Friday, August 8, 2008

Muchos Suspensions

Maury Brown thinks something fishy is afoot in the Dominican Summer League:

On Monday, Tampa Bay Rays Minor League players Cesar Guillen and Victor Henriquez received 50-game suspensions after testing positive for performance-enhancing substances. Guillen, an outfielder, tested positive for Ephedrine. Henriquez, an infielder, tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol. Both were (you guessed it) currently with Tampa Bay’s Dominican Summer League team.

Yesterday, Boston Red Sox Minor League pitcher Victor De La Cruz received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for Stanozolol. Where was he when he tested positive? Boston’s Dominican Summer League team.

Since July 25th, 15 players have been suspended as part of MLB’s Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. All told, it comes to 750 games being served under suspensions, a staggering figure in such a short period.
Maury contacted Major League Baseball seeking an explanation for all of the positives. He was told that this isn't really all that unusual, but it also kinda sounds like he was blown off.

Is this a story of a surge in rookie 'roiding, or is this just what happens when baseball decides to get serious about testing and discipline? Those are probably not mutually-exclusive categories, but click through and judge for yourself.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Is there no more litigation in Columbus? You've been posting at Deadspin rates today.

Craig Calcaterra said...

Everyone gets along here in the Midwest, so the litigation business is always slow like this.

Anonymous said...

What? Detroit isn't in the Midwest anymore?