wild irresponsible speculations on

Wild, Irresponsible Speculations on the Mitchell Report

Former Senator George Mitchell released his long-awaited report on the

use of performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball a week

ago, and it's been met by an odd combination of outrage, righteous

indignation, and yawns.

On the one hand, Senator Mitchell's assignment was colossal, to sum up

the problem of PEDs in MLB and recommend a course of action. On the

other hand, he was given almost no power at all with which to

accomplish this assignment, whech means that the only cooperation he

got was from people who had nothing to lose: Ex-major leaguers,

ex-minor leaguers, long-banished clubhouse attendants and trainers,

who had been labeled pariahs in MLB anyway, and of course, people from

the Commissioner's office. Which assigned this task, as you'll recall.

Not surprisingly, then, there were, well, not many surprises in the

report. Sure, Andy Pettitte's name was a bit of a shock, but only the

most naieve among us would have assumed that it was just the

difference in his workout after Clemens joined the Yankees in 1999

that got him back on track. Slap hitters like Fernando Vina and Nook

Logan seem like a bit of a surprise because they don't "fit the

profile" of a steroid user, but then we learned from the Jason

Grimsley situation that you don't have to actually be any good to be

using.

Much of the report consists of re-hashing and detailing events about

which we already know: The BALCO scandal, the US government hearings

in 2005, drugs being found that seemingly belonged to Manny Alexander,

Juan Gonzalez, Ricky Bones, Alex Cabrera, and others. These incidents

were uses as springboards to try to conduct other interviews, though

the people who would make the biggest splash, i.e. the star players

themselves, made little or no effort to cooperate with Mitchell in his

investigation. So they didn't. In fact, the players were practically

advised by their Union NOT to talk to Mitchell or his associates. In

addition, because the Players' Union has beaten the Commissioner's

office into submission, even some of the names that Mitchell and

company were given during the investigation could not be provided in

this report.

The really interesting thing about the reports is not the names in it

(there are 86 players named in it, despite their general lack of

cooperation) but the names that are not. Jose Canseco said he was

suprised to hear that Alex Rodriguez was not named, an accusation

which A-Rod vehemently denied. Almost everybody was surprised to see

that Sammy Sosa was not implicated. But there are other names, hidden

names, if you will, that nobody had really discussed yet:

For example, on page 99 of the report, the arrest of Luis Perez, a

former bullpen catcher for the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos is

detailed, including how he turned stool pidgeon on a number of his

former customers. In his deposition,

According to [MLB security chief Kevin] Hallinan's memo, Perez told

baseball officials "...that virtually every player on the Marlins

was `doing something' ranging from steroids and greenies, to

marijuana, etc. He also claimed that every pitcher in Montreal's

bullpen was on some form of steroid."

This was in September of 2002. It doesn't take a genious to go to

baseball-reference.com and figure out who these people were.

Here is the 2002 Marlins' roster, along with a few comments.

2002 Marlins

Vladimir Nunez

Vic Darensbourg

Toby Borland

Tim Raines

Ryan Dempster

Ramon Castro

Preston Wilson

Pablo Ozuna

Ozwaldo Mairena

Nate Teut

Nate Robertson

Mike Redmond

Mike Mordecai

Mike Lowell

Michael Tejera

Marty Malloy

Luis Castillo

Kevin Olsen

Kevin Millar

Justin Wayne

Julian Tavarez

Juan Encarnacion

Josh Beckett

Homer Bush

Hansel Izquierdo

Graeme Lloyd

Gary Knotts

Eric Owens

Derrek Lee

Cliff Floyd

Charles Johnson

Carl Pavano

Brian Banks

Braden Looper

Brad Penny

Blaine Neal

Armando Almanza

Andy Fox

Alex Gonzalez

Abraham Nunez

A.J. Burnett

Very few of these guys had some kind of significant spike in their

production at an odd time in their careers, like Sosa did in 1998 or

Bonds in 2000. But there are some potential connections here:

Tim Raines was diagnosed with Lupus in July 1999, a disease that is

sometimes treated with steroids. Could he have been a link in the

chain? it would not have been the firt time he was linked to drugs.

Mike Redmond is an interesting case. He joined the Marlins in 1998, as

a 27-year old catcher, about the time that he should have been

reaching his peak as a hitter. Despite a career minor league line of

.260/.319/.332 and a reputation as a catch-and-throw guy, he hit well

over .300 in limited playing time in 1998...and then did that five

more times in the next eight seasons, plus a .294 mark last season

with the Twins. He's 37 now and has continued to hit (most of the

time). Not that a career slugging average of .368 is anything to write

home about, but this comes from a guy who never hit better than .287

in a minor league season. Most guys don't get better when they face

tougher competition, you know? I'm not saying he was/is using, just

that it's worth thinking about.

A lot of these guys had sufferred or were suffering from injuries at

that time. Cliff Floyd, Charles Johnson, Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnett,

Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Alex Gonzalez and others either missed time

due to injuries in 2002 or very recently before that season. It's

certainly possible that one or mor eo fthem, in order to combat their

penchant for getting hurt, might have tried HGH or some steroid. But,

you know, like Pettitte and Vina, they probably only did it once or

twice. Right.

Remember "Roid Rage"? Well, how about this:

In 2006, 2002 Marlins' pitcher Julian Tavarez was suspended for 10

days for punching Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright during an on-field brawl.

During Spring Training. That was the 5th of Tavarez' tumultuous

career, most of which were for brawling or throwing at players.

The other groub that Perez ratted out was the Montreal Expos' bullpen:

2002 Expos Pitchers

Javier Vazquez

Tomokazu Ohka

Tony Armas

Masato Yoshii

Bartolo Colon

Scott Stewart

Matt Herges

Joey Eischen

T.J. Tucker

Britt Reames

Graeme Lloyd

Dan Smith

Jim Brower

Zach Day

Carl Pavano

Bruce Chen

Tim Drew

Sun-Woo Kim

Ed Vosberg

Scott Strickland

Note that both Graeme Lloyd and Carl Pavano appear on both lists, due

to a mid-season trade (including Cliff Floyd and Wilton Guererro, who

had previously been suspended for a different kind of cheating), for

whatever that's worth.

Matt Herges is mentioned elsewhere in the report as having bought HGH

from Kirk Radomski in 2005, but he was 32 years old in 2002 and was

struggling a little after a very good 2001 season with the Dodgers.

There are some injury-prone guys here, too, but there are also a few

who look like good suspects for PEDs, based on sudden changes in their

performance levels.

Dan Smith was 25 at the time, but had been a pro since he was 17, had

an unremarkable minor league career and had flopped in two attempts at

the majors. But in 2002, he "got it together" and pitched well in AAA,

getting called up to the majors, where he continued to pitch well. In

2003 he was awful again, and by 2005 he was out of baseball.

Joey Eischen was a journeyman LOOGY, the very picture of mediocrity,

in 2002, with a 4.37 career ERA in the majors. In 2002, however, he

went 6-1 with a 1.34 ERA at age 32, and managed to sustain his success

for at least a few years, though he fell apart in 2006 and did not

play last year.

Other non-pitchers on that team definitely fit the "body type" you'd

think of with respect to steroids and/or HGH: Vladimir Guererro and

Andres Galaragga at the very least, though there may be others. Just

becaus ePerez didn't specifically mention people who weren't pitchers

doesn't mean that we should be foolish and think that all the hitters

must have been clean.

On a more general note, look at the numbers: The 2002 Ezpos finished

the season 83-79, in 2nd place, but 19 games behind the Atlanta

Braves. the Marlins were worse, winning only 79 games and finishing

4th, thanks to the hapless Mets. So if the members of two teams as

blatantly mediocre as the 2002 Marlins and Expos were rife with PED

users, why should we believe that the players on the good teams were

innocent? How can we believe that?

We can't, of course. The 102-win Braves had Gary Sheffield, Matt

Franco, Kevin Millwood, and Darren Holmes, all of whom get some blame

in the Mitchell Report, not to mention likely candidates who have not

yet been outed like Javy Lopez, Vinny Castilla, and Julio Franco.