Writing the Pine

In our last article, we talked about how for most players, it wouldn’t surprise us at all if we found out they were on steroids on some PED.  But there are still some players out there that we genuinely believe are au naturale.  Some of our writers will share which players they would be shocked by if they were found to be on steroids.  (We’ll give credit where credit is due.  Reader Warrior13 left a comment naming an entire lineup of players that would shock him if they were on steroids.)  First up, Anderson’s pick…

Photo via Newscom

Seemingly, there’s been a different baseball icon every other week that has been reported to have used steroids sometime during this decade. And as each different icon gets reported as a steroid user, baseball continues to dig itself into a deeper hole. Most notably, with the reports of Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and now, David Ortiz having used steroids, there are few superstars left that haven’t come out where it is at the point where it comes as little surprise to fans when another player comes out of the closet. However, one trend that should be noted is that most of the players that have been accused have been batters and not pitchers. The only noteworthy pitchers that have been accused have been Roger Clemens and Eric Gagne. And although there’s bound to be a few more big name pitchers to be named on the steroid list, I would be very surprised if Randy Johnson was mentioned in that group. Yes, fans will be quick to suspect any icon that has established legendary statistics in their career, but Johnson is a guy that has really stood the test of time. His numbers have been in the decline during the past few seasons and so has the velocity on his pitches. To some extent, this removes a shade of doubt if there has been any casted on him that he’s been on the juice at any point during the past few seasons. It definitely doesn’t completely exonerate him, but it does show that he’s been human in the late stages of his career unlike Roger Clemens who remained dominant in his late stints with the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees. Johnson’s build has allowed him to pitch the way he has throughout his career. Instead of having a meathead’s body makeup like Clemens, Randy Johnson’s towering height has been a great asset in establishing himself as a big time strikeout pitcher. While he went through the growing pains that almost all pitchers go through early in their careers, he has been a steadily great pitcher since his “breakout” season in 1990. While the velocity has always been there since the early stages of his career, his command and maturity as a pitcher allowed him to have great success in the late 90’s and earlier in this decade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Fast forward to 2009, as I said before, though Johnson’s velocity isn’t the same, he has had some great outings throughout the season and not to mention picking up milestone win number 300. I think his stint this season with the San Francisco Giants demonstrates his great longevity and this longevity would lead me to surprised if he was on the juice given the great decline that we see in most players on steroids as they enter their late 30’s and into their 40’s.