Breakout Years

[arch stanton]

Progress in not always incremental. Sometimes players have eureka moments or make changes that spike certain numbers. Downing is a good example because he was among the first to use weight training and to go to the wide open stance. Foster had trended upward with power then went through the roof in '77. Cecil Fielder went to Japan then came back and hit 50 right away. Both '78 and '87 were considered rabbit ball years and lots of players broke out. Remember George Bell? Unless you were watching in '87 then probably not.

[Inside Pitch]

 Remember George Bell? Unless you were watching in '87 then probably not.

 

George Bell did have a huge 87 but he was actually pretty good until he got his FA money and then decided he was bored playing baseball.  I remember when him and Jesse Barfield both were OFers in Toronto and were death to base-runners -- they both had cannons.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Inside Pitch

[Angel Oracle]

Like with various hitters in 1969 partly due to watered down expansion year pitching (and partly the mound being lowered after 1968), 1977 saw hitting explode due to that season's expansion into Seattle and Toronto.

Carew hit .388, Foster hit 52 HRs, four Raviners hit 30 HRs each, even Bobby Bonds tied the Halos HR record with 37 (after hitting just 10 in 1976).

[YouthofToday]

PED's have been around since the 1950's. Steroids have been around since the 1970's at least.

If you want a true breakout sans drugs look to the era before WWII.

Edited February 3, 2014 by YouthofToday

[floplag]

Thing is i think people are getting lazy on the subject and assuming everyone that has had great years in those times is guilty by association... i wonder how those people would feel if that standard was applied to other things in life but i digress.

 

Perhaps it is naive, i dont know , but i refuse to think or believe that every great season in the last 40 years was tainted.  If this was the case then everything i have ever loved about the game is a lie, and im not going down that path without proof.

The so-called steroid ERA is really rather silly anyway as anyone with a clue know as myself and others have said roids were around loooooong before the so-called ERA began going back to the 70s and likely before that as they became "known" around the 70s.

 

Bottom line is that you really have 2 choices... you can either assume that every anomalous season since Elvis was tainted, or you can look at the facts case by case.  Additionally i see 2 reasons why a guy might have used, greed, and survival.  The greed issue is guys using to inflate stats, chase records, make more money based on performance (ARod, Bonds for example), while survival guys used to keep their careers or become something they weren't without it (Brett Boone)

 

For me the real issues likely began around the time that free agency became the norm.. going back to the early 70s with Flood etc.. and the CBA in 76 that brought true free agency since that really is the father of modern baseball in many ways.  Once this was in place there was a reason for guys to bend the rules a bit and profit from it... before that there really wasnt as they were basically controlled property in many ways... assuming you believe the reason many of these guys used PEDs to be profit.  Im sure reason #2 above was relevant before free agency but for me i kinda lean towards that as the beginning of the problem, but thats just me. 

[jsnpritchett]

 even Bobby Bonds tied the Halos HR record with 37 (after hitting just 10 in 1976).

 

Though to be fair, that 10 HR season was an injured-plagued one.  Bonds had hit as many as 39 HR in a season before (and hit for 30+ six times over his entire career)--so 37 in 1977 wasn't really that big of a surprise.

[ten ocho recon scout]

whats the point to this... finding more steroids? got news for you its been in the game since the 70s or before so... why not go all the way back to Maris?

agreed.

Not totally sold that guys were using in the 70's, but there were plenty using before canseco supposedly introduced them.

I hate to say it, but I think blarg listed one above..