Another Mariner suspended for ‘roiding
Dave · April 26, 2005 at 11:09 am · Filed Under Mariners
Yet another Mariner minor league player has been suspended ten games for violating the steroid policy. The slugger who has been using the banned substances to increase his power…
For all the talk of how steroids have helped home run hitters, its interesting that speedy contact guys are the ones testing positive.
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66 Responses to “Another Mariner suspended for ‘roiding”
On a lighter note, a reminder that players are willing to try some goofy stuff to improve their performance:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/baseball/20050417-9999-1s17bbhorn.html
Not sure how fine a hair you want to split, but all androgens are steroids, and the ex-assistant says he found it in Armstong’s medicine cabinet, so the allegation “Lance Armstrong took steroids” seem pretty clear. Then again, maybe that’s why Sheryl Crow is looking so “cut” lately.
http://blue.utb.edu/biology/Rodriquez/A&PII%20Lab/endocrine_system.htm
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/7774.0.html
The guy claims what he found was called “Androstenine…or something.” It might be a form of androstenedione, a testosterone precursor. Given that Armstrong had testicular cancer, he might have used it to help deal with some side effect of the cancer. Which would just make the allegation even more lame if it were true.
[sordidness/]
If you think this wasn’t steroids or some sort of performance enhancing drug, you’re simply being blind and neglectful of what’s going on here. Plain and simple.
“Edgar had serious bulk, but because of his percieved character, we would all be shocked if it was found out that he used steriods (and we know what his work-out habits were, etc.).”
I am not saying Edgar was on steroids. Far from it. I am constantly amazed, however, that people can read through ten posts explaining that a primary means by which steroids cause muscle mass gains is through greatly decreasing recovery time, and then write that a guy is not on steroids because “we know what his workout habits were like.” This is what really gets me about Bonds. “He works so hard that his workout routine is something that no normal person could maintain.” Uh, yeah — no kidding. That actually supports an argument that Bonds was on steroids. Anyone see what I’m talking about here?
re 54
You’d have a stronger point if Bonds WERE a normal person.
However, by definition, world class athletes are NOT normal people. What allows them to be world class, naturally, may also give all the indications of artificial enhancements. And close examination of world class athletes have sometimes shown rather unique physiology that you just don’t expect outside of enhanced subjects,
A lot safer to look at chemistry instead of guessing….and even there, you actually do have people who produce levels that look like artificially induced, but aren’t.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if, say Bonds was using steroids. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t, either. Trying to argue from incredulity isn’t really that strong an argument.
non-roid comment, but related to minor-leagues: Asdrubal Cabrera, Dave’s favorite low-level M’s position prospect is back in the lineup in Wisconsin and hit a home run tonight.
This steroid testing is giving a lot good guys bad names. Theres no way jamal was on roids , he probably just took the wrong supplement. They have to be so strict in their testing that players can fail for something as simple as protein powder. There has to be another way to do this.
*sigh* Jamal has a ‘knee.’ Actually, he fits the profile of people who turn to the junk very well: locked in at AAA; no power; team has no interest in him; chronic injury problem (knee) that legitimately threatens his chances of staying in the game. Termel Sledge was a very similar guy to strong, as you may recall; a little more pop, but not much, still a tweener. He got suspended last year.
It is my observation after years watching this that many of the pro athletes who end up being steriod users _start_ when they are struggling with an injury which they think threatens their career, rightly or wrongly. They think they’re in a corner and have to get healthy ‘in a hurry’ or their organization will marginalize or dump them. Later, they say “I NEVER took anything to get better, I didn’t need to.” And in their head, that’s true: they took something to get over an injury, “just part of the game, dealing with injuries,” and the performance enhancement was a ‘side effect.’
Regardless, a very disappointing decision by Jamal. I understand why, but he’s in a worse position now than he was before.
Exactly my point thanks Bela Txadux for showing the stupid assumptions that people make. Is it possible jamal took roids? Yes. But out of all the mariner minor leaguers that got busted for roids , In my opinion only one guy was even a suspect. The rest most likely just took the wrong supplement. During meetings we found out that almost any supplement can contain something that will throw off a steriod test. Even arizona ice tea and red bull can set off the tests. So don’t just assume that since a player fails a steriod test that they are automatically a juicer.
Perhaps this will help clear the logjam of powerless outfielders in the M’s Farm System.
#59 – Red Bull contains steroids? Could you point us to a cite for that?
Oh, and does anyone else here get tired of slap-hitting, one-dimensional minor leaguers blaming steroids (or more precisely, everyone else but them being on steroids) for their failure to make it to the bigs?
#59: Nothing sold over the counter will cause a positive test for steroids. That’s in almost every press release about the new drug policy. Could Strong have been taking an old supplement he bought before it was taken off the market? Yes, but then he’s being a little careless. Why would the MLBPA agree to a drug testing policy if Red Bull caused failures?
Assuming that Strong is not on steroids just because that’s what you want to think is just as bad as accusing Beltre (or anyone else) of being on steroids for the same reason. Strong failed the test. Is he guaranteed, 100%, to be on roids? No. There are some false positives. But the chance he did take something is very high.
Sorry Jeff I sat through hours of meetings in spring training telling us that the only 100% safe supplements to take were the ones with the “FDA Approved” stamp on them. Those supplements are pretty hard to find. They told us that there is such a demand for quick results that a lot of supplement companys will put in small doses of steroids like deca or andro (which turns into a steroid in the body) into their supplements to keep their users coming back. I don’t remember what red bull has in it but there is something like ephedrin that can throw off the tests. And the worst part is that they are releasing names to please the media and probably 95% of the people that read these reports have no knowledge of this information and just assume the players are steroid users.
Also Jamal is a minor leaguer not a major leaguer. Unfortunately minor leaguers are pretty much the ginny pigs for the soon to be major league tests and thats why guys like troy cate are failing steroid tests …. so that ryan franklin doesn’t have to. And if you really believe Cate was on steroids then you’re not a very big mariner fan becuase he hasn’t put on a pound.
Two things:
They told us that there is such a demand for quick results that a lot of supplement companys will put in small doses of steroids like deca or andro (which turns into a steroid in the body) into their supplements to keep their users coming back.
If a supplement company put deca into their creatine, that’d be crazy illegal. The risk is so high, and the reward so low, I can’t imagine anyone would try that. Really, if it was proven that supplement company x put Deca in their stuff, that’s the end of company X.
Andro, when that was legal.. sure.
It’s a lot more likely that supplements are tainted with legal but banned-by-sports masking agents, in particular diuretics.
Unfortunately minor leaguers are pretty much the ginny pigs for the soon to be major league tests and thats why guys like troy cate are failing steroid tests ….
This is true — the minor league drug tests, though inconsistently enforced and rumored to have been treated as a joke in some organizations, have been around long before the major league one and are much more restrictive than even the current major league testing.
from linked article: “Everything on the banned list is a Schedule III controlled substance except for Human Growth Hormone,” said Gene Orza, the union’s chief operating officer. “There is nothing sold over the counter after Jan. 15, the effective date of the new [federal] legislation, that is a banned substance.”
The meetings you went to, were they for the minor league policy or the major league policy? The minor league policy is more restrictive. Strong failed under the major league policy because he was on the 40 man roster. Major leaguers (like Franklin) are now being tested for steroids. That’s why Alex Sanchez failed a test.
I don’t know anything about Troy Cate. I’m not really a Mariners fan at all, but I like reading this site. My point is that you can’t say “Troy Cate could not be on steroids – just look at him.” That’s just as bad as saying “Barry Bonds must be on steroids – just look at him.” The only evidence we have right now is that Cate failed a drug test for steroids. This means that there is a high probability that he actually did take something. Am I 100% certain he took something? No, but it’s probably 90ish%.
The minor league policy is more restrictive, so it’s possible that Cate did test positive for something like Red Bull. But Strong tested positive under the major league policy. Whatever Strong tested positive for it had to have been on the banned substances list and was not something he could get over the counter.