As the lockout continues, Major League Baseball has ceased drug testing for players who are part of the MLB Players Association, reports Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. It’s an expected development, as Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote last November that the union did not believe the league could continue drug testing throughout a work stoppage.
The MLB – MLBPA Joint Drug Agreement covers players on 40-man rosters, major league free agents, and certain professional international free agents. The JDA contained an expiration provision for December 1, 2021 at 11:59 pm EST, overlapping with the expiration of the most recent collective bargaining agreement. However, as labor lawyer Eugene Freedman points out (on Twitter), the implementation of the lockout is the direct force behind the current testing stoppage. In the absence of a work stoppage, the previous CBA remains the governing document until a new agreement is reached. Had MLB not instituted a lockout, the offseason would have proceeded under the terms of the previous CBA and its ancillary agreements — the JDA among them — despite the expiration provisions contained therein.
The JDA encompasses testing both for drugs of abuse (including cocaine and opiates) and performance-enhancing substances. As the lockout continues, testing will not be in place for substances of either form. While the JDA was in effect, it was customary for drug testing to continue over the offseason. Blum relays statistics from program administrator Thomas Martin, noting that nearly 48,000 cumulative tests were conducted between 2017-21. Of those, more than 7,300 were administered during the offseason. (It is not clear what percentage of those were for drugs of abuse versus for performance-enhancing substances).
What effect, if any, the cessation of offseason drug testing will have remains to be seen. Given that MLB instituted the lockout in the early morning of December 2, it stands to reason testing has already been suspended for over two months. Whenever a new CBA is agreed upon, a drug testing provision — whether a new system or simply a reimplementation of the previous JDA — will no doubt be included. Potential modifications to the JDA are reportedly among the non-core economics issues the parties have discussed.
Whatever form the drug testing program eventually takes, it doesn’t seem a resolution is in the near future. There’s been little progress in negotiations thus far, and it remains to be seen when MLB will make its next move. A delayed start to Spring Training seems an inevitability, and there’ll need to be rapid progress over the next three weeks if the regular season is to start on March 31, as currently scheduled.
Somewhere Manny Ramirez is planning a comeback
Did he hire McGwire as his personal hitting coach?
Bonds, getting ready for Bobblehead night
Does the Bobblehead have a shock absorbers for a neck
I guess there really was no choice. Why would players take tests when they’re locked out from team services?
Definitely not it’s on Roids!
Oh boy 59 year old Rodger Clemens can still throw 88? Wonder how fast he could with the juice?
Lol. The juice have him a Cy Young when he was something like 42. I remember that season. Somehow it seemed normal at the time because it was “The Rocket!” Dude was winning Cy Youngs in his 40’s because he was juicing. It’s very obvious, now. No one wins Cy Young awards in their 40’s unless they are knuckleballers, on steroids, or pitched before your grandma was born. I can almost forgive him for the juice because a lot of people were doing it back then. But then he lied under oath about it and tried to throw his trainer under the bus when he knew damn well his trainer was being truthful. Remember when he tried to throw a broken bat at Mike Piazza because he thought Piazza tried to break a bat intentionally in a way to make the broken part go towards him even though it didn’t even hit him? What a roided up, narcissistic, egotistical psychopath. Those are the best words I can think of to describe Roger Clemens. Whatever he did on the baseball field is secondary. He was a person well before that. Not to say Clemens is OJ Simpson but nobody thinks if football first when they think if OJ Simpson. They think of who he was off the field. At least OJ only lied because he was trying to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison. What’s Clemens excuse? Other than just being a straight up psycho?
At this point I think a slow pitch softball league MTV rock n jock style with players like Manny, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, etc cetera would be the most entertaining baseball we could see this summer just to see some older guys launch meatballs 450+ feet. Bartolo Colon’s participation would be mandatory and he would have to hit too since it’s obviously a make believe league for entertainment purposes.
@Jimmy: I would actually watch that right now. Someone should try to quickly create a pop up league full if recently retired players. No drug testing involved. You know all the guys who are trying to stage comebacks would join. They would probably even get some big name guys who don’t really even want comebacks. I figure some of the retired players specifically don’t want to play in MLB because the competition is so hard. If they were only competing against players their age they could be more open to it. Let Kyle Seager join and win MVP. He hit over 30 homers last year against major leaguers. Imagine what he could do to the pitchers who are already washed up. I bet it might even make the players and owners want to come to an agreement sooner once they start watching someone else make all their money. With no MLB right now, I would be totally down to watch pitchers like Rick Porcello and Bartolo Colon pitch to guys like Kyle Seager, David Wright, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury. Maybe even Chris Davis, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard. I love to watch the former big names try to squeeze any fumes they might still have out of the tank. The lack of drug testing might even make it better than we think. Remember when Colon retired and then showed up years later throwing 97mph again? Let Clemens take his horse steroids and give it another go.
Cano will now be free…
Players can micro-juice now if and until a new drug program is in place!
“Take ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.”
The Cyclists way of doping could easily be done here. Test cycles that are finished in like 3 weeks or so. If players seem confident that the CBA won’t be fixed for over 3-4 weeks many of them could use test and pass a drug test in 5 or so weeks.
Part of me wants them all to just do it. Let’s all pretend they didn’t and just enjoy some crazy baseball. Then of course the sensible side of me wants no one to do it.
Although I really wish the MLB could find a way to allow HGH and such for players with major injuries. Like if you get hurt bad and will be out for a while you can sign an agreement to use HGH to heal and you can’t play till X amount of time after and you are monitored that you’re only using it to heal. Because let’s face it no one likes seeing DeGrom not pitch or Trout not be Trout. Maybe make them ineligible for the postseason that year if they take it in the middle of the season. I don’t know , there should be a way to use some of these drugs to help with injuries. If you tear an ACL or something it’s hard to work out and Oxandrolone (Anavar) is mild and helps maintain muscle. So if you’re sitting out a while year with a major injury maybe you should be allowed to take it for X months during the season you are missing. The game is getting so analytical and scientific why not another level?
Is HGH really that bad for you? I know steroids can cause cancer and heart problems and overall just make you look like you aged 30 years after being off it for a couple years. It’s funny. The juicers look 30 when they are 42 but by the time they are 48 they look like they are 67. But does that happen with HGH? I would think if it wasn’t too bad for you players would be allowed to take it. I know it can give an unfair advantage to players who don’t take it but if it isn’t really bad for them, why don’t or shouldn’t they? And yes. I believe plenty of current players still cycle steroids. That’s how they are primarily taken. Even juices up body builders don’t just inject steroids willy nilly. It’s actually more effective if you take it on a scheduled cycle.
HGH can be bad for you. Like everything else it’s in moderation. It’s great for healing, re-lubrication of joints and tissue/cellular regeneration/growth. It’s why we age, predominantly, after we stop most natural production in our teens.
But too much is very harmful. Like Bonds, it affects body chemistry, grows internal organs, grows bone (Bond’s alien head), and can create a host of other internal problems.
Sylvester Stallone has been using steroids and HGH for decades. He’s in his 70’s so he has been using the formula correctly, at least to some degree.
What really bugs me about the steroid stuff happens this coming Sunday.
The normal American male’s T-count (testosterone level) is 8 to 14. If your urine sample’s T-count exceeds 15 at the doctor, it gets flagged. You will have a talk with your physician about it. With me? Now. In the NFL, your sample doesn’t get flagged unless it exceeds 25(!).
C’mon, man. 25?
The entire Nation watches the game, & we won’t hear a whisper about steroids. 25, bro. Anyone wants to explain this one to me in a way that does not include anabolic steroid use: please, enlighten me. Because there isn’t an explanation that precludes the use of exogenous testosterone. None. & no one gives af.
I think the NFL is just pretty lax on steroids in general. They will bust you if you’re taking so much it’s obvious and you look like a pro-wrestler for the late 80’s but I think they don’t really care if some guys take it in less obvious doses. They really probably just don’t want the guys to get caught because people will say kids are going to copy them. If the kids don’t find out when the less obvious players are doing it, they don’t even know about anything to copy.
They need another Sosa/McGwire homerun chase after the lockout!
You mean Sammy Sooser and Mike McGwire.
Pump up boys. An 80-100 home run season isn’t gonna help what you and the owners are doing to the game right now especially during all this Covid crap
Between this and Manfreds ever changing baseballs we could see Bonds single season record broken in the 60 game season they are about to have
Cheaters like Bonds don’t own any records unless he bought them at the local music store
I dislike this one so much, @McGriff.
I don’t really know how to interpret his career numbers. But. Gear or no gear, Barry Bonds was the greatest ballplayer of my generation, man.
He’s a fraud, as are both his homerun records. He WAS the greatest, right up until he started juicing. Beyond that his stats are meaningless.
Bonds didn’t make the all century team. If someone plagiarizes a movie script, should he win an academy award?
These people are thieves, you can think anything you want about how good they were, but no one can seriously deny they are thieves.
I don’t have any respect for them.
Yeah.
Look. I know that is what the BBWAA has told us all to “think”. Just not how I see it. I also realize it is a wildly unpopular take.
I’m with you ducky, what happened ought to stand. If not we erase all records since the changing of the season lengths
You don’t erase the records, but you don’t honor him either.
He is what he is. He’s a thief. I don’t honor people who steal from other people. I’m not sure why anyone would.
You out here acting like everyone before steroids era never “cheated” with all the records. You have NO idea and you’re either 60+ and won’t change or you’re just listening to the media of how to feel.
Bonds was playing against guys who were using as well. Players were not even tested until 2003. And his numbers were so much better than everyone else’s. Not sure how you ignore that.
I will do this with you @Halo11, because you’re a good poster & I feel we’ve a rapport. I don’t want to have some crazy argument with you. But: I will give you my honest take. For whatever worth it may – or may not! – be to you.
I see the “thief” “stealing” stuff as nothing more than a narrative that has been foisted upon us by the BBWAA.
I played football & baseball in the late 80″s. Steroids were ubiquitous: the weight room, locker room, gym, nutrition store…hell, you could call the kid on a bike with the backwards ball cap if you wanted delivery. I’m not saying I ever ran any gear personally. But I will absolutely admit to knowing plenty of guys that did.
Here is what I will say. No one was doing it in order to “cheat.” Rather, everyone did them as a response to a hypercompetitive situation & an innate drive to be the best damn ballplayers they could be – any way they could. Personally, I don’t find fault with that.
Fine if you do, though.
It’s the internet. Differences abound.
@ftasports
No, some cheated before the steroids era. But I was brought up that you don’t honor cheaters, regardless of the era. I realize I don’t know all that cheated, but the ones that are known should have to accept the consequences of their actions. They can do a display of the steroid era in the HOF as it is part of the history of the game, but receiving a plaque? Absolutely not.
@rct
So others cheating makes someone else’s cheating ok? Guess we have to forgive the Astros then….nope. Can’t do that.
I tend to lean this way about too Ducky, add to the fact that it wasn’t actually against the rules/tested and that adds to it.
I think there’s a common misconception that PEDs are a magic potion that make you in to a good athlete. It helps for sure, no one knows exactly how much but it’s a competitive advantage not foundational.
There are thousands of steroid filled minor leaguers who never sniffed the majors because strength, explosiveness and faster recovery doesn’t make a difference to a player who has a bad approach, bad mechanics, poor athlete etc
Bonds had a competitive advantage against his peers who’s didnt inject, but there is so much margin between Bonds and all his peers, he still easily would have been a HoF. I’d put him and Pete Rose in the hall, under their plaque talk about what they did, make it a part of baseball history. They are far from the worst people that would be in there.
Stymeedone: I agree with your assessment here and think it’s well worded. I don’t believe anyone is saying “nobody cheated” but the known long-time cheaters shouldn’t be rewarded. Bonds was truly awesome, probably a HOF player, but we won’t ever truly know. I am surprised talkative many are so accepting of his HR record surpassing Aaron’s because of what Hank Aaron endured just to play the game, but that’s another story.
If Bud Selig who was the overseer of the league during the steroids era gets in the hall with no questions then Bonds. Clemens, A-Rod etc. should too.
Ducky, your points are dead-on. They use it because of the competition. It is a very slippery slope, so I think whatever happens needs to be applied universally. One thing that bothers me, even though it’s a different scenario, is that Pete Rose is still banned forever and sports betting has become legalized & acceptable; whereas PEDs are just as stigmatized within the game, if not moreso, than ever & guys that used them are more accepted (for the Hall).
It’s a strange dynamic and one in which there will always be two distinct sides. It’s impact can never truly be knowable because of the lack of information on who used and for how long. It’s tough, especially for passionate fans to dissect.
I do have concerns with honoring known cheaters, especially with “records” they likely would not have otherwise set. So, a compromise would be Bonds may be a HOF guy, but not the home run king, for example. There’s no perfect solution, that’s for sure.
Maybe limit head size for the HOF? Lolol.
I understand why guys do it.
I do want to give a hat tip to everyone who has posted on this part of the thread. This is one of those topics that can lead to some poor argumentation. Seems like we are actually considering each others points of view. Small victories, uh?
Hey, what about a no-rules season or two to measure it’s impacts on the game? Let guys juice their minds out and see what happens. Then we can monitor how it affects their success / failure?
I wouldn’t even bother with the explanation of their scandals on their plaques for two reasons. First being that everyone already and always will know what they did and second reason is that baseball is the only sport that allows morality to dictate hall of fame candidacy. It’s often said that the hardest thing to do in all of professional sports is to hit a baseball yet the all time leader in hits isn’t in the hall of fame because of gambling. There’s clearly a difference between gambling on your sport while you are actively involved in the game (then also lying about it for a couple decades after the fact) than putting down a million dollars at a casino or golf course on the regular but Pete Rose is exiled and Michael Jordan’s habit amounts to becoming just comical stories. Baseball needs to stop applying morality issues to hall of fame candidacy when nothing was done or said about the issue in the present when the player in question was playing. Especially considering that by and large the whole f’n league has handshake deals with 13 and 14 year old kids in Latin and South American countries just waiting for them to be 16 on July 2nd of any given year to make it “official”.
Pretty much everything about bonds was fraudlike (his use of doping) and then his poor attitude. Want to hold up players, especially in the month of February as heroes? Take genuine heroes who loved the game, were warm to the fans and media as well.. Such as Willie Mays and the Great Ernie Banks and let bonds slip into that cesspool of his own making for good.
The only other player in the conversation as the best from the 90’s into 2000’s is Griffey and he makes a great counterpoint to Bonds. What if Griffey had juiced and recovered from injuries and continued to play at a high level instead of declining and walking away from the game? What if Bonds didn’t juice and started to fade? Personally I’d still take Bonds but I wouldn’t argue against anyone who thought Griffey was better.
I really have no time for those that try to make excuses for those that cheat. In fact, I don’t even want to see their opinions. Its so awesome that there is a mute button on here.
@Ducky Buckin Fent It’s one thing to use them. It’s another to not take responsibility and not admit using them.
When you’re right, you’re right, @pwndroia.
Good catch. We can start right here. Yeah. I took ’em. Had my reasons for whatever that worth. I absolutely see why these guys did too.
Hank Aaron and Roger Maris are the legitimate HR champs.Both accomplished their records under daunting measures.Hank with the racial animus,and Roger under the unrelenting glare of the New York press.
I understand your big Bonds fan Ducky. I was too until it was obvious he was a cheater. PED ruined baseball for me my favorite player at the time (McGwire) got caught up in it too. I can tell you from personal experience I was 17 in 1993 while I was in a government funded facility for the throwaway youth of the USA known as Job Corps. I was there with about 30 known bloods and crips gang members as well as other degenerates including myself. It was like being in a youth jail with little to no supervision. I quickly made friends with a 18 year old Italian bodybuilder (biggest guy there) no one messed with this guy he was massive and you probably guessed it lived in the gym and used steroids. He got me started and I gained almost 30 pounds of muscle over about 3 months. Nobody blinked at me anymore and once I left the hell hole I never used again. Huge advantage to steroids. I never played ball semi pro or anything but I’d imagine muscle gain like that would allow guys to absolutely crush baseball or throw them much much harder. That why I am against PED usage in baseball. I have up on football when colon cancer took his knee and I haven’t returned. Football doesn’t exist for me anymore.
Looks like some of us are throwing our cards on the table.
First, I want to thank you for the complete honesty & time you took in your response. Second: I’m actually not all that big of a Bonds fan. NL guy. But I do think he was my (our?) generations premier ballplayer.
I started doing them in high school. Thought I could play college ball. Was good enough for JUCO. Thought I could walk on a Big 10 school after that. In football, the coaches didn’t even let me try, bro! & my big accomplishment on the diamond was making it past the first round of cuts.
Maybe I’m just forgiving about this in order to justify my own questionable choices. That sure would be disappointing. But I really don’t think so. I just see guys who want something so badly they are willing to do absolutely anything to get it. & as a society, that is an ideal that we espouse.
People compare combat to sports all the time.
In my experience ball fields & a war zones are markedly different settings. But as I have tried to make my way in business, I do see a comparison there. & that is something within our society. & I can’t say that’s really a bad thing. Man. I’m not smart or eloquent enough to express what I am trying to here. I guess what I’m saying is we get raised with this “win at all costs” mentality. Steroids are almost a logical progression of that.
I understand how you feel Ducky. Quite honestly you’re one of the few commenters I’d even take the time to reply too like that. I just like your take on just about everything. Mary Jane for instance was really bad for me I loved the stuff. I was completely useless doing it though. I’d probably be dead or living in a homeless shelter especially with the higher THC content these days. Haven’t touch the stuff in 25 years now. I’m almost 46 btw Ducky. I started reading box scores watching baseball on tv in the late 80’s.
Hey, you’re one of my guys too, McGriff.
So, I really tried with my post too.
I tried out being a stoner in college after I was no longer able to play ball. I was an arts student (architecture) so it was more or less obligatory. Turns out, I wasn’t very good at it. I definitely preferred my drugs in liquid form. Now, I have had some struggles with that. Suddenly becoming a single parent took care of that though. I’d probably be in jail wasn’t for that. Used to like to drink & fight. Marine. Ya know? Dumb stuff.
54 in March, bro!
My grandpere was taking me to The Stadium since before I can remember. I saw that Bronx Zoo team. Chemistry = Winning. Was there for Chambliss off Littel. Yankee fan for life.
@ducky good post man, the way i look at its the hall of fame not the hall of morality, the hall is there to tell the history of mlb good or bad. if we’re going down this road of only picking the pure moral players then what’s next we start kicking people like cobb or parry because they either cheated or were not great people. look like it or not the 80’s to the early 00’s almost everyone one juicing heck i wouldn’t be surprised if the batboys weren’t jucicing lol. also there were a lot of people that came back to mlb because of juicing we just turned a blind eye to it and stuck our heads in the sand. the roid era might be a black spot in the sports history but it’s still part of the history and needs to be told.
@outinleftfield can i ask you a question are that closed minded that you won’t even try to listen to an opposing argument. a lot of posters that wanna let the “roid” guys in make some great arguments and you shut them down without a single thought. i really hope if i ever do something so stupid that i need to take something to a trial with a jury your not on it, because your going to make your mind up before you hear any arguments. now i’m not saying the roid users were in the right but i can understand why they did it rather it was to live out a dream or to be the goat, but just to dismiss any good arguments is one of the reasons why this country is on a fast track to ruin. i’m not trying to get philosophical, righteous, or political, but to me nowadays everyone is so set in there beliefs that they won’t even listen to the other side.
mcgriff hit 30 home runs as a 38 year old. he’s cheater, very, very likely!
Not the crime dog dude!
Boy, Barry Bonds started juicing in what year 1999-2000? After the Sosa Mcguire homerun race? He already had 100 career WAR by that point in his career, by comparison Albert Pujols has 99.8 career WAR and will be a first ballot hall of famer?
It’s easy, just see which year his hat size grew.
…Which makes sense…
Given the suspension of PED testing, if Baseball resumes in the next few months it will be interesting to watch if Robinson Cano and a few other notables have a good year.
Mets are hoping Cano gets caught again.
Cano can’t figure out how he keeps getting caught, but he’s going to try to figure it out while sticking needles in every muscle he can find.
Between this and letting Ortiz into the Hall, MLB is obviously cool with roids now.
Yes, the writers decided this too.
Maybe the angels can finally make the playoffs with some roid use.
The angels will forget to dose the pitchers
The war on drugs is over and Drugs won fellas
Unfortunately drugs have been winning from day one.
The war on drugs was never about drugs.
That I agree upon for sure. But I’m also just referring to the horrible addiction rates and the Sacklers and such.
Exactly it’s all about money just like everything else
Imagine if they actually cared about the drug-related issues with the war on drugs and not just the income stream? One would think it was an MLB owner running the war on drugs too!
Drugs always win. They’re the Harlem Globetrotters of the real life world.
Gonna make some players look like villains once they reinstate it.
What? Do you think players are going to start doing steroids because of this and then continue to do them once they start testing again?
There ya go.
Get it in, fellas. Going to be some pretty swole ballplayers when we get back on the field.
Imagine the size of Stanton & Voit when they return?! Lolol. One-handed home run swings coming fella!
Be like Hans and Frans
#nomoregirlymeninMLB
As a show of faith to no one in particular, I, too, have stopped testing myself for drugs during the lockout.
Manfred realized the Yankees were no longer relevant without it.
This is the first headline I’ve seen regarding this topic that is honest about why drug testing has stopped. Kudos
As much as I hate to say it, baseball is dying, hard.
Does your comment have anything to do with the topic of the post? If so, please explain what you’re talking about?
um, you guys know they test during the season too, right? as in this isnt just a free pass.
somebody about to have the first 100 homerun season let’s go!!!!
New use of the phrase: pump and dump
I think your thinking of the wrong kind of “injection”.
This didn’t need to make me spit out my water
”Don’t bogart that joint my friend, pass it over to me…..”
all mlb players wanting to smoke weed nows the time
Was MLB testing for weed before? Honest question. The post says PEDs, opiates and cocaine.
If I recall they don’t test major leaguers for weed but they do in the minors for some reason.
By many accounts Bellinger of the Dodgers loves the Mary Jane so you think MLB would zero in on that. I suspect they don’t care much about recreational drugs anymore.
Nelson Cruz will have a good comeback year.
Are they looking to set a record for suspensions once the lockout is over?
Of all the things that don’t matter this doesn’t matter the most.
Well, they are going to need home run chases to get the fans to forget about the lockout. Door’s open, boys!
Losers. Filthy rich LOSERS.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Cano now has his pre-season routine set.
Thanks Von; I owe you a beer if we ever meet.!
Interesting they waited to announce this until after HOF voting results were made public.
No reason not to pass that blunt around the clubhouse now. Sometimes the grass in greener on the inside.
Clubhouse is locked.
Still getting swole off bread and water…and steroids lol.
Yes! Let’s all do blow!
Alright guys! Go get goosed up and pull us out of this mess thus summer like it’s McGwire/Sosa!
Love,
Owners
Drugs are a helluva baseball.
That’s weird… in one of the chats, I asked if they still checked for ped’s during the lockout. I guess they felt ketchup or catsup was a more provoking question.
I hope I’m not being naive in thinking this would change anything, a player wouldn’t see long term benefits in the short period, at least not enough to last the season.
Players with injuries could explore better treatments that would normally be offside, but that should be within the rules anyways.
Anyone else think there are already plenty of HOFers who juiced ?
Of course not. Only the names we’ve heard about juiced. No one else. Right
50/50 your favourite HOF slugger juiced.
Name them, with proof.
That can be turned around prove x didn’t dope
Suspension of drug testing is what got Cano in trouble during the Season of Covid. Will he be tempted again?
I’ll answer that with a question: Say that someone addicted to heroin has a loaded needle placed directly in front of him; will he use it?
Answer is the same.
Robinson Cano is trending on twitter
So we’ve finally found a conclusive winner of this offseason and it’s drugs. Sounds about right.
Do the owners think steroids will save them from their mistakes in labor talks again?
No they just realize that it’s illegal to drug test people that they willingly put out of work
Why would MLB bother to protect the players who don’t cheat from the ones who do? They never have. Another kick in the pants to the honest hard working slobs who are just trying to get their cup of coffee. America, where if you lie and cheat, you’re a hero. Great.
Meanwhile, they’re also not allowing injured players to avail of the resources that would normally be available to them. Unless you’re “lucky” enough to not be on the major league roster. Finally, a situation where minor leaguers are treated better than major leaguers.
This is not ending soon, it will get a whole lot uglier and baseball will basically smell like rotten fish when it starts back up again. But at least there’s this site to keep us informed.
Why do people act like baseball is a clean game? Every baseball player since the start of the sport looks for advantages. Legal or illegal. People diss roids but don’t speak on greenies era or pitchers in HOF who used substances or scuffed balls. Smh
Because steroids are not just an “advantage”; it physically changes what a player is capable of… not just enhancing. It gives a player enhanced strength and endurance and the ability to come back quicker from injury.
Once again taking a player who is capable of hitting 7-10 home runs and turning him into a player who now hits 25-30 home runs is not just an advantage; its a fraud and a crime.
They are a controlled substance by law and regulated and players should go to JAIL like any of us would.
Looking forward to the Jace Peterson & Kevin Newman home run chase this year.
If there are steroids for GMs, I am sure that Al Avila must be taking them. He is so smart and proactive, he must be juicing…..
I wish we could cryogenically unfreeze the bash brothers and rename them the Swole Bros.
I sense some epic numbers to start the season and then regression to the mean.
Cheaters will always be ahead of the curve on PEDs. Storing blood for future testing is really the only way to combat the issue. Salary/endorsement paybacks/fraud charges might affect the calculus but then again a bird in the hand…
Personally I like to watch the best performance and if out in the open it can be done under proper medical supervision.
Some great years will be had by many average players in a contract year.Mlb wants offense they will surely get it WATCH.