Which baseball players would really shock you if they were caught with steroids

[indeedproceed]

Jeter would surprise me. A-Rod...there was always something off about him. Kinda weird, and a little too good, but skeevy. Jeter though that would surprise me.

[Steve Weinman]

The 2008 version of Andruw Jones, also known as The Worst Signing In the History of Employment.  If his .505 OPS-33-hit-76-strikeout performance was "enhanced," I'd really hate to know what he could have managed naturally.

-sw

[Roy Hobbs]

Greg Maddux.

That was going to be my answer.  Nobody else would really shock me, although I would be really disappointed if Griffey tested positive.

[KungPoweChicken]

Chipper Jones would surprise me.

[KungPoweChicken]

Give me a break, A-Rod's always been great. With steroids or without, he is clearly one of the best who have ever played the game. Suffice to say he wasn't taking steroids in his early years or his later years. Point being, his numbers don't deviate much from his "steroid years". I hope these allegations don't diminish what A-Rod has done.

A-Rod's steroid use in my opinion can be equated to Kobe Bryant taking steroids for a quarter of this season. If Bryant were to do this, would it diminish all the other great things he's done though out his career? No. A-Rod is and always will be one of the greatest to play the game. However, it doesn't surprise me that all the A-Rod smashers are reveling in this moment.

This is a sad day in sports when people are trying to take down baseballs greatest player.

[Roy Hobbs]

Suffice to say he wasn't taking steroids in his early years or his later years.

How could you possibly know this?

[KungPoweChicken]

I don't know for sure. But I highly doubt such an amazingly skilled player would take steroids in the last few years. The steroid microscope was too focused for a player of A-Rod's importance to risk it.

I'm sure players were using steroids when A-Rod first came into the league. However, it was no where near as popular when the steroid explosion was going on. This is the time I suspect A-Rod briefly experimented with steroids.

I don't claim to know for certain when A-Rod used steroids. But common sense tells us that he probably did not use early in his career, and there is a miniscule chance he used in the past three years. 

[Roy Hobbs]

I don't know for sure. But I highly doubt such an amazingly skilled player would take steroids in the last few years. The steroid microscope was too focused for a player of A-Rod's importance to risk it.

I'm sure players were using steroids when A-Rod first came into the league. However, it was no where near as popular when the steroid explosion was going on. This is the time I suspect A-Rod briefly experimented with steroids.

I don't claim to know for certain when A-Rod used steroids. But common sense tells us that he probably did not use early in his career, and there is a miniscule chance he used in the past three years. 

There's no test for HGH, though.  I'm sure that any number of players are still taking it; it seems to be the drug of choice.

[Steve Weinman]

Suffice to say he wasn't taking steroids in his early years or his later years.

How could you possibly know this?

That's the thing about cheating though.  It only takes doing it once to strip you of your credibility and place your achievements in an entirely different light.

Can't say I'll feel much sympathy here no matter what the results are for A-Rod in terms of public perception.

-sw

[bdm860]

Kapler was released from the Rockies because of steroids.  It wasn't public knowledge but I heard it from a very reliable source.  I mean really, just look at the guy.

The only guy on the Sox who it would shock me would be Beckett.  Anyone else, including Pedroia, wouldn't.

Really? Even Lugo? The guy's a stick.

Not claiming to be an expert in the subject, but steroid usage does not necessarily equate to bloatedness/massive gain a la Bonds/Clemens/McGwire.  Certain types of steroids can be taken in, and with the proper workout regimen be used to build tone/speed a la Lugo, Soriano, etc.



I know it's OT: but is there any real reason to ban steroids other than the undeniably bad message it sends to the youth?  I mean, I could beef up on steroids and it doesn't mean i'm going to be able to hit a baseball.  Roids =/= skill.  Why doesn't the league just allow it instead of making for all these "scandals" and singling out players when the whole [dang] league is doing it?

Because they are/can be dangerous.  the potential negative health effects are huge. 
 

Of course just playing sports can be dangerous.  Look at the life expectancy of a football player.  Not that great.

With most things there are risk and rewards.  You risk your possible long term health for possible short term gain.  Kind of like cigarettes short term pleasure but long term health concerns, yet they're perfectly legal.  The thing about steroids that makes them even more dangerous is that they are illegal and lots of them are gotten on the black market.  I think if you could get a good doctor to give them to you and get proper medical guidance that would help limit the down side.  Oh the down side would still exist, it just might not be so bad (like death from horse steroids, probably wouldn't happen when you're not buying off the black market).  Count me with BrickJames if I started juicing I'd still suck at baseball (or any other sport for that matter), at least level the playing field and just make steroids legal.  If cigarettes are legal, I see no reason steroids can't be legal.

[Roy Hobbs]

If cigarettes are legal, I see no reason steroids can't be legal.

If you argument is "since one dangerous thing is legal, let's make all dangerous things legal", I don't find that very compelling.  I don't think anybody can really justify why cigarettes are legal, other than 1) a lot of people smoke them, and 2) the tobacco lobby is extraordinarily powerful.  If we buy into the "X is no worse than smoking cigarettes", there are a lot of things we'd have to put on the market.

In terms of the health effects of steroids, one need only look at the obituaries of those in the WWE to see how these things can effect the body over time.  Also, the thought that if PEDs are made legal would make them less dangerous isn't accurate to me; I think rich athletes are always going to be able to find a shady doctor to give them more than a healthy dosage.  I mean, many of the players in MLB, the NFL, and WWE who have been caught with PEDs recently have been prescribed them by a doctor.

[BigDanz2000]

I have alot of friends who have played professional baseball and still play and when the steroid issue is brought up they laugh at how clueless the public is to how widely used steroids are.  At one point, i forget who said it, but they claimed steroids were being used by maybe 20% of professional baseball players.  They guys I know, laughed and said its more like 80%.  My friend who played for the Dodgers knows who did steroids and how open it really was in the clubhouse. Even in the minor leagues which has steroid/drug testing, Low A, A, AA, AAA almost all have tried steroids or greenies.  My buddy said the public is so unaware of how bad it really is.  If players wanted something, they could get it very easily. 

Sad but true, he through some names at me that I never really thought about, that he knows have done steroids, and some of the names would be very surprising at first, but once you think about it, you would then see it.

Its the steroid era and it will always be remembered for that.  In the next few decades alot of doubt will be casted over every single player who played in this era, even those who didnt use.

[Nerf DPOY]

Casey Fossum.

[greg683x]

After the Mitchell Report, Palmeiro, Clemens, McGwire crying, ARod and that scumbag Bonds, my answer is nobody.  As far as all the players in the game right now goes, no name would suprise me.

Now if we're talking about the steroids era, lots of big names have been exposed and hurt baseball, but I think theres only one player that would TRUELY shock the baseball world if he had tested positive in the past, and that player is Cal Ripken.  No player in baseball, especially in the steroids era, represented everything that was still good and pure in the sport of baseball like Cal Ripken did.  If he had tested positive, or somehow got linked to 'riods I think that would be a HUGE HUGE blow to the last shred of credit baseball has left.

[MattG12]

mike lansing