Comments on: David Ortiz and steroids

By: bob gardner

bob gardner — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:50:15 +0000

2003 was the year when the Red Sox hushed up a much bigger scandal.

By: mike_b1

mike_b1 — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:41:19 +0000

Adam, Ortiz was 24 in 2000. Baseball players typically peak in their age 27 season, plus or minus one year.

By: Adam Riglian

Adam Riglian — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:46:58 +0000

Mike

I wrote "Then factor in his mediocre 2000 season (at least from a power perspective)"

He hit ten home runs. That's mediocre. His slugging was at league average, but what's important is the contrast between his league average slugging before 2003, and his near league leading slugging after

By: Amused

Amused — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:29:56 +0000

Actually, consuming alcohol was never illegal. Prohibition outlawed "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States"

So if you stockpiled your hooch, and didn't sell or transport it, you could get as hammered as you pleased.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:49:02 +0000

Babe Ruth famously consumed alcohol, which was illegal at the time.

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:46:29 +0000

Bill: Babe Ruth was a heavy user of performance-detracting drugs (PDDs).

By: Bill H.

Bill H. — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:51:54 +0000

I've followed baseball pretty closely for my whole life, but apparently I've missed something. Will somebody tell me how Babe Ruth cheated, and what banned substances–aside from hooch–he consumed to bolster his performance?

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:22:46 +0000

PP: Good grief. Imagine being lectured on cheating by a Patriots fan.

By: Mike from Norwell

Mike from Norwell — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:45:10 +0000

"The release of the list of 103 players who voluntarily submitted to testing never should have occurred."

Do you know what you're commenting on here? The actual 103 number is the figure of all of the players (given advance warning also, so the number is lower than the truth) in 2003 who tested positive for PEDs. Just a little difference, to put it mildly in how you interpret that number.

By: mike_b1

mike_b1 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:27:32 +0000

Adam, it has been shown -- conclusively -- that a player's peak season typically is their age 27 season, plus or minus one year. Ortiz turned 27 prior to the 2003 season (his first with the Red Sox).

Moreover, a player's walk rate typically is consistent beginning from the time they get to the majors. OBP is of course heavily tied to walks, since the major league average of balls put into play is around .300. Ortiz has always had a good eye, and throughout his career consistently walked more in than 12% of his ABs.
(Of all the MLB players ever, only Sammy Sosa has had an OBP of under .300 and also one over .400.)

Finally, I'm not sure why you call his 2000 season mediocre. He finished well above the league averages in batting average, slugging and OBP, and came into the season with less than 350 major league at-bats. What more do you want from a 24 year old?

As far as I can tell, he followed a fairly typical progression of adding power as he got older. Yaz, for example, hit 15 HRs in 567 ABs when he was 24 (or 1 HR/37.8 ABs; Ortiz at the same age: 1 HR/41.5 AB). Two years later, he won the Triple Crown.

PP: Of course cheaters win. Look at George Bush.