A-Fraud

Unless you've been under a rock this entire weekend, you know that Sports Illustrated reported that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. 

The positive test came from an anonymous survey that Major League Baseball distributed in order to determine if there was a need to test for performance enhancing drugs regularly. Reportedly 104 players tested positive in the survey.

 A-Rod testing positive for performance enhancing drugs is surprising but by no means shocking. I think most baseball fans assumed that the great slugger was clean based on his consistent performance and non-overwhelming size. When people thought about steroids they thought of superhero bodies and freakish growth. But the fact itself that the games biggest star and arguably one of the best players of all time was caught juicing at this point really shocked no one. We've become so jaded over the last decade as we have seen those we once labeled as hero's stripped down to the the worst title of all: cheater. 

But what does this mean for baseball, and where does it leave us? What are we supposed to expect/believe about the time period in baseball now known as the steroid era? Do we simply assume that everyone was juicing and therefor it was a level playing field? With the amount of stars positively linked to steroids at this point that may be a safe bet. 

But then what about the records? Sure it is simple enough to give these guys a pass into the Hall of Fame because they were playing against other roiders, but doesn't it punish the greats of the past?

Some would suggest we simply go on a witch hunt and find all the offenders we can. Potential Hall of Famer Curt Schilling even suggests that Major League Baseball renege on their confidentiality claims and list all 103 players who tested positive in 2003.

While I don't have the answers to these hypotheticals, the whole problem did get me thinking about how many sure fire stars there were left from the steroid era that hadn't been linked to the juice. So here is my starting Roider and Non Roider line up for the steroid era.

Rules: I'm defining the steroid era as 1995-2004. Players who have either tested positive, or have otherwise been all but proven to have taken steroids are considered Roiders. Those with no substantial steroid rumors are Non Roiders.

Roiders

C- Ivan Rodriguez (Juiced)

1B-Rafael Palmeiro (Tested Positive)

2B-Chuck Knoblauch (Mitchell Report)

SS-Alex Rodriguez (Tested Positive)

3B-Ken Caminiti (Admitted)

OF-Jose Canseco (Admitted)

OF-Barry Bonds (too many to list)

OF-Gary Sheffield (Admitted)

DH Mark McGwire (Brother, Juiced, Inability to deny allegations)

SP Roger Clemens (Mitchell Report)

RP Eric Gagne (Mitchell Report)

Bench: Jason Giambi (Admitted), Mo Vaughn (Mitchell Report), Nook Logan (overwhelmingly large guns)

Note: Sammy Sosa did not have enough on him to put him on either list. 

Non-Roiders

C-Mike Piazza

1B-Albert Pujols

2B-Roberto Alomar/Jeff Kent

SS-Derek Jeter

3B-Chipper Jones

OF-Ken Griffey Jr.

OF-Vlad Guerrero

OF-Rickey Henderson

DH-Manny Ramirez

SP-Pedro Martinez

RP-Mariano Rivera 

Bench: Cal Ripken (Tail end of career), Wade Boggs (Ditto) Nomar Garciaparra

Who makes your list?