The Mitchell Report

[_Bond...James Bond]

Ouch! Quite a few big names. Clements, Bonds, Pettite....

[_silentkid]

I wasn't surprised to find that Tejada made the list. Yet another former Oakland A's player (hanging my head in shame). The O's are probably feeling good about their trade right now.

[_skippy the dead]

I wasn't surprised to find that Tejada made the list. Yet another former Oakland A's player (hanging my head in shame). The O's are probably feeling good about their trade right now.

I was dismayed to see the involvement of F P Santangelo. Not only as a user, but as a "connection" man setting up other players. I enjoy listening to him on KNBR, and when he calls the occasional game on FSNBA - he's always had a great insider perspective. Who knew it was this inside.

[_skippy the dead]

I've only made a quick scan of the 300+ pages so far. It seems to me that the investigation was actually quite limited in scope, relying on not that many sources. We'll see if a more thorough review changes my opinion on this.

Of interest, though - of the 86 players named (including the BALCO guys), here's the breakdown by position:

P - 31
DH - 1
IF - 24
OF - 19
C - 10
plus 1 unknown

So my suspicions were correct - pitchers benefited from performance enhancing substances probably more than any other position.

It also seems like certain catchers were responsible for "sharing" their juice with pitchers. Gotta take care of your guys, I guess.

I'll be going over this more over the next couple days.

In the meantime, there are some interesting perspectives on the report on ESPN.com (in particular, the article evaluating the objectivity and effectiveness of the report itself).

[_skippy the dead]

by the way - It should be kept in mind that the list in the report is so very limited. Based on the limited participation of the various people that Mitchell tried to interview, and the apparently limited scope, you could probably extrapolate that the actual usage of performance enhancing drugs was at least 10-15 times the number of players named.

[_Mister Scratch]

I've only made a quick scan of the 300+ pages so far. It seems to me that the investigation was actually quite limited in scope, relying on not that many sources. We'll see if a more thorough review changes my opinion on this.

Of interest, though - of the 86 players named (including the BALCO guys), here's the breakdown by position:

P - 31
DH - 1
IF - 24
OF - 19
C - 10
plus 1 unknown

So my suspicions were correct - pitchers benefited from performance enhancing substances probably more than any other position.

I'm not really sure that I follow your logic here, Skippy. After all, the modern era of professional baseball has most certainly NOT been marked by superior pitching. Rather, it has been noteworthy for a series of broken records in the arena of batting. I'm unaware of any upstroke in the strikeout records, or of any increased endurance amongst pitchers, increased perfect games, or lower ERAs, or more 100-mph fastballs, or anything like that. (C'mon, have you not read Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible??? Pitchers in the past---at least according to Nolan---tended far more often to throw complete games.) The proliferation of relief pitchers, and, heaven forbid, all these "middle men" pitchers somewhat belies the statistics from the Mitchell Report. I mean, if these pitchers were taking performance-enhancing drugs, then where was the enhanced performance? Is six innings of 5-hit ball w/ 3 walks supposed to be "enhanced" somehow? Sure, The Rocket has had an extraordinary career, but I would be hard pressed to name 31 pitchers whom I'd suspect of doping. (Then again, are we talking strictly relief pitchers? Because I reckon that would change things somewhat....)

[_skippy the dead]

I've only made a quick scan of the 300+ pages so far. It seems to me that the investigation was actually quite limited in scope, relying on not that many sources. We'll see if a more thorough review changes my opinion on this.

Of interest, though - of the 86 players named (including the BALCO guys), here's the breakdown by position:

P - 31
DH - 1
IF - 24
OF - 19
C - 10
plus 1 unknown

So my suspicions were correct - pitchers benefited from performance enhancing substances probably more than any other position.

I'm not really sure that I follow your logic here, Skippy. After all, the modern era of professional baseball has most certainly NOT been marked by superior pitching. Rather, it has been noteworthy for a series of broken records in the arena of batting. I'm unaware of any upstroke in the strikeout records, or of any increased endurance amongst pitchers, increased perfect games, or lower ERAs, or more 100-mph fastballs, or anything like that. (C'mon, have you not read Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible??? Pitchers in the past---at least according to Nolan---tended far more often to throw complete games.) The proliferation of relief pitchers, and, heaven forbid, all these "middle men" pitchers somewhat belies the statistics from the Mitchell Report. I mean, if these pitchers were taking performance-enhancing drugs, then where was the enhanced performance? Is six innings of 5-hit ball w/ 3 walks supposed to be "enhanced" somehow? Sure, The Rocket has had an extraordinary career, but I would be hard pressed to name 31 pitchers whom I'd suspect of doping. (Then again, are we talking strictly relief pitchers? Because I reckon that would change things somewhat....)

For starting pictures, performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) will do quite a few things, notably help in the recovery period between starts, particularly during August and September when bodies tire. It can also make the difference between an 88 mph fastball and a 93 mph fastball - often enough of a difference to pull that extra couple of mil in your contract, or even to be in the bigs to begin with.

Obviously with a "lights out" closer like Gagne (was), that overpowering speed and the ability to come back night after night is going to be what wins you the 2003 Cy Young award.

So no, PEDs aren't necessarily going to get you a perfect game or a lower ERA. What it will do is get your speed up on the radar gun (which is prized by ML scouts, translating to dollars) and make you stronger throughout the season and into the postseason if your team gets that far. Not to mention, you could still be pulling down, say, 22 million when you're 43 (*cough*Clemens*cough*).