Indians Sign Melky Cabrera

To be honest, its difficult to say and the affects are greatly exaggerated.

We know a relatively small percentage of players using (of which about half were pitchers) were guys viewed as HR hitters, and most of those guys were already prolific HR hitters before using. We know from history that unnatural looking HR paths are possible without them. And most importantly, we know they are (incorrectly) perceived to have been at peak popularity at a time that naturally benifited HR hitting and Offense anyway. Coaching styles were changing, new stadiums were being created/old ones renovated, etc. It was also an expansion era and, because of coaching/style changes, when the era of seemingly constant pitcher injuries were beginning – two things which dramatically watered down pitching talent and naturally increased offense themselves

They had an effect no doubt, but a lot of that effect was likely seen in changes to compensate or play to the perception of what they were supposedly doing – something which is especially true when you consider most guys were using stuff comparable to identical to the Greenies that were so widely and openly used during the Aaron era

People tend to forget that part, but reality is the PED era goes back about 50 years and they were much more widely used prior to the period people associate with them

Actually, it is you who seems to have missed the point.

Those traits you attribute are correct, but they are A) not the ones generally perceived/claimed, B) been seen in baseball for more than a half century of even heavier PED use that goes largely ignored, and C) are still greatly exaggerated

Truth is, most did/do it, most PED users didn’t benifit that much, and even today they are heavily in use.

The only real change post-highlight/”crackdown” (said lightly) came in what specific things are used and how they’re used to work within today’s testing and current rules – and most specifically, fast acting synthetic testosterone became rampant, with BALCO founder Conte having gone on record as saying was still being wildly used because of the ease of getting it past testing. At the time Melky was suspended, Conte, based off his conversation with users, said roughly 50% of the league was still using that alone

The selective outrage, as originally pushed by MLB to create easy scapegoats to mask the real situation, is what is nuts

PEDs are bad, but they’ve always been a part of the game and even now are almost certainly rampant so we must treat all players as if they are/were using something (as odds are, they likely are/were.) That means obsessing on the few guys who were caught will just highlight the ignorance of what’s really going on (and play into MLBs desired narrative)

I’d also point out that of guys caught, a fair amount of them have seen their careers over right then or been pushed into a lesser role because of it; so no, your claim doesn’t even work there either