Peptides, Is the Game Clean and the New CBA

Just when you thought this great game of Major League Baseball was clean the league announces a couple steroid suspensions. It seems to happen more and more often and it seems to happen every year now. This year we’ve already seen notable suspensions for Chris Colabello and Dee Gordon and the league hints at more to come with the main focus being on a new frontier of doping, these are called peptides.

Between the Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues there have been five positive tests for peptides in the last calendar year. Peptides are formulated and produced from raw materials imported from China and are available on dozens upon dozens of websites from suppliers based in China and even the United states. These peptides have become easily accessible to anyone and everyone and until this season many thought these PED’s were undetectable in Major League Baseball. Boy were they wrong, huh?

Why these players would even take these peptides are beyond me as the FDA has not approved the drug. In fact the drugs are labeled as “not for human consumption” giving the suppliers loopholes and deniability in these cases. They are not classified as controlled substances with this labeling even though they are still considered to be anabolic steroids.

Peptides are what got Taylor Teagarden, the man who admitted to use in the Al Jazeera investigation, suspended for 80 games and are what also got Josh Ravin of the Dodgers and Andrew McKirahan of the Braves suspended along with three minor league pitchers. Peptides have been banned for a while by the World Anti-Doping Agency and sports leagues yet these players still continue to risk their careers in taking them and why? For money? Fortune? Fame?

Will the game ever be clean? We may never know but if history is any indicator of the future it looks like the answer is “probably not.”

Ryan Howard & Ryan Zimmerman Are Suing Al Jazeera

Remember right after Christmas when the Al Jazeera Network released a documentary about steroids in sports while releasing the names of Peyton Manning, Mike Neal, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Howard and Taylor Teagarden? Well the Guyer Institute-Gate hasn’t quite taken off like the Biogenesis Clinic debacle but that hasn’t stopped the players involved from throwing their weight around in terms of lawsuits. Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman have filed defamation lawsuits against Al Jazeera after naming them specifically in the Guyer Institute and steroid documentary.

The name of the documentary is “The Dark Side” and it showcases that steroids are still prevelant in not only Major League Baseball but in all North American sports. In the documentary Howard and Zimmerman claim that Al Jazeera has damaged by “outrageously false and defamatory statements recklessly made by the cable news network” according to the lawsuit they filed on Tuesday of this week.  Both Zimmerman and Howard are seeking damages in excess of $75,000, the maximum allowed in a civil case filed in federal court.

This is going to get ugly before it gets resolved. Stay tuned. 

To the Phillies Fan Base: The Yankees Fans Feel Your Pain

We all watched the Al Jazeera documentary showcasing that steroids and performance enhancing drugs were still prevalent in sports, and not just Major League Baseball. The documentary showed that many athletes in the NFL and in MLB are still using steroids and are blatantly getting away with it. If you haven’t seen the documentary it’s on the blog for you to see. The Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies cannot be happy about seeing their players mentioned in this documentary, Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard respectively, especially the Phillies who are simply waiting out the Howard contract and hoping to unload it to an American League team as they rebuild. If the Phillies fans need a shoulder to cry on it can definitely be a Yankees fan’s shoulder because us here in New York know exactly how you feel.

Let’s just assume for the sake of this article that Zimmerman and Howard really did steroids, and I venture to say that the Phillies are hoping its true anyway, this could spell the end of Howard’s tenure in Philadelphia. Howard is set to make a whopping $25 million in 2016 and another $10 million in 2017 if and when the Phillies buy out the final year of his contract and has played below replacement level in recent seasons. Meanwhile Zimmerman is signed through the 2019 season with $62 million remaining on his contract and barely played to replacement level in 2015. If either men are suspended their teams will benefit twice. We don’t know the timeline in which the steroids were being used but you would have to think the team would benefit from the performance that was enhanced by the drugs and now the teams will benefit from the suspensions as well.

The players are not paid while on suspension for drugs and steroids thus saving the Phillies roughly $12.5 million in 2016. The teams get off free while the players get all the punishment and such, this is likely to change soon I think. The team has absolutely no incentive to keep the game clean. They benefit from the performance boost or the injury recoup time and then they benefit fiscally when the player is suspended. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

The Guyer Institute Steroid Scandal is About to Hit MLB

Another black eye is about to hit Major League Baseball if it hasn't already, and that bothers me. In a documentary that was leaked by Al Jazeera it was revealed that steroids are still prevalent in sports, and not just MLB. Some NFL players were revealed to be using steroids in this documentary as well as three major MLB players Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman and Taylor Teagarden.

The documentary showcases a months long investigative report on PEDs in global sports and they even went as far as to send British hurdler Liam Collins undercover to expose other athletes.  Collins worked with pharmacist Charlie Sly who allegedly worked at an Indiana-based anti-aging clinic called the Guyer Institute in 2011. Sly reportedly told Collins that he sold both Howard, the Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, and Zimmerman, the Washington Nationals first and third baseman, a hormone supplement known as Delta-2. The drugs is specifically designated to evade drug tests and is included on Major League Baseball's list of banned substances per their collective bargaining agreement. Meanwhile Teagarden is seen on camera discussing how and when he took PEDs in previous seasons, ouch.

Howard and Zimmerman have denied using the drugs and NFL notable players like Peyton Manning, James Harrison and Mike Neal have as well. None of the three players that are named have ever been linked to steroids or PEDs and have never been suspended for any sort of drug or substance use. If the documentary, and the investigation that you know is to follow, proves to be true all three players will likely receive an 80-game steroid suspension.