I said as much in one of the journals but I'll repeat it here:

At this point, scouts have to wonder what part of his tools were aided by HGH and what weren't. I think his recent progress is sort of out the window and he'll have to prove himself all over again.

By being a male nurse there's no proof that it actually improves a players performance on the field.

I think you should reduce the ranking----his improvement was at least partially due to the HGH, and without it he just becomes another mid-level prospect IMO. He obviously knew his numbers werent good enough to warrent him being a top level prospect this year, so apparently out of desperation he resorted to cheating and using HGH.
I think this incident will follow him throughout his career, and will now put even more pressure on him to perform without the benefit of HGH---he knows now that EVERYONE will be watching him------and thats not a good thing as far as trying to improve your performance and get to the big show-----its just an added pressure that he or anyone else doesnt need!! Very stupid thing to do----and now he knows it!!

I would reserve judgement until some concrete news can be gathered upon when and how long he used HGH. Was he using it as a refresher for extensive workouts in attempt to make the opening day roster? did it start before his metoric rise before the beginnig on last year?

I would consider him a B+ with a major asterick that would require him to produce at equal or close toequal levels upon his return.

Witch-hunt? If this was Joba and/or a Dominican getting popped, there would be a witch-hunt. One is a Yankee and one, would be a foreigner. If Schafer bounces back, this will be a blip on his career.

IMHO, HGH and other performance enhancing drugs helps you get stronger and does helps you hit the ball harder. It doesn't mean you are going to be popping 25 home runs if you are a singles guy, but more balls you hit get past the infielders. It means you can drive the ball a bit farther, hitting for more extra-base power and generating more productivity.

A 'C' would be appropriate, considering his breakout season may have been 'enhanced.'

that missing roughly a third of the season may hurt his development.
We don't "know" HGH doesn't help, just as we don't "know" global warming exists. But all the available evidence suggests that it (HGH, not global warming)makes your muscles larger but weaker, and has no effects that will help you hit, throw, or catch a baseball or run the bases. Getting off the stuff, if it has any effect at all (which it likely won't), should only make him better.
But not being able to play competitively for fifty games at this point in his career seems like a slight problem. Don't know if it's enough to drop him to a B, though...

He has a lot to prove. If he hits like he did last year after he comes back then bump it back up but if he hits like he did in 2006 he's no better than a 4th outfielder.

They'll be a constant reminder of his mistake. Yes he's young but a lot of fans are not forgivable (especially ones from opposing teams). It'll be interesting to see how he bounces back mentally and where the suspension takes him physically.

I think his prospect status does go down a notch as value to other teams and as a prospect that is not playing, he has less value. Otherwise you can't change much based on skill set, we'll all have to wait and see how this pans out.

I'd knock it down to C+/B-.
In a best case scenerio I'd knock his grade down by one from B+ to B on "makup issues," because of this incident. I'd knock it down once more because I'm going to assume HGH at least helped in some sense, whether real or placebo effect. and then I'd consider moving it down a further half grade for now because I'm not sure how he will respond to this incident, once he's served his suspension. Will he come back with a vengence? Or is this the last we hear of him being a top prospect?

Pops up reliably in such discussions, and has already come up here.

The studies of HGH and performance have not come even close to being able to definitively "prove" that HGH doesn't have an ability to improve the game of baseball players, especially when administered with other treatments (e.g., steroids, muscle-building programs, etc.).

Right now, you have absence of proof. That is not the same as proof of absence. The studies so far have been inadequate to claim this proof of absence.

let's see what Jordan does after he returns.

MLB is a totally hypocritcal.

They should either stop the suspensions all together, or enforce it. Jose Guillen being allowed to play is abusrd. So honestly, until they stop showing favortism, I don't give a darn about this.

what I meant above is that they should enforce it for EVERYONE, stars and minor leaguers alike.

That’s disappointing to hear that Schafer used HGH, he knows he is better than that. But it’s impossible to be a fan of sports these days and not be aware of the role that steroids play in the lives of athletes. If we listen to the athletes themselves, only a few rogue players get sucked up in the juice. But any rational human knows that the truth is something completely different. But it seems that there is a vast conspiracy of silence that allows this to go on in professional and amateur sports. I think the book—Steroid Nation tells everything.