Minor League PED suspensions.

[Uptown]

HAHAHAHAHA Frandsen. Thats what you get when you rescind on a deal with Arizona. Roofies in your drink sucka!

[catman]

Here is my suggestion to solve the problem. Have MLB license and market acceptible supplements. If players take these supplements, there will be no problems. If they take anything else, they are on their own.
Here is my reasoning. The commissioner's office knows what supplements that the players are taking and can get a manufacturer to make these to their specifications. They could market these supplements to players, and potential players, at cost and not be concerned about profit margin.

[Old Sweater]

i have an issue with that? Just another way to make MLB richer and MLB already takes 48% of revenue from the players which is the largest taking of any of the pro sports leagues in the US...

^^^ Love it Edge, this is the 2nd time I have seen you bring that up. Besides me, you're the only poster I remember doing so.

To be honest I don't see why all teams don't require all players to submit to drug screenings on a monthly basis. To do your entire organization a pre-employment drug screening is usually less than $100 bucks, teams usually employ doctors anyways to facilitate this and send them to a lab. 17,500(cost of the approximate of 175 players in each organization) is pretty minimal amount to spend. do it 3-4 times over the course of a season and 1 time at a random time in spring training. For around 100k a year they could keep all their players tested on a pretty regular basis..

I wouldn't care for this much, sort of an invasion of privacy. Working construction, they use to pop the random tests on us and even though I had no worries about passing, I felt violated having to pee in some darn bottle, while management didn't have to.

MLB IMO, needs an independent tester with no MLB ties at all and Selig won't ever let that happen. MLB wants full control over the offense, so they can tweak it at any time they want to, for control of demand. Plus without having to release the specs of a baseball, MLB can inject a 2%-? steroid in the ball, at any time they want. What good is any PED testing going to do when MLB can put a bunny in the ball, any time they want to?

[RickD]

Rockies minor leaguer Mike Jacobs, who has spent parts of six seasons in the majors, has been suspended by Major League Baseball for 50 games for testing positive for Human Growth Hormone

[TTMCentral]

Rockies minor leaguer Mike Jacobs, who has spent parts of six seasons in the majors, has been suspended by Major League Baseball for 50 games for testing positive for Human Growth Hormone

THis shows the competitiveness to get in the Majors. They have not even made it on the big scale and they are trying to improve their abilities.

[RickD]

Well now it cost him as the Rockies have cut him loose!

[Old Sweater]

THis shows the competitiveness to get in the Majors. They have not even made it on the big scale and they are trying to improve their abilities.

What gets me though, TTM, is that no(or close) border line players get caught at the top level. It's like MLB don't care what the MLB players do unless they're a big name.

[WilsonC]

From the Ryan Braun thread:

As usual, very good points Wilson, but..............

Player A: How many of these were on the list that totaled 104 and was suppose to remain anonymous.

Player B: A little performance boost will keep you there longer if one thinks there is that much magic in the needle or pill.

Player C: What gets you there will keep you there. It is not enough of player C testing hot that makes me most suspicious.

IMO, the percentages between MiLB and MLB should be very close if the same testing procedures are followed and enforced.

http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/b...-baseball.html

I gather that the above link only has info going to 2009.

There has been only 27 MLB suspensions, 34 Implicated while there was 47 on the Mitchell list and 104 players testing hot in 2003.

The link shows 153 minor league suspensions but I remember reading that there was a 100 or so hot tests in the DR summer league in 1 year where steroids are/were, legal.

Now add the 104 hot tests to the 27 MLB suspensions and they are in the same ballpark with the minor leagues. Like any drug, there isn't a on/off, switch you can hit once you make the big show, then you have to take human nature into consideration.

Lets take motivations out of the equation and just look at how thinks might break up from a math standpoint. The first thing to remember is that the tests don't measure who's using, but rather who's getting caught.

To simplify, I'll use exaggerated numbers to illustrate how things might break up. Lets assume we have a group of 144 guys on the bubble who are using PED's to try to get to the Majors. Half (72) will make it to MLB. Now, these guys are all about the same level, so let's assume that teams will always favor the guy who didn't fail a test over one who did.

Now, let's say that half of those who use PED's use something untraceable, so they won't get caught. Of the rest, let's say that half will fail a test, and half will get lucky and pass. What we have now are:
- 72 using untraceable PED's
- 36 using traceable PED's who pass
- 36 who get caught

Now, eliminating the 36 who get caught, we're left with a 2 to 1 ratio of players using untraceable substances to those who might still get caught. Keeping that ratio, there will be 48 players making the Majors using untraceable substances, and 24 using traceable substances. In the minors, the ratio who has not yet been caught would be 12 using traceable substances, and 24 untraceable.
Our breakdown:
Minors:
24 untraceable
12 traceable
36 positives

Majors:
48 untraceable
24 traceable

Next, let's assume half those using traceable substances shift to something untraceable, and of the rest, half the remaining players will get caught. Our breakdown is then:
Minors:
30 untraceable
3 traceable who haven't been caught
39 positives

Majors:
60 untraceable
6 traceable who got unlucky
6 positives

Note that in this example, the number of users in the majors and minors is the same, but there's a radical difference in the positives.

Now obviously the real numbers are a lot more complex, but it does illustrate that there's a potential for a massive selection bias even if we don't account for differences in motivations. Essentially, I think it's fair to assume:
- Some players are using substances that are harder (or not yet possible) to test for than others
- Some players slip through due to lucky timing of tests
- Players are more likely to switch to a harder to test drug than the other way around
- For a player on the fringe, a positive test could negatively impact his chances of being called up

If those are true, we'll see a lot smaller percentage of positive tests in MLB. That doesn't automatically mean the difference in those using is as great (though I suspect there's a difference) but rather that a player who's beaten tests to get to MLB is more likely to continue beating tests than a random minor league PED user just starting to use something.

[RickD]

LAD Pitcher, Angel Guzman was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball on Friday for a second violation under the minor league drug program for a drug of abuse.

"I knew about it in spring training. It's a unique situation with that kid and it's a little deeper. There's more to this story," Dodgers manage Don Mattingly said. "I really like him. He's got a great arm and is a hard worker and a great kid. He's not someone to write off."

It's always something more. Never is it just, "The man is a cheater!"

The suspension was the 35th this year under the minor league program.

At least MiLB is doing something about steroids! MLB, not so much.