Who else might be ‘juicing?’
Interesting article on Kotite’s Corner points out some real statistical anomalies in 20 past/present MLBers, who seem ripe for suspicions of ‘juicing.’
SCOTT JACOBS
Manny Ramirez was the latest ball player to fall victim to his own stupidity, but there’s no telling how many other players have injected themselves with performance enhancing drugs. And that’s where the problem lies. With pandora’s box of cheating scum out in the open, it seems that any player in MLB is open to be a cheater. Any kind of statistical jump is no longer a great season, it’s a question mark. Any unexpected surge in a player’s later years is no longer greeted with “great work ethic and still got it” but instead, “he must be juicing.”
It’s the nature of the beast for people to be skeptical, especially considering the spectacular wind fall of names that have come out in the last few years. So, Kotite’s Corner compiled a list, and presumptively checked their facts twice, on some old names, re-shedding some light on 15 years of baseball that now seem as fake as the Y2K scandal that never was.
It’s outrageous and devastating that we have to look at guys who were good players, and question just how they became ‘great’ almost overnight. In their article, which you can read in its entirety here, the author lists 20 guys, dating as far back as the late 80’s, who may have bee doing something besides, lifting uh, weights and eating, uh, the right foods. Whether you’re ready to believe the names is on you, but as Norman Chad used to say in his Tale of the Tapes, the numbers never lie… unless you’re juicing.
Some of the names he threw out there that may surprise you: Tony Batista, Ellis Burks, Alfonso Soriano, Shawn Green, and even Esteban Loaiza.
Loaiza is the only pitcher on the 20 name list, but he’s the most interesting in my humbled opinion. Even with Clemens kicking and screaming his way out of the Hall of Fame, there has been little allegation against many of our other greatest pitchers, including guys who suspiciously improved ‘a lot’ rather quickly.
I think its harder to tell if a pitcher may/may not be juicing just because most pitchers don’t look like freaks of nature like a Bonds or a McGwire. And a pitcher isn’t going to go from pitching 95 mph to 112. That’s why home run hitters are much more scrutinized. Still, the list bears at least a glance.
Opinions strongly encouraged below.
Photo: Getty
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I completely agree with what you are saying. I wanted to point something out about the pitchers and juicing. You are 100 percent correct in saying that pitchers are harder to catch. The reason behind this is not necessarily in velocity but in recovery time. Remember that steroids came into existence as a way to speed up recovery time. Therefore a pitcher may not break down as much between starts if they are juicing. Thus elongating their career by a couple of years as the normal wear and tear does not apply to these pitchers.