By Keith Glab 7/24/05

What happens to a player’s production after he abruptly stops taking steroids? Asher has constructed a team full of players who may be suffering from such a withdrawal. I present this counter-team of players who are doing just fine without them.

This is Giambi’s team. No player has received more boos and jeers for his alleged steroid use than Jason Giambi. The Yankees tried to void his contract because he had shrunk and no one expected him to be a productive player ever again.

Jason’s surprised everyone with a torrid month of July. He’s taken the Yankees on his still-muscular shoulders and carried them from teetering around the .500 mark to first place in the AL East. He’s clubbed 11 homers so far in 59 July at-bats on route to a 1.017 SLG and 1.536 OPS for the month! This has been huge in New York’s compilation of a 13-7 July record.

Although he’s not quite at his gargantuan 2000-2001 form for the season, Giambi’s numbers are far greater than anyone should expect for a 34-year old coming off of an injury, the whole steroids issue aside. His current .437 OBP is the third best mark of his career and his .534 SLG is higher than it was in his 41-homer 2003 campaign. Behold the rest of your team, Cap:

No, he’s never been accused of doing steroids. But that’s just my point. Had Brian Roberts been born two years earlier, and had this type of breakout/fluke season back in 2003, everybody would be crying steroids. Asher might have lost his voice for a few days. What B-Rob represents is further proof (along with Davey Johnson, Kevin Elster, and a host of others) that little middle infielders can suddenly achieve excellent power numbers without the help of steroids or even necessarily bulking up. The actual cause of his sudden greatness is up for debate, but because of Brian Roberts, people can look at breakout seasons between 1996-2004 and say, ‘Hmmm. It could be steroids, but it could just as easily be something else.’ And that’s a wonderful realization.

It’s not easy to find a shortstop for our team, as so few shortstops are ever suspected of doing ‘roids. But like Brian Roberts, Milwaukee’s Bill Hall would have been accused of steroid use had he displayed a power eruption like this a few years back. Last season, Hall managed just nine homers in 390 at bats to form a .362 SLG. This year, he’s already banged out 13 homers in 291 at bats, and is slugging almost .500. You can bet if anyone’s been "randomly" tested for steroids, it’s Hall, since he’s a low-profile player (like Sanchez, Betancourt, or Piedra, who all got caught) and exhibiting a surprising power surge. Yet we haven’t seen a suspension so far from Hall, who might have been tempted to hit the needle while looking over his shoulder at prospect Rickie Weeks all season long.

Gary Gaetti is Ensberg’s miracle drug. Ensberg slugged just .363 with 3 homers before the all-star break last year. Since Gary appeared on the Astros’ scene as hitting coach, "Bensberg" concluded the ’04 season with a .477 post-AS SLG and has followed that up with a .586 mark so far this year. Morgan has smashed 33 homers in the 517 at bats he’s had since the break last year. Gaetti reportedly told the young Astro that his slap hitting approach was a waste of the natural power that Ensberg possessed. Here we see another player with abrupt power materializing, and an explanation besides substance abuse.

I usually like to give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to steroid talk. But Luis Gonzalez has to be one of the most suspicious guys out there. His arms became twice as thick in almost no time at all, and he never appeared to have a body type conducive to building lots of muscle mass. Few have benefited more from such a bulk up, whether it was steroids or not.

But Gonzo made the All-Star team this year, and is enjoying a fine season for a 38-year old in this new drug-free environment. His BA and OBP are up from last year, and he leads his team in OBP and Runs Scored, and is second in Hits and RBIs. He’s not exactly reliving the 2001 season, but he certainly hasn’t crashed.

Giambi’s right-hand man is enjoying an even finer season than the Captain himself is. His .924 OPS leads a very small group of productive AL outfielders. Sheffield also has the distinction of being healthier than ever this year, as he hasn’t played in this high of a percentage of his team’s games since 1996. So whether he took his injections and creams for muscle gains or for the injury recovery purposes that we’ve heard so much about in the past few months, Sheff’s been getting on just fine without them.

Here’s another guy who no one ever mentions in connection with steroids. The question is, why? Vlad’s rookie cards have him listed at 160 pounds. He’s put on 50 pounds of muscle since then, or increased his mass by over 30%. I’m not accusing him of anything; I just find it strange that Vlad has been granted immunity to any suspicions of illegal substance use while some of his less-inflated contemporaries are being squinted at with one eyebrow raised in the air.

But one of two things happened. Either Vlad put on 50 pounds of muscle naturally, or being cut off from his unnatural substances hasn’t affected his MVP-level of production (.305 18 62). Either way, he don’t need no stinking steroids.

I-Rod has the unique distinction of appearing both on Asher’s Flat on Their Face Team and my We Don’t Need No Stinking Steroids team. How can this be? Well, Asher points to Rodriguez’ lack of walks as evidence of decline. Of course, he’s never been big on walking, only posting more than 41 in a season once. Among catchers with over 200 at bats, his slugging average is second only to Jason Varitek with a .468 mark. And he’s still the best in the AL at throwing out baserunners. I concede that he’s declined, but he’s still one of the top five catchers in baseball this year (along with Varitek, Schneider, Barrett and Mauer) which is also where he ranked a year ago. Catchers all around baseball are having down years, and I-Rod’s plight is certainly no more extreme than those that Piazza, Kendall, or Martinez have had.

In conclusion, there are either several ML players being falsely accused of steroid use, or steroid use simply doesn’t improve player productivity in the way that the media sensationalizes it. Either way, let’s find a better way to define the past dozen years than the Steroid Era.

The Great Steroid Debate