Steroids in Baseball...Boston?
Written by Luke, Thursday May 07 2009
We haven't seen any steroid use in Boston, could we?
First of all, I was going to make this a comment on another thread, but it started getting so long I figured why not give it it's own spot.
In Boston, we've been lucky to not have seen any steroid use, no real accusations, none of the names of our players linked to illegal or banned substances. We haven't had any players fail drug tests that we know of, and we haven't had any real questions raised about our players. Here's my question about that: why? Why hasn't anyone been asking questions? Why haven't there been any eyebrows raised, or anyone talking about the possibility of steroid use in Boston?
What raises my suspicions, and please first take note I am ONLY SPECULATING. I have absolutely no proof of any kind, and for that matter I have no real wish that this was true, I hope I'm very very wrong for that matter. Anyway, what raises my suspicions is slugger David Ortiz's lack of production as of late.
When David Ortiz was brought into the Twins organization, they hoped to see him turn into a power hitter, and truly develop what it takes to hit it out of the park and scare major league pitchers. After watching Ortiz take over 1,400 at bats over the course of 6 seasons the Twins decided that he would never be the legitimate deep power threat they had hoped, and didn't resign him, allowing him to come to Boston where he met Manny Ramirez.
Prior to joining the Boston lineup, the most homeruns Ortiz had ever hit was 20, in the year right before Boston signed him. In the three years prior to joining Boston he was averaging 16 homeruns a season, and 100 hits. That's roughly 1 in every 5 hits out of the park, as stated earlier. In the 5 years after joining the Red Sox Ortiz saw drastic improvement in his batting, averaging 165 hits and 41 homeruns per season. That's a 5% jump in homeruns per hit, a clear jump in straight out power, the very thing professional trainers and batting coaches in Minnesota became convinced after 6 years he wouldn't ever develop-he developed within a few months of leaving Minnesota. Yes, again 6 years they watched him and didn't resign him because he wouldn't ever develop any power as a hitter, and he went on to immediately up his total of homeruns by 10 the first year, and another 10 th e second year, and, wait for it...that's right another 10 the third year. That's right, within 3 years he'd upped his homerun total by 30 homeruns each season!
Again, now that Manny has left Boston, Ortiz has fallen off to the clip he knew well before joining the Red Sox-about 20 homeruns a year max. His average has even fallen back to those years. Now, this second fact can be attributed to the fact that Manny is no longer in the lineup protecting him and vice versa. I mean, he has other solid hitters, but without Manny he won't see pitchers the same way, and they won't fear the one two punch the same way, a fact that could hurt his average. My question is, can that also hurt his power? I mean, for several years he had no power, he connected enough times but simply didn't have the strength to put it out of the park. Then he couldn't stop hitting homeruns-out of the blue. Sure, he got better pitches, had a higher average due to Manny's presence along with him in the lineup, but the point is, he finally (overnight) had developed the strenght to smack the baseball pretty damn far. Now, all of the sudden, he's back to the first set of stats he knew, the lower average, and yes, the inability to put the ball out. He simply doesn't have the strength any longer, why is that?
Now, again I'm not making accusations, I'm just thinking out loud. I have no proof, but what is it you call it when someone has no power their whole life, then develops it randomly for a few years, then suddenly falls off again? Riiiiggghhhhttt...that's what I was thinking to.
Ironically given the recent news about Manny, once Ortiz met Manny he was able to hit incredibly well, and now that Manny's no longer a part of his life and his locker room, he has pretty much seen his skills regress to the point they were at for 6 years in Minnesota.
Tags:
Leave a comment
Not So Fast! To publish your comment, you have to login
Not Registered? Register now as it only take 20 seconds!
Click here to browse
7 comments
Please sign in to rate!
like i said earlier, it's a shame that a perfectly good article has been tainted by such foolishness in comments, hopefully we can look past them and get some actual thoughts on the steroid use running rampant in the MLB, the article, or maybe even just sports in general...that is what the site's for.
Please sign in to rate!
And Luke when you learn how to use a comma sweetheart, then you can talk. You need to worry about your own work and stop hatin on mine.
Please sign in to rate!
gotta ruin a perfectly good article with an unintelligent comment bama, that's just sad.
Please sign in to rate!
You want to talk about my English, but apparently you need to take a few lessons on grammer yourself doll on when and how to use commas in your sentences.
Please sign in to rate!
I would attribute his homer spike to moving to Fenway, where the right field bleachers are a pop-up away, but he hit BOMBS. It wasn't like he went from Petco to The Great American Ballpark either. 500 foot home runs don't lie. It's definitely worth the speculation. Another guy I look at differently now is Mike Lowell. Nearly ever offseason since he's left Florida, there had been reports of his decline, yet the guy continues to put up numbers. His number jump wasn't as big as Ortiz', but he had career lows in 2005, only to push on into his mid-30s with consistent production, this year starting as no exception. Like you said, no proof, all speculation, but these days there is no certainty.
Please sign in to rate!
I won't be surprised to see Ortiz's name become tarnished, particularly if the light shines too brightly on Manny, he seems like he's the kind of guy that would throw an ex-teammate under the bus to take the focus off himself.
Please sign in to rate!
Definitely an interesting way of looking at Ortiz and his relationship with Manny. It may be speculation for now but I would not consider your ideas far fetched.