So... Canseco Was Right After All

[Homebrewer]

And MLB is still doing little but lip service to stop it. This newest "scandal" was only uncovered because a disgruntled investor decided to take Tony Bosch down, and stole the documents that MLB used to begin an investigation. It wasn't from a crack-down and better testing...it was from a 3rd source.

All of the fans who might have thought this game was being finally played clean, at least for the most part, were duped again. 

Everything Jose said has turned out to be true, and then some.

[gotbeer]

I'm wondering how many of these clinics are around the US.  

 

To show how much the government cares, they only started investigating this place when it was leaked minors were using.  Type in Anti Aging clinics in google.  There must be hundreds in the Southern California area alone.  

[Blarg]

Conseco was saying over 3/4" of the league was on PEDs. With 750 players on the MLB rosters (not including callups for injuries) there are only 15 players on the list of those looking at a suspension. That equals 2%.

 

Conseco was never good at math.

[eaterfan]

The druggists will always be ahead of the testing but at least they are trying now. I will always be skeptical of what I see on a baseball diamond from now on but that is how it will be forever. On another note, baseball is the only sport that even bothered to investigate when there were apparently players from a variety of pro and amateur sports on the list.

[ettin]

I don't like A-Rod but I can't help but feel for him a little bit because MLB has ignored this problem for years and has done little to enforce it. It just reeks a little of Selig trying to grandstand and act like he suddenly found out about this pervasive issue and has moved fast to squash it.

 

A-Rod certainly has done wrong and may have even tried to block and tamper with the investigation so he does deserve punishment. But I can do without MLB standing up on its soapbox.

[Amazing Larry]

Who is this Conseco everyone keeps mentioning?

[Lifetime]

I don't like A-Rod but I can't help but feel for him a little bit because MLB has ignored this problem for years and has done little to enforce it. It just reeks a little of Selig trying to grandstand and act like he suddenly found out about this pervasive issue and has moved fast to squash it.

 

A-Rod certainly has done wrong and may have even tried to block and tamper with the investigation so he does deserve punishment. But I can do without MLB standing up on its soapbox.

 

 

Your post is a bit disingenuous. It has been years since MLB was ignoring the problem and they have been making efforts for several years to continue to ramp up the discovery and discipline measures. Arod and the other players knew that and chose to try to circumvent the rules. 

 

Why shouldn't MLB make a big deal out of this? It is a big deal. Arod is one of the most iconic players in contemporary baseball, he cheated, he recruited others to cheat, and he tried to cover up his infractions. He should be paraded out there and given a stiff punishment. 

[eaterfan]

Your post is a bit disingenuous. It has been years since MLB was ignoring the problem and they have been making efforts for several years to continue to ramp up the discovery and discipline measures. Arod and the other players knew that and chose to try to circumvent the rules. 

 

Why shouldn't MLB make a big deal out of this? It is a big deal. Arod is one of the most iconic players in contemporary baseball, he cheated, he recruited others to cheat, and he tried to cover up his infractions. He should be paraded out there and given a stiff punishment. 

 

Agreed to an extent, but I did feel like the life time ban was excessive. Also it seemed to me that MLB was trying to make it so he wouldn't get to play this season so that the Yankees could collect insurance on his contract.

[mtangelsfan]

Jose is still a snitch, for profit.

[Angelsjunky]

Conseco was saying over 3/4" of the league was on PEDs. With 750 players on the MLB rosters (not including callups for injuries) there are only 15 players on the list of those looking at a suspension. That equals 2%.

 

Conseco was never good at math.

 

Huh? Are you saying that those 15 players are the only ones who ever used PEDs? Those are just the names on one document from Biogenesis, as far as I can tell.

[Schildog]

Jose is still a snitch, for profit.

 

whistleblower really. 

[Chimi]

Not to mention all the names that were in the Mitchell Report.

[ettin]

Your post is a bit disingenuous. It has been years since MLB was ignoring the problem and they have been making efforts for several years to continue to ramp up the discovery and discipline measures. Arod and the other players knew that and chose to try to circumvent the rules. 

 

Why shouldn't MLB make a big deal out of this? It is a big deal. Arod is one of the most iconic players in contemporary baseball, he cheated, he recruited others to cheat, and he tried to cover up his infractions. He should be paraded out there and given a stiff punishment. 

 

Links to all of the discovery and discipline over the last several years? Only last year did we see Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, and Yasmani Grandal receive suspensions.

 

Your post is a little naive in thinking that MLB has been actively working on the issues up until the last two years. This time around the New York Yankees have a $35 million dollar interest in having MLB enforce it this time.

 

They (meaning the MLB and the Yankees) are doing their best to shame A-Rod out of baseball because of a LOT of money. They have been aware of PED use throughout baseball for years but when it has impacted them in such a large monetary fashion they suddenly take mammoth action.

 

I can do without the BS from MLB. They had their chance years ago to make these grand announcments and didn't do so.

 

Yes A-Rod deserves to be punished I said that in my original post. But I can do without the 5-day wait to announce it (on the day that A-Rod returns to action) and I can do without MLB's feigned shock and awe campaign.

 

Just hand out the suspensions and move on.

[QuinlansMinion]

Who is this Conseco everyone keeps mentioning?

His name is Jose Canseco he used to play for the A's and he was on steroids.  You can find him on google. 

[Amazing Larry]

Jose is still a snitch, for profit.

Imagine where the game would be if he never wrote that book. Baroid would still be hitting for the Gnats, McGuire would be polishing his HOF plaque, and Fullmer would be in prison for dismembering an umpire on the field with his bare hands.

[Amazing Larry]

His name is Jose Canseco he used to play for the A's and he was on steroids.  You can find him on google. 

[Lifetime]

Agreed to an extent, but I did feel like the life time ban was excessive. Also it seemed to me that MLB was trying to make it so he wouldn't get to play this season so that the Yankees could collect insurance on his contract.

the lifetime ban, which was considered but apparently not invoked, was in consideration of all of the evidence including but not limited to Arod's actual PED use. They didn't just contemplate or threaten that just because Arod is a high profile player. Arod deserves to get the book thrown at him. 

 

And no, my post isn't a little naive. MLB and now even MLBPA has been making efforts to clean up the PED issue going on several years now. Saying that they are only doing this because NYY has the potential for a rather large monetary benefit is completely disingenuous.

 

This is new evidence, not MLB trumping up old news to grandstand. 

[Blarg]

In context of this thread Conseco was wrong. In context of how many players are actually cheating and have been caught cheating Conseco was wrong. What he was right about is the guys he hung around with and shared needles with, that he was dead on correct. In his inner circle, yeah there was a lot of cheating going on but outside of that and now 10 years later the numbers are far less.

 

 

Huh? Are you saying that those 15 players are the only ones who ever used PEDs? Those are just the names on one document from Biogenesis, as far as I can tell.

[Blarg]

Findings while investigating the Mitchell Report 83% of players in the game used something. Some illegal then, some illegal now, some with portions of their recipe illegal then, some with portions of their recipe illegal now, Some with borderline recipes then, some with borderline recipes now..

 

Just sayin'.

 

Baseball has attempted to clean up. Don't ever believe that no one knew about it. 

 

Everyone made money! Players, Ownership, Agents, Doctors E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E.

 

Kept the players on the field and kept the turnstiles moving. 

The Mitchell report found what it wanted to (hence no Red Sox players involved) but it was not 83%. It found 89 players involved in something that was against MLB rules and again that was throughout the majors and minor leagues, a total of over 3,000 players. Their random testing on the MLB level found only 7% failed in 2003, the high water mark for steroid abuse in baseball.

[gotbeer]

Wasn't there a confidential drug test done before the Mitchell Report, where over 100 players of the 750ish in the league tested posititve?  It was the start of the crackdown on PED's I believe.

[Amazing Larry]

Well only 3 of the 16 players linked to the Biogenesis scandal ever tested positive for PEDs. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for MLB's testing procedures.

[rageous]

Isn't it obvious that the testing is far behind in the technoloigy for the PEDs.

Lance Armstrong has never tested positive for anything and cycling has one of the most stringent testing in the world.

If you have a good team of doctors or trainers helping you out, players should never test positive.

[Ohtaniland]

Reality is that MLB profited immensely during the peak of the steroid era. Arte should be thankful for that period of time because his Angels organization has been a direct benefactor of increased revenues as well as all MLB teams. Sorry, but the players made money, the owners made money and the league made money on all of this hypocrisy.   

[Lifetime]

so, in order to avoid the "hypocrisy" we should just continue to ignore the issue? How the hell is it hypocrisy to go back and try to clean up a mess that you previously ignored or even condoned?

[ettin]

so, in order to avoid the "hypocrisy" we should just continue to ignore the issue? How the hell is it hypocrisy to go back and try to clean up a mess that you previously ignored or even condoned?

But I thought you said that MLB has been, for YEARS, improving discovery and punishment of the issue?