Steroids Among MLB First-Rounders

by knightgalt on Apr 18, 2008 12:33 PM EDT

Interesting tidbit from Jayson Stark's Rumblings and Grumblings article on ESPN:

• The testing zone: It didn't get a whole lot of attention. But the provision in the new drug agreement that might have the biggest impact on this sport won't even affect major league players.

Starting this year, baseball will begin testing the 200 highest-rated amateur players before the June draft. And that's a development that could make a lot of scouting directors look a lot more brilliant in a hurry.

"I guarantee you," said one high-ranking official, "that there have been [scouting directors] over the last few years who took players up high, and they turned out to be [steroid] issues. Then those guys never performed, and it cost people jobs.

"I could go back through the drafts over the last five years and name you eight or 10 first-rounders off the top of my head who I'm sure now were steroid guys. With the money we're putting into first-rounders nowadays, you're looking at several million dollars a player. That's a lot of money we've lost as an industry right there. So I think this is very significant."

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“I guarantee you,” said one high-ranking official, “that there have been [scouting directors] over the last few years who took players up high, and they turned out to be [steroid] issues. Then those guys never performed, and it cost people jobs.

Cough Cough, Kyle Drabek

Vogt early, Vogt often.

by Brickhaus on Apr 18, 2008 1:15 PM EDT reply actions

CJ Henry

by Bravesin07 on Apr 18, 2008 3:31 PM EDT reply actions

eh

Did Schafer have something to do with this?

by sagecoll on Apr 18, 2008 4:38 PM EDT reply actions

Mitchell Recomended this

This was one of Sen. Mitchell’s recomendations. This should have a trickel down effect for next years draft. It may be to late for guys to change steriod regimes at this point for the june draft.

Does anyone know how they are going to determine the top 200 amatuers?

by laxtonto on Apr 18, 2008 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah

I was wondering that too.

I guess just the top 200 grades turned in by the MLB Central Scouting

by nms on Apr 18, 2008 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions

also

how are they going to collect all those samples before the draft since there isn’t a combine?

Are they going to send out a bunch of sample collectors?

One to Greensburg, IN… one to Smyra, TN… one to Cartersville, GA… one to SoCal… one to Miami… one to Columbia, SC… one to Richmond, KY…one to Arizona…one to Missouri…ect
seems like a lot of money and work

by nms on Apr 18, 2008 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Teams invest

a lot into these players so I’m guessing they’d pay for it if they had to.

1941 .406

by FrozenTed9 on Apr 18, 2008 5:50 PM EDT up reply actions

re: sample collection

Don’t they test minor leaguers in the offseason, anyways? Testing 200 guys shouldn’t be too much of a problem when they already travel to test guys under contract.

by astrosfan76 on Apr 18, 2008 7:44 PM EDT up reply actions