Pujols' trainer and Deadspin

[spinning27]

Spin - I diagree with you - lots of people would investigate him, or anyone else, but saying you want to do it and coming up with much are two different things.

Most baseball writers are ridiculously busy as it is (162 games, training camp, playoffs, etc.). The problem is that few newspapers have the resources, or are willing to commit the resources to that kind of investigation.

Remember, this essentially all started when grand jury testimony was leaked. Without putting people under oath it's rare to findsome who says "Yeah, I did it" and so forth unless they have an axe to grind (or go crazy like Grimsley).

When I talk to baseball writers about Pujols, the most common response is: "Oh, he's clean," as though they KNOW he hasn't juiced. How do they know? The truth is, they don't want to know. Nobody in the media has really dared to question Pujols' numbers. I hear, "Oh he's such a great, moral, Christian guy, he'd never do steroids." Or, "He's always been a big strong guy."

Please. Nobody in baseball right now is above suspicion. Yet there has been a significant lack of suspicion in the media regarding Pujols, especially in St. Louis. Please tell me, what kind of investigative pieces has the Post-Dispatch done to cast a critical eye toward Pujols? Of course, that's a rhetorical question because you won't find any. And that's a paper that has the resources to do that kind of investigation.

 

[somewriter]

From Jeff Pearlman's previously discussed Slate article:

"Albert isn't an enhanced thug like some of the other suspects," explains Rick Hummel, the longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer. "He hasn't grown significantly and he's always had a lot of power. So what's there to look into?"

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/?nav=fo

 

[HejiraHenry]

Nobody in baseball right now is above suspicion.

And that is, at least partly, the creation of the crowd -- both in the media and in the business of baseball -- that looked the other way when the steroid phase began.

 

[Double J]

From Jeff Pearlman's previously discussed Slate article:

"Albert isn't an enhanced thug like some of the other suspects," explains Rick Hummel, the longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer. "He hasn't grown significantly and he's always had a lot of power. So what's there to look into?"

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/?nav=fo

Mark McGwire was also a naturally big guy who always had a lot of power. Turns out he had something to hide.

It's sad that ball players must nowadays prove their innocence rather than have someone else prove their guilt, but you can't really take anyone at face value any more. It sucks to be so cynical.

 

[shotglass]

Cowherd is unabashedly invoking the name of Pujols on his show right now.

He said, "Before you say, 'Colin, be responsible. Colin, be a journalist.' -- I'm not a journalist. I'm a talk-show host. I don't have any problem talking about it. And I think it's fair, in this era, to connect the dots."

Just so we all remember who's not a journalist when the crowd gathers at the locker-room door...

 

[Columbo]

I have faced nothing but indignation from peers and friends every time I have asked whether Pujols might be a juicer.

It has made me very uncomfortable that 90% of the baseball writers I know have had no interest in investigating Pujols. 

Time to pull your heads out of the sand, people.

I agree. I've said all season (half joking, half serious) that Pujols is juiced too. Sad thing is, like McGwire, he comes off to a lot of people as a likeable guy, so nobody wants to believe it. But I wouldn't be surprised at all if Pujols is juiced.

Pujols had 19 HRs in a full season-equivalent of games in the minors.

He made quite a jump at the ML level. That's all I know for sure.

That's a little misleading, pho. He went through three levels in his only minor-league season. If you look at the place where he spent 80% of his time, in the Midwest league, he had 17 homers in 395 at-bats, a BA of .324, a slug of .565 and an OPS of .954.
Those correspond almost exactly with the numbers in his second big-league season, when he hit 34 homers and drove in  127.
That was his "worst" season; he's improved his numbers in the three years since, but not so dramatically as all that.

Then again, that doesn't mean he didn't.

I guess we're all a little misleading.

The major jump, from my perspective was from that year in the mid-minors to the massive jump to being a rookie in MLB.

I do like your stat re: he longest stop that year.

He had 17 HRs in 395 at-bats.

As a rookie in the majors, he had 37 HRs in 590 at-bats (weird aside ... until this season, Pujols' minimum ABs in a season: 590. Maximum? 592).

Let's get him to the 34 HRs you mentioned in his second year in the majors, if you wish.

That would be 34 HRs in 790 ABs in AA.

He hit three more HRs as a rookie in the majors in 200 FEWER at-bats? Or, using the preference in your post, the same number of homers in those 200 fewer ABs (still... the rookie transition is the jaw-dropping one... so I think we should stick with that.)

 

[Columbo]

From Jeff Pearlman's previously discussed Slate article:

"Albert isn't an enhanced thug like some of the other suspects," explains Rick Hummel, the longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer. "He hasn't grown significantly and he's always had a lot of power. So what's there to look into?"

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/?nav=fo

Mark McGwire was also a naturally big guy who always had a lot of power. Turns out he had something to hide.

I don't think that andro was against US law at that time.

I know it is considered, legally, a steroid now.

I don't think it was back then, though.

Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[da man]

From Jeff Pearlman's previously discussed Slate article:

"Albert isn't an enhanced thug like some of the other suspects," explains Rick Hummel, the longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer. "He hasn't grown significantly and he's always had a lot of power. So what's there to look into?"

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/?nav=fo

Mark McGwire was also a naturally big guy who always had a lot of power. Turns out he had something to hide.

I don't think that andro was against US law at that time.

I know it is considered, legally, a steroid now.

I don't think it was back then, though.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Don't think andro was all he was doing.

 

[da man]

Hey, this thread has strayed far from the original topic, which was, how much credence do you place in Deadspin as a reporter? If the Washington Post broke a story naming some of the names from Grimsley's affidavit, we'd all jump on it and write, ``Joe Blow was implicated as a steroid user in the affidavit of Jason Grimsley, the Washington Post reported,'' and then go get reaction or whatever. Do you do the same thing if the names are named on Deadspin? Does it have enough credibility that if it breaks something big you need to address it in the paper? I think that was the question at hand.

 

[You're With Me Leather]

Trainers denies involvement:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14781295.htm

 

[spinning27]

Hey, this thread has strayed far from the original topic, which was, how much credence do you place in Deadspin as a reporter? If the Washington Post broke a story naming some of the names from Grimsley's affidavit, we'd all jump on it and write, ``Joe Blow was implicated as a steroid user in the affidavit of Jason Grimsley, the Washington Post reported,'' and then go get reaction or whatever. Do you do the same thing if the names are named on Deadspin? Does it have enough credibility that if it breaks something big you need to address it in the paper? I think that was the question at hand.

The bar for running with a story is lower at Deadspin, so no, you don't give it as much credibility and you don't publish it in your paper citing Deadspin as the source. But if you're a reporter covering the Cardinals and you see this on Deadspin, you probably should get to work getting this information from your own sources.

 

[Armchair_QB]

From Jeff Pearlman's previously discussed Slate article:

"Albert isn't an enhanced thug like some of the other suspects," explains Rick Hummel, the longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer. "He hasn't grown significantly and he's always had a lot of power. So what's there to look into?"

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/?nav=fo

Which is a chickenshirt excuse for not looking into it since PEDs do more than make you big.