Sun 16 Dec 2007
Well, the Mitchell report came out this week. 20 million dollars of tax payers money spent to learn that Roger Clemens used. Was it really worth it? I would say no. Being a huge baseball fan the news to me is really completely worthless. The report named 90 names of course, and Mitchell has stated that he believes that there are many many more. Of course there is. Not everyone that is using or has used is going to be talking.
Some Yankees fans are crying foul since not many Red Sox players were named stating that Senator Mitchell was a director for Boston for awhile. Maybe that has tainted the report some. But then again, there is proof of the 90 players named.
There is also the case of one player that agreed to cooperate with The Senator and he was left unnamed just a footnote about it. Apparently he had bought the drugs but he never used them and disposed of them someway or another. Would it be nice to know his name? Sure, I’d like know the guy that can flirt with the idea and in the end, decide to not to do it even though its all right there and easy to get too.
The Mitchell report does not have the authority to dictate a tough testing program. It does recommend one but that actual part of getting done is left to the owners and players union.
I have felt the entire time that baseball should adopt a better testing program and move on. Your right, there is proof now that Barry was probably on steroids. There is also proof that Clemens and his best friend Andy used. Other players named include Paul Lo Duca, Troy Glause, Miguel Tejada, and Alex Caberra.
Clemens and Caberra have both denied using them, Alex may have a case. Andy has said that he Used HGH as he was recovering from an injury.
I feel that baseball should move on. There are many things going on that are in play for higher numbers. This is from an article on MLB.com “Certainly steroids have been a part of it. There has been a trend towards smaller ballparks with the new stadiums. There have been a lot of advances in hitting instruction, hitting theory, video-based hitting instruction. I think that’s been a change that doesn’t always get a lot of publicity, but that’s been a factor as well.”
The pure science of hitting is way better then before. Players can even watch video right after their at bat to see what they did wrong. Hitting a baseball is hard. And with 31 pitchers also named, It’ll get harder. Of course players will use steroids to help out. If everyone is truely doing it, How much of an edge does it really give you?
From reports with Minor League Players that have used, Steroids have only helped out slightly. Mainly they’ve gained more weight, have a slightly better ERA or a slightly better OBP.
As it is now, I feel that baseball should adopt a tougher policy and move on. Nate Silver, proprietor of Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA statistical projection system, said they will now be using the list of known Major League Players to see how their stats have improved and see how big of an edge Steroids have given players.
I think I will wait for my final call for that report.
So that means the AL has home field advantage in the world series. Good or not? i don’t know. depends on if you’d rather have 3 games back to back or two at your field.
