Why Biogenesis is not a big deal

The Biogenesis scandal is not a big deal.

Read that again.

On August 5th, Major League Baseball suspended 13 players (in addition to Ryan Braun who had been suspended two weeks earlier) for their relationships with Florida anti-aging clinic Biogenesis (particularly, use of HGH).

Source: Wikipedia

Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colón, and Yasmani Grandal were also named in the report but were not punished because they had been previously suspended for failing tests for drugs provided by Biogenesis.  Gio Gonzalez and Danny Valencia were named in the report but were later cleared of PED use.

On the surface, this looks great (if you want PEDs out of sports, that is).  Thirteen players were suspended!  This is the nail in the coffin of the Steroid Era in baseball!  But it isn't, and here's why.

Nelson Cruz: Body by Bosch

1. None of the suspensions were the result of a positive test.  MLB's testing didn't catch any of these guys; rather, a disgruntled Biogenesis employee leaked company records detailing its clientele.  The fall of the players was a result of legal and investigative prowess, not brilliant drug testing.  MLB did not in any way demonstrate improvements to their testing procedures through this case--the lesson for potential users is, "Don't deal with shady people," when the lesson we want to see from drug-busts is, "The testing is better, don't try to get around it because we will catch you."

2. It's only fourteen players.  At any one time, there are 750 players on Major League rosters.  There are currently 1200 members of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).  That is to say, slightly less than 2% of players on rosters were caught and a shade over 1% of due-paying players were caught.  I think most people can agree than more than 2% of baseball players are doping.  Is it a step?  Yes.  But to call it a watershed moment is a little overstated.  For comparison, last week the Turkish Athletics Federation banned 31 of its athletes for doping.  I'm going to hazard a guess and say that there are fewer elite level track athletes in Turkey than there are MLB players, and I'm still not even sure I'd classify the Turkish bans as overly meaningful (more like funny, really).

3. It's only 50 games.  That's a slap on the wrist, although it's fairly consistent with the other major sports' bans.  Clearly the risk of suspension isn't harsh enough to discourage players from using PEDs.  In the case of Cruz and Peralta, they'll be able to join their respective teams for the final week of the regular season in what could be the heat of a pennant race (although the Tigers are sitting comfortably ahead of the Indians at this time).  What's more, they've already been helping their teams throughout the season getting to where they are--WAR aside, it's hard to know where the Tigers and Rangers would be without their All-Stars.  From the financial standpoint, the players do lose money from not playing these games, but they'll still get bonuses if their teams make the playoffs.

So, what do we do?  The first thing I'd advocate for would be stricter penalties.  The punishments need to be severely detrimental to the career of the player, if not career ruining.  Lifetime bans are a pipe dream, but I don't think a 2 year ban inline with current WADA code is unreasonable.  The IAAF just moved from two year bans to four year bans, and that's in a sport that has a much shorter window of performance than baseball (unless you're Justin Gatlin or Dwain Chambers, a four year ban is basically career-ending).  If stiffer penalties are going to be introduced, MLB must begin taking A and B samples to account for false positives.

2012 All-Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera

Teams should also be able to negotiate voiding clauses into players' contracts.  If a player gets suspended, the team should have the option to relieve themselves of that contract, or at least be able to renegotiate.  In some cases, a player could be rewarded with a larger contract due to increased production from PED use.  Look at how Melky Cabrera dropped off from 2012 to this year when he is, presumably, off the juice.  In my mind, it's not much different than a regular person lying on their résumé to a potential employer.  In the "real world," if you get busted for lying on your résumé, you get fired--no questions asked.  Why that isn't the case in baseball (or all sports) is rather baffling.

I'm now going to take a minute to talk about Alex Rodriguez, who has been catching a lot of flak in the media for his decision to appeal his suspension.  There are many, many reasons to dislike A-Rod, and people call him selfish for his appeal, but I can kind of see where he's coming from.  Look at it from his perspective: he's 38 and has a suspension looming that bans him from the game in 2014.  By the time Spring Training rolls around in 2015, he'll be 39 going on 40.  He's due $25 million in 2014, $21 million in 2015, and $20 million in each 2016 and 2017.  What does he have to lose by appealing?  He's getting paid $28 million this year, so every day he isn't suspended is another day where he makes more money (not like he needs it).  I'm not saying I agree with what he's doing, but I get it.

Ryan Braun: fraud

Also, Ryan Braun is the biggest fraud ever.  Everyone knows that his failed test for elevated levels of testosterone in the fall of 2011 was legit (wait, sorry, I forgot that leaving a sample at room temperature instead of in the freezer will cause testosterone levels to increase!  The test must be wrong!) and then in Spring Training the following year he had the audacity to hold this press conference.  He sounds like Lance Armstrong, and that's not a good comparison.  What a clown.