Players Who You Believed Used Illegal Performance Enhancing Substances?

[KingLouieLouie]

I've been meaning to post this topic for awhile now..even prior to the Jason Grimsley news being reported.......

I've often wondered which ML players duing the past couple of decades have used performance enchancing substances (of the illegal variety) other than the obvious documented cases.. such as Barry Bonds (of course still hasnt been completely proven).. then the likes of Mark McGwire and his former "Bash Brother" Jose Canseco, of course the Giambi's have been implicated, then Ken Caminiti admitted his use.....etc....

Well... I've been considering these following players (some former) for quite some time.... Ironically... I read in another thread people discussing Junior Spivey... I brought that up to a friend a couple of days ago who agrees.... In terms of other recent Dbacks.... [SIZE=-1]Erubiel Durazo immediately comes to mind....

Then... it's obvious (and I'll go into further detail later) that Juan Gonzalez, Brady Anderson, Eric Gagne, etc.. come to mind...

What other players comes to everyone else's mind? I know there has been strong speculation regarding Luis Gonzalez, but I just struggle with that idea since it's too painful to even fathom.....
[/SIZE]

 

[Ryanwb]

Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio
Roger Clemens
Jay Buhner
Juan Gonzalez
Miguel Tejada
Mike Lowell
Steve Finley
Carlos Delgado
Moises Alou
Ryan Klesko
Brian Giles
Kevin Brown (His injuries are very obvious)
Kenny Rogers
Javy Lopez

 

[Ryanwb]

Specifically on Steve Finley, he averages 7 homers his first 7 years then comes back to hit 30 in his 8th......

 

[Phill11]

It would be much easier to post a list of guys who DIDN'T use substances.

Also, while on this subject Jose Canseco mentions some names who I agree with in his book. Ivan Rodriguez (My favorite player of all-time, non-DBack but come on... Obvious user). Juan Gonzalez, etc...

 

[bankybruce]

as far as diamondbacks or past diamonbacks

raul mondesi
reggie sanders
travis lee
tony bastista
russ ortiz(decided to stop when he came here)
that is all i got right now

 

[Charles V]

Canseco said that 85% of the league is juicing. Ken Caminiti, Curt Schilling and Chad Curtis have all gone on record saying that 50% of the league is juicing.

I would imagine that the number is somewhere in between 50%-85%. 85% seems a little high, but so far Canseco is coming out golden in this whole mess.

At that high of a percentage, it is likely that the players who you assume are using...probably are.

Just for fun, I will toss out a couple very obvious names.

Julio Franco.
Gabe Kapler.

From the D-Backs (who have not been mentioned)

Stottlemyer
Colbrunn
Delucci

.

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/columnists/20020530smizik2.asp

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/magazine/03/02/flashback_juiced/

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0606/1391783.html

 

[abomb]

Pudge Rodriguez.

 

[Southpaw]

In addition to Ryan's list and others, I would add

Randy Johnson
A.J. Pyrzinski ( spellcheck )
Gary Sheffield
Manny Ramirez
Alex Rodriguez
Vlad Guerrero
Luis Pujols

 

[bankybruce]

i almost forgot matt mantei

 

[Ruff N Tuff]

Kevin Mench (this guys head is huge)
Adrian Beltre
Richie Sexson
Brett Boone

 

[Linderbee]

as far as diamondbacks or past diamonbacks

raul mondesi
reggie sanders
travis lee
tony bastista
russ ortiz(decided to stop when he came here)
that is all i got right now

Just for fun, I will toss out a couple very obvious names.

Julio Franco.
Gabe Kapler.

From the D-Backs (who have not been mentioned)

Stottlemyer
Colbrunn
Delucci

Travis Lee? Really?

If I found out Dellucci juiced, I would never watch baseball again. Just thinking about it makes me sad.

 

[Burg72]

[SIZE=-1] I know there has been strong speculation regarding Luis Gonzalez, but I just struggle with that idea since it's too painful to even fathom.....
[/SIZE]

I hate to even think it also, but you it looks pretty obvious when you stand back a take a look. He has always been a good hitter but then he got the power for a while. It just sucks because he's one of just a handful of really good guys out there not just in baseball, but in general.

 

[FArting]

albert pujols

 

[Burg72]

Who was that cartoon character "Casey at bat" looking guy that played with the dbacks and then went to Japan where he was leading in HRs there? It was about 6 to 7 years ago.

 

[Espo]

Alex Cabrera? I think that is who you are thinking of.

 

[Burg72]

Alex Cabrera? I think that is who you are thinking of.

Yes, that's him. I just found him also. 2000 dbacks.

 

[Russ Smith]

how far back are we going? I always believed the 2 most classic examples of obvious users were Reggie jackson and Fred Lynn. Lynn was absolutely textbook, he went from quite skinny to huge overnight, crediting the invention of nautilus machines for his changes. Lynn went from 22 to 39 homers 78-79, put up career highs across the board in power numbers, and then never came close to it again the rest of his career. the primary reason was he couldn't stay healthy, had only 2 years of over 120 games after his breakout year.

There were steroids around back then and I've always believed Fred took them, got big, had one monster year, and then had all the injuries as a result. I also would bet he quit using at some point realizing that's why all the injuries happened, I seem to recall he got visibly smaller as his career went on.

Reggie you have to be old to remember but he was a very lean guy coming out of college, he was probably 40-50 pounds lighter in college than near the tail end of his career. he was also on the A's with Canseco and McGwire when they were in their infancy as users. another guy who had his career path totally changed to DH because of chronic problems he had related to being too big, he was a pretty good defensive player when he came into MLB but simply got too big and stiff and become a huge liability as an OF.

 

[Ryanwb]

Is there no definative test for HGH?

 

[green machine]

Alex Cabrera? I think that is who you are thinking of.

Apparently using steroids or HGH doesn't help you hit a curve ball...

This was the guy who, in his first major league at bat (I think against the Expos) launced a home run.

 

[Burg72]

Apparently using steroids or HGH doesn't help you hit a curve ball...

This was the guy who, in his first major league at bat (I think against the Expos) launced a home run.

That's right. He couldn't hit a curve ball. That was the weakness. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

 

[Russ Smith]

Is there no definative test for HGH?

Ask Gene Upshaw. he just announced the players union is against testing for HGH in the NFL because he's not convinced the blood tests work, and he thinks blood tests are too invasive. he didn't really have any evidence the tests don't work, he just made sure he started with that point so it wasn't as easy to bash him for his real argument, that he thinks having people pee in a cup is less invasive than drawing blood from them is.

There's no foolproof test for anything of course but the Olympics used those tests for HGH and as we all heard(in 2004) athletes were pulling out left and right for a bunch of questionable reasons once they found out what testing was going to be in use.

 

[Ruff N Tuff]

Richard Hidalgo

 

[Charles V]

If I found out Dellucci juiced, I would never watch baseball again. Just thinking about it makes me sad.

If some anonymous dude on a message board is calling a player out, it is one thing. But when ballplayers are calling each other out, it is entirely different.

Wells is stll able to talk a good game

. . . Wells said he was tested for steroids four times last season. He said he didn't doubt there were players who were still using steroids, including Bonds, and other performance-enhancing substances. Wells said Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro ''were on the juice" and raised questions about ''itty-bitty guys who hit 30 home runs."

''Like Dellucci, I guess," Wells said. ''How many home runs did he hit last year? Has he ever done that in his career?"

Dellucci, who was acquired April 1 after hitting a career-best 29 homers for Texas last season, was visibly upset when informed of Wells's comments after last night's 8-4 Sox win.

''I guess I would say I take that as a huge insult," Dellucci said, ''for the work I put in during the season and the offseason. It's unfortunate that . . . I'm flustered, man, I can't believe it. I leave the field at midnight every night because I work out after the game. It just so happened last year I had [435] at-bats, and I hit the most home runs I've ever had in the most at-bats I ever had.

''I've been tested probably more than anyone else I know in the game in random tests. I got tested this offseason, so if David has any suspicions, he can check any one of my drug tests and he can go observe my workout routine and then we'll see." . . .

The good news is that David Wells is a moron, a total moron. I'm not sure how much stock I put in his comments, but like I said, it is not good when ballplayers are calling each other out.

Clemens on Wells

Clemens, though not as upset as Valentine, has similar feelings about Wells's veracity. Last week he revealed that he calls Wells "Eli" because " 'e lies" constantly. "If a story goes over 30 seconds," Clemens added, "he's lying."

 

[FinleyLover]

This is getting really ugly, and will only get worse. Rumors and insinuations are beginning to erupt. Now, predictably, players are pointing fingers at each other whether they absolutely know something or they just speculate.

This could turn into a McCarthy era type situation. Many hard feelings are going to happen here. BTW, Wells is one of the biggest class A jerks in any sport.

 

[Russ Smith]

Another from the wayback machine, Len Dykstra, couldn't have been more obvious IMHO.