'ROID PARITY
Offense seems to be down in the Bigs, except for anyone playing at the New Yankee Stadium and except for the Dodgers.
We hear endless theorizing that this is due to the steroid era being over. That argument makes no sense to me.
Built into that theory is the notion that PED's only helped hitters, or that the pitchers are still using PED's but the hitters have stopped. The first three big leaguers suspended for 'roids were pitchers.
So the 'roid explanation makes no sense to me. If the the Pitchers and the hitters were using the same supplements then and their using the same (legal) supplements now, the batting average and OBP should be about the same. Perhaps somewhat fewer round-trippers but general offense should be unaffected. There's gotta be another reason.
Could it be that the reason is as simple as baseball hasn't expanded in a while and the starting pitcher talent pool has finally met the market size MLB created? That makes more sense to me than the one-sided 'roid argument.
What say you?
posted by UMRBlog @ 08:19
2 comments
2 Comments:
Steroids would help a pitcher throw harder maybe, but not help them have movement on their fastball or have nastier bite to their curve. Therefore, I would imagine that steroids would actually hurt a lot of marginal pitchers because their roid induced 95 mph is going to have a lot more distance when hit than their 85 mph "fastball" pre-roids. Add in the juiced up hitters and a postage stamp strike zone and you get 80 HRs
Two counterarguments:
First, the pitchers must disagree with you because so many of them chose to use PED's.
Second, the key to 'roids, particularly was the ability to extend training. Instead of being able to do two sets of 15 minutes of wall pulls, the same pitcher could do four in the same same day. Thus greater stamina and less chance of injury.
Interesting view though.
It would be fun to know how many pitchers (particularly Latins) are still using HGH so they can make 88 bullpen appearances with shorter recovery time and recover from injury faster.
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