier in their careers, or even as soon as they’re drafted, in order to develop bullpen specialists.
Why mess with Archie Bradley? Leave him in the bullpen – shades of Daniel Bard.
I agree. He was lights out in his role in 2017. Use him like the Indians used Andrew Miller or make him the closer. His personality is perfect for that role.
100%. Leave Archie alone.
While I agree that Bradley has found his niche and should stay in the bullpen, Daniel Bard’s problem was not that he tried to start. He had experienced the “yips” early in his career and after a period of remission, they resurfaced, as they ALWAYS do.
Wow, that is a lot of prospects for the Blue Jays to be using let alone get caught using PED’s. Good on the Jays for trying to figure it out. That tells us four things: 1. that the Jays have a ton of prospects that aren’t very good prospects and need to take PED’s. 2. Someone has got to them and they have listened that a “supplement” is the answer. 3. The Jays education system or baseball’s education system is irrelevant to them in the light of performance and the lure or possibility of big money. 4. PED’s work and are still being widely used, at least in minor league ball.
It’s naive to think their not being used at the major league level also…
If you ain’t cheating then you ain’t trying
Maybe the DBacks’ “rotation jury” can help with the subsequent trial!
It’s naïve to think that with the WADA level testing employed by MLB in the post Biogenesis world that they get away with it. Working a cycle so that the roids clear the system prior to testing doesn’t work now with IRMS testing. Mass spec testing can detect metabolites and masking agent biological markers months later. Add to that constant testing of players biological passport samples it’s a heck of a lot harder to beat then it was a few years back.
What is a “rotation jury”???
It’s people who try minor league PED users