Alex Rodriguez: Hall of Famer?

He's in, even with all the drug stuff clouding his career.

 

I'm trying to think if there was a player named in Canseco's book whose name has never been mentioned in connection with steroids and PEDs later.
McGwire, Giambi, IRod, Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez.

I thought he had named Tejada and A-Rod too, but maybe that came out later...

 

His A-Rod accusation, if I recall, was nothing more than "he looks like a juicer to me, and I know juicers."

Obviously he presumptions appear to have been correct but even he admitted he had no inside knowledge.

 

Anyone who thinks there is one elite level MLB player over the last 25 who is "clean" is a fool. Everyone wants their edge and they'll do whatever they have to do to get it. Doesn't matter if it's speed, steroids or HGH.

Jeter's used, Cabrera's used, Saint Albert's used. The only questions are what and how much.

 

So now every elite player in MLB for the last 25 years is guilty?

Than you for hammering home the point I've been making about people tossing around accusations of PED use far too casually.

 

If that's the case, then I give Jeter credit for never showing up at Spring Training noticeably bigger than the previous season.

I tend to think Cabrera and Pujols used. No proof, but when just about every other HR hitter (Thomas and Griffey may be the exceptions, and maybe Thome) are presumed to be dirty, it's hard to think any HR hitter is clean.

I wonder if there are some guys who were smart about it, used HGH before anyone tested for it and never got big enough for the red flaqs to go up. The list of HOF level players of the last 20 years who fall into that category is a short one.

 

Can't think of roids in terms of bigger. How big was Lance Armstrong? Andy Pettite?

Lot of guys use roids (or performance enhancers) just to recover from injury. And that's how they justify it. And frankly, I'm sympathetic.

 

Neither did Rafael Palmeiro.

 

Stop the presses.

Robert Fick — hey, that's 2002 AL All-Star Robert Fick to you, buddy — admitted today that he used steroids twice during his career to recover from shoulder injuries.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/22890448/video-former-mlber-robert-fick-admits-to-steroid-use

Maybe I'm confusing him with someone else, but I vaguely recall now that Fick was hated in his own clubhouse. Not just by a handful of teammates on one occasion, but in multiple clubhouses throughout his career. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize. But that's what I remember hearing a lot when he was with the Braves.

 

A number that would not surprise me is 50%, and that is for all MLBers, not just the superstars.

 

Nothing wrong with speculating about percentages. Making guesses about specific players with no evidence to back it up, however, is a different story.

 

True, but Palmeiro's career began at just about the same time as Canseco and McGwire and it's possible that he doing them very early in his career.