Thursday, June 05, 2008

The Three Levels of MLB Druggies

I was listening to a podcast of Max Kellerman & Brian Kenny's radio show on ESPN Radio in NYC. And Kellerman mentioned that he had 3 levels of suspicion when it came to alleged steroid users.

I thought that that was an interesting concept. Here's my list, using his categories:

Level 1: "You juiced, I'm saying it, Sue me if you don't like it" [...] "I'm not accusing them -- I'm saying it as a matter of FACT"

Barry Bonds
Mark McGwire
Jose Canseco
Sammy Sosa
Rafael Palmeiro
Chuck Knoblauch
Bret Boone
Roger Clemens
Jason Giambi
Eric Gagne

Level 2: "I'm not saying as matter of fact that they did it, but I am saying that I'd like to play prosecutor in a case against them."

Lots of red flags around these guys, including radical weight changes, radical statistical changes, ridiculously amazing statistics, total career turn-arounds, and the like.

Ivan Rodriguez
Manny Ramirez
Miguel Tejada
Nomar Garciaparra
(Career went downhill with a wrist injury -- something about a split tendon & damage to the tendon sheath.)

David Ortiz
(Just hit the DL with a split tendon sheath in his wrist. Did they have this injury back in the 1960's?)

Mike Piazza
(Freakish numbers for a guy who played a rigorous position in pitcher's parks, and was originally drafted in like the 60th round of the MLB draft.)

Travis Hafner
(Great numbers one year, falls off the map the next year)

Level 3: Not saying they did it as a matter of fact, and not sure one could prove it in a court of law

Alex Rodriguez
(Canseco may be a snake in the grass, but he has a decent record when he points the finger.)

Pedro Martinez
(Had an awfully amazing fastball to come from such a scrawny body. And originally had a hard time getting MLB scouts to notice him.)


Who am I missing? I'll add them to the list.

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