PEDs and A-Rod

Despite all the fantastic action taking place on the field, it has been hard to keep your eyes on the field in recent weeks if you've been keeping up with Major League Baseball. MLB's war on performance enhancing drugs (PED's) began with the biogenesis scandal, became serious when Tony Bosch was recruited, took a bizarre turn when Ryan Braun accepted a 65 game ban and almost concluded when twelve players were handed 50-game suspensions. Almost. But of course, the biggest name in this entire saga was Alex Rodriguez. The prodigiously talented third baseman who appealed against his huge 211 game suspension. In an almost surreal twist, Rodriguez returned from his hip injury at around the same time, and made his season debut on the same day he received this suspension. So where on earth do we begin?

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The use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball is nothing new. In 1889 pitcher Pud Galvin used a testosterone supplement, and the use of similar drugs has been wide and well documented ever since. Steroids only made it to baseball's banned substance list in 1991 and testing for PEDs wasn't available until 2003. Between 1995 and 2003, steroid use reached its peak (or at least so we believe) and subsequently offensive numbers sky-rocketed. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa famously chased down Roger Maris' home run record in 1998 and Barry Bonds broke baseball altogether between 2001 and 2004. At the time, no-one batted an eyelid. Why would they? Baseball was the most exciting it had ever been. Stadiums were packed, revenues were soaring and interest was at an all-time high. Jose Canseco's 2005 book 'Juiced' suddenly discredited all these years of incredible offensive numbers, as Canseco detailed his use of steroids and suggested that the majority of other players were also users, including McGwire, Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. The book was highly controversial, and the issue of PEDs suddenly became baseball's biggest concern. Without calling Canseco a liar, his book also detailed Madonna's infatuation with him and claimed that he ran a 3.9 second 40-yard dash, which would be the fastest time ever recorded. Although steroids have only become major news over the past decade, their use has been frequent and widespread for well over half a century.

This season, performance enhancing drugs exploded onto national news when a list of players linked to the biogenesis clinic in Florida was revealed by the Miami New Times. The list seemed to implicate the listed players as having purchased performance enhancing substances from the now defunct clinic. Major League Baseball sued the clinic, and forced it's former owner, Tony Bosch, to co-operate with its investigations. Several months later, these investigations led to the suspensions for Braun, Rodriguez and twelve other players. MLB is yet to reveal the evidence it obtained in order to hand down these suspensions, although hopefully this evidence will come out as part of Alex Rodriguez's appeal process. Either way, the decision of MLB to trust Tony Bosch was an odd one, which highlighted Bud Selig's insatiable desire to combat the PED issue.

So where does that leave Rodriguez? He had previously admitted to PED use in 2003 when he was with the Rangers, but the more recent allegations leave his career in tatters. It's easy to forget that this is one of the most talented players ever to grace a baseball field. In 1996, as a 21 year old, Rodriguez hit .358 with a .414 OBP, 36 homers and 9.2 WAR and should have won the MVP award. There are some, almost scary parallels to a certain Mike Trout. The next season he regressed a little as his BABIP fell, but he was still worth 4.3 wins. He pushed his game up to another level in 1998, hitting 42 homers and stealing 46 bases along with a .310 average (becoming just the third player in history to join the 40/40 club). In 2000, he made the next leap, improving his walk rate from 9.8% to 14.9%, as he basically became the best player in baseball. Over the next decade, Rodriguez would continue to be one of the best players in the game, and as of writing he has compiled 111 wins above replacement in his career, with a .300 batting average and 649 career home runs. This isn't just a strong hall of fame case, this is a first ballot, slam dunk, sure-fire baseball great. But, of course, it's not. It's Alex Rodriguez.

So, what heinous crimes has he committed? Alex Rodriguez's use of performance enhancing drugs is beyond doubt - he admitted to steroid use in 2003, but Major League Baseball decided to go much further than the 50 game ban usually handed out to first time offenders and slapped him with a huge 211 game suspension, that would have seen him out of action through the 2014 season. This juiced up suspension was handed down on the grounds that Rodriguez attempted to 'cover-up his violations of the program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commissioner's investigation'. Whilst this would indeed warrant a larger penalty, it seems odd to hand down this suspension to Rodriguez and not Braun, who had a previous failed test and had furiously maintained his innocence after avoiding suspension with a loophole.

Under the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), agreed to by all players, Rodriguez is able to appeal this suspension, and play games whilst his appeal is heard. Exactly the same thing happened last season, when Melky Cabrera continued to play for the Giants whilst he appealed his suspension for PED use. Unlike Rodriguez's appeal, his case took place behind closed doors. This time, however, there is outrage. A number of players have criticised the fact that Rodriguez is able to play, apparently unaware that they agreed to this process themselves. Rodriguez is doing nothing more than following the procedure afforded to him by Major League Baseball. As a consequence, he has had the ball thrown at him by Ryan Dempster, and possibly may face further retribution in the coming weeks.

But this problem goes a lot further than Alex Rodriguez. Performance enhancing drugs have been in the news for a while now, and the argument reached a head last season when a number of hall of fame voters claimed they would never vote for Bonds, Sosa, Clemens etc. due to the steroid allegations levied against them. Whilst the use of PED's should be frowned upon, this feels like an attempt by baseball writers to rewrite the history of the game. Regardless of how he did it, Bonds broke the home run record and put together some of the greatest offensive seasons we have ever seen. To ignore his contributions to the game seems naive and stubborn. Even worse, players like Mike Piazza, who have never been linked absolutely to performance enhancing substances were failing to make the cut, as some writers decided not to vote for 'suspected users'. This argument came up again this season, when an ESPN poll revealed that a number of fans and pundits viewed Roger Maris original record of 61 home runs in a season as the real record. This black-inking of Sosa, McGwire and Bonds is ludicrous.

To start with, we have no idea what kind of effects PED's have on production. As David Schoenfield explained in this interesting article, there is little to no doubt that steroids have some impact on production. If they didn't help, players wouldn't take them. But it's impossible to work out how much of an impact they have. And the impact is almost certainly going to be less than most fans would like to believe. Steroids increase strength, which in turn can increase bat speed. In theory, this leads to more power - but how much more? Steroids certainly won't have any effect on plate discipline, on contact rates, on fly ball rates etc. Of course, it's a shame that talented players like Bonds, McGwire and Rodriguez felt the need to take PEDs and muddy the waters in the way they have. But to completely black out their incredible performance without any consideration into what effects the PEDs actually had seems premature and poorly informed. Not only that, but the greats of the past were probably juiced up on amphetamines, and all sorts of other performance enhancing drugs that weren't tested for. Heck, you can take adderall with no repercussions as a major league baseball player if you can get your hands on a prescription.

But the biggest shame of all? Well, that's not hard to find. In a season filled with spectacular baseball, as the Pirates look to make the play-offs for the first time since 1992, and look to put together a winning record for the first time in 20 seasons. Jose Fernandez, Yasiel Puig, Shelby Miller, Wil Myers et al are having remarkable rookie seasons, challenging not only for their respective rookie of the year awards, but possibly for MVP and Cy Young awards. Clayton Kershaw is putting together possibly the greatest pitching season since 1999 Pedro Martinez. These should be the headlines. These should be the discussions. But the continued focus on Alex Rodriguez and performance enhancing drugs doesn't allow that to happen. If this were the end of performance enhancing drugs, perhaps that would be ok. But it's not. Drugs have been used since 1890, and they'll continue to be used, no matter what suspensions Bud Selig hands down. That's the depressing truth. So, let's concentrate on baseball, please?