So it Seems Matt Marsh is Suspended for 50 Games

The New York Yankees learned this week that one of their own would be suspended for 50 games under baseball’s minor league drug program. The Yankees right-hander Matt Marsh along with Minnesota Twins left-hander Cam Booser were both handed 50-game suspensions after both tested positive for a second time when taking a drug test.

Marsh, 25-years old, was 2-2 with a 3.68 ERA in 10 relief appearances at the time of the suspension while in Double-A with the Trenton Thunder. Marsh was recently called up from High-A with the Tampa Yankees where the righty posted a 1-0 record with seven shutout innings.

The suspensions of Marsh and Booser are the 42^nd and 43^rd this season under the minor league drug program while just two suspensions have happened at the big league level. Drugs are bad but you, my dear, are my favorite addiction. Have a great day everyone. Hey you. 

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens… In the Hall?

I have sent my Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) ballot in and on my ballot I listed a few questionable and/or controversial names. Two of those names were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. With the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) ballots due on New Year’s Eve the early numbers suggest that I may not be alone in my thought process in adding these two to the ballots. Could we see a year where both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are in the Hall of Fame?

Ryan Thibodaux tracks the votes for the BBWAA and reportedly he has seen 122 of the 435 ballots come through as of the beginning of the week. According to Thibodaux the pair of historic suspected steroid users are garnering votes at a much higher rate than last year and at a much higher rate than expected. Last year Bonds had 44.3% of the vote while Clemens had 45.2% of the vote, as a reminder any player needs at least 75% of the vote to gain entrance into the Hall of Fame, but this year according to reports the pair each have tallied a whopping 71.3% of the vote to date.

Thibodaux also adds that Manny Ramirez, who has failed a pair of tests during the testing era and was suspended in both 2009 and 2011, has received 32% of the vote thus far. This is surprising and this actually makes me a little weary about what’s to come in the coming years but that’s another blog post for another day.

What a way to kick off 2017. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds… both potentially Hall of Fame players finally. Stay tuned, it may happen. 

What if Alex Rodriguez Ties and/or Passes Babe Ruth in 2016?

This time last year every media outlet, every camera, every microphone and every person’s full attention was on Alex Rodriguez for all the wrong reasons. Alex was preparing for his first full season in the Major Leagues since missing all of 2014 with a steroids related drug suspension and was also preparing to not only tie but pass Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time home runs list for MLB. The drama only started in March of 2015 but this time around the attention will be on Alex for a different set of reasons. Can he be a leader in the Yankees clubhouse? Can he mentor the young guns the Yankees are currently stockpiling on the roster and can he come close to matching the production he put out in 2015? And in the same breathe what will happen if and when Alex ties and passes former Yankees great Babe Ruth?

I pose the question because the Yankees and Alex had a bit of a debate, let’s call it a debate anyway, over his $6 million home run trigger bonus when he tied Mays on the all-time list. The Yankees refused to pay Alex the money for reasons that have been beat into the ground more times than we’d all like to remember or admit and in the end the team and Alex decided to donate a portion of the money to a charity of Alex’s choice to settle the discussion. Will there be a peaceful resolution this time around or will Alex want the money that was written into his contract?

I don’t pretend to know the current financial situation that Alex is in after all the legal fees he accumulated and such but you would have to think that he could still “use” an easy $6 million in his bank account. The problem here, and I mentioned this last year as well, is that he set a precedence last season when he agreed to donate the money. In the eye of an outsider that seems like Alex admitted at least some wrongdoing or guilt in the situation while allowing himself to forfeit the money. What makes him any less “wrong” or “guilty” or any more “worthy” of the money this time around just because he seemingly turned his life around and his career both on and off the field?

For all I know the Yankees may simply write the check and not bat an eye lash but if the history of the situation is any indicator of the future I just can’t see that happening. I may be exaggerating a little bit but it seems like the whole organization would stop and bend down in front of you to pick up a nickel so imagine what they would do for $6 million in change? I can see another fight on the way and it’s going to come down to whether the Yankees want to get out “Yankee Way’d” by Alex Rodriguez again or not. 

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?