US major league baseball's drug testing policy can be toothless

US major league baseball's drug testing policy can be toothless


22/04/10

Now, nobody is suggesting someone like Brandon Webb should use performance-enhancing drugs. So don't take this that way.

The whole point of this argument, though, is to point out how easily he could, how little it would affect his teammates, how little it would even affect him.

All of which, it would seem, is an indication of how toothless major league baseball's drug testing policy can be at times. And how unfair.

Tuesday afternoon, baseball suspended Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez for 50 games for violating the performance-enhancing drug policy following a positive test for a banned fertility substance. Volquez said he was taking a prescription as part of his treatment to have a child with his wife.

His suspension officially begins today and that means the earliest Volquez could be back on the mound with the Reds is June 15.

Problem is, Volquez wasn't going to pitch before June 15, anyway.

Seems the suspension policy doesn't account for players on the disabled list, which means, you don't even have to be on the active 25-man roster to serve your suspension. The punishment to Volquez, therefore, is the loss of 50 games worth of his salary - which will amount to a little more than $137,000. The punishment to the Reds is, well, nothing. When their former all-star right-hander is well enough, he'll pitch again.

If you're thinking that this seems just, well, wrong, then you're right.

It's worse than wrong, actually. Major league baseball has been thumping its chest on the power of the 50-game suspension as a deterrent against performance-enhancing drug use. But something like this happens, and the commissioner's office doesn't see that it actually gives the injured players - the ones who are most likely to use steroids in the first place - a pretty good reason to use them.

That reason: There's no real penalty.

OK, the loss of salary. Health concerns. It's just not the right thing to do, morally.

Fine, they're all legitimate reasons to not use steroids anyway.

But if there's one thing ballplayers hate, it's being on the disabled list. Ever since Wally Pipp had a headache and Lou Gehrig took his place at first base, the bench has been seen by players as the first step toward the unemployment line. In so many ways, baseball is a reputation business, and when you're not playing, it doesn't look good for your reputation. Earning power is in direct correlation to performance, and no player has ever performed well while sitting on the 60-day disabled list.

Which brings us back to Brandon Webb.

On Sunday, Webb wound up in exactly the same spot Volquez is at - on the 60-day disabled list. Webb is still recovering from surgery to repair a badly injured shoulder last August, and despite throwing a few bullpen sessions in spring training, he really isn't close to coming back to Arizona to help anchor the Diamondbacks rotation anytime soon.

By the end of this week, he hopes to start throwing on flat ground again at the Diamondbacks training complex, and that's a long way from throwing that nasty, heavy sinker in front of 45,000 fans at Chase Field in the middle of a pennant race.

Is there a drug out there that can help Webb's shoulder begin to feel like new again? If the whole steroids era has taught us anything, we can definitively say yes.

Would the Diamondbacks be better off if Webb got back a little bit sooner, a little bit stronger? Absolutely.

Would Webb - who is a free agent at the end of the season - benefit from showing he's back and can win a few more Cy Young Awards down the road? The answer is obvious.

So, if he wanted to take whatever banned drug would help him get back the quickest, what can major league baseball really do to him? Tell him he can't play during a time when his team determined he couldn't play anyway and fine him the 50 games worth of his salary - or about $2.6 million? What if forfeiting $2.6 million was worth it to him?

Could any of us really blame him at this point?

Here's hoping Webb loves baseball too much and has standards that would preclude him from even considering the easy option that the commissioner's office has put on the table for him.

But even if he is, you know there are dozens of players out there who will feel the severe pain in their elbows or their shoulders or their knees as they recover from surgery and at some point think about how easy Edinson Volquez got off this time.

Taking it a little bit further, what's to prevent big league general managers from placing players on the 60-day disabled list if they get wind that a steroids suspension is on the way?

It's one thing to have a tougher steroids policy than you had, and totally another thing to have a tough steroids policy.

Last year, Manny Ramirez got suspended 50 games and spent a few weeks playing in the minor leagues anyway. Now, Volquez can rehab while serving his suspension. Why can't Bud Selig or the owners do what the fans know is right here? Make this a real punishment. Get caught with steroids, and you're gone for 50 days. Not the next 50 days. The first 50 days you're able to play. And until those 50 days are up, you are not welcome in any ballpark, at any level, for any reason.

Until that type of punishment becomes the norm, baseball won't be giving players a deterrent to steroids at all.

In fact, it will be giving the types of players who could benefit from them most the worst thing possible: A reason to turn to them.

Report by Donnie Collins

http://thetimes-tribune.com/

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