Do PEDs Make a Player Better?

Unfortunately, performing enhancing drugs, most likely referred to as PEDs, have been part of the history of baseball for many years now. The Steroid Era, that is probably the most remembered, was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when players like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds broke numerous offensive records. These players mentioned went on to have seasons in which they hit 60 and 70 plus home runs. In today’s day in age, it’s impressive if a player makes it to mid 30’s or 40 home runs. Times have changed, but some players in recent year’s have used PEDs.

Let’s be clear, PEDs will not make a player hit a baseball. My point is that players who have used PEDs have talent to play baseball. In the most recent case of use of PEDs we saw some players take 50 game suspensions after failing their tests under the joint drug agreement. These suspensions came last year and now these players are back in actions trying to help their ball clubs.

Nelson Cruz- Cruz was signed late in the off season to a 1-year/ $8 million contract by the Baltimore Orioles and he’s proven to be a very good signing for Baltimore. Nelson served his suspension last season missing the final games of the season. In his suspension year, Cruz batted for a .266 average with 27 home runs and 76 RBIs, this year in 43 games he has batted for a .282 average with 14 home runs and 41 RBIs. Although his WAR is lower right now in the 43 games played than last year, he is on pace to improve all three, his HRs, RBIs, and batting average.

Everth Cabrera- Everth was the prototypical lead off hitter for the Padres in 2013 and even earned an all star selection before he got suspended. Cabrera finished 2013 with a .283 batting average 54 runs and 37 stolen bases. He appears to be struggling a bit after being caught using PEDs as his average this season after 45 games is .238 with 9 stolen bases and 18 runs. Cabrera’s WAR has also dropped tremendously from 2.6 last year to 0.3 this year.

Jhonny Peralta- Peralta and the Cardinals received plenty of criticism when he got signed to a 4 year 53 million dollar deal. Plenty said that the Cardinals were promoting the use PEDs by signing him to this contract and that the use of PEDs will only give you a 50 game suspension, but will bring big money to a player after the suspension was over. Peralta has been playing a big role for the red birds and although his batting average is down by more than 50 points than what he hit last season, his power numbers are way up as he already has 9 home runs this season, compared to the 11 home runs he hit in 107 games last year.

Melky Cabrera- Melky’s case was a very interesting one, he had a monster year when he got caught with PEDs in 2012. He earned a .346 batting average and was the all star game MVP. Fast forward to a year later, Cabrera had a down year after he went north of the border to play with the Toronto Blue Jays. He did have a respectable .279 batting average, but he wasn’t the same player that he was in San Francisco. Now Melky seems to have found himself again, he’s hitting for a robust .320 average and has 63 hits in 43 games.

Ryan Braun- Perennial all star Ryan Braun served his suspension last year after he admitted the use of PEDs, but after winning the MVP award in 2011 and finishing 2nd in 2012 he hasn’t showed too many signs of slowing down. In 61 games in 2013 he hit .298 with 9 home runs and 38 RBIs, this year he has very similar numbers, in 30 games he has a .294 average with 7 home runs and 19 RBIs. He’s not the same player he was, but he is still proving to be a very reliable major leaguer.

I do believe that all of these players mentioned are very talented and wished that they never should have used PEDs as we can see, some players are producing the same numbers or even better numbers than when they were on steroids. We all know that PEDs should not be used in any sport, major league ballplayers are professionals for their talent and not for being cheaters and taking an edge on everyone else.

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