A bad week for former all star shortstops

All-star shortstop Miguel Tejada was charged today with lying to congressional investigators about his use and knowledge of steroids. The 2002 MVP is expected to plead guilty tomorrow in court and faces up to a year in prison. 

It has been a rough year for the former Baltimore Oriole slugger. In the last 12 months he has been named in the Mitchell Report, traded to Houston, and had his true age revealed on national television. He posted by far his career worst season in Houston this year as well and as he faces possible jail time, his career may very well be over. 

It's sad to see a player like Tejada fall from grace so quickly. He was always one of the most charismatic and exciting players on and off the field. He looked like he had a true joy for playing the game and while he was a ferocious competitor, there was almost always a smile on his face.  

Alex Rodriguez Update

A few hours after I posted on Alex Rodriguez's name being leaked for testing positive in a 2003 steroid test, he did something very surprising, he confessed:

Summary: Rodriguez took responsibility and says that he did in fact use steroids from 2001-2003. He said that the pressure to live up to his contract and the atmosphere in Texas were the contributing factors to his decision to take steroids. He did however admit that it was his decision and no one else's. 

Analysis: Well...A-Rod probably realized that of all the stars who had been busted for steroids the only ones who have come out looking good are the ones who admitted to their use. The one thing people hate more than cheaters is liars. I think A-rod came out and told the truth in order to maintain his legacy and probably in the hopes that people will be willing to move on.

I think his hopes will probably be realized. He will most likely still be a Hall of Famer and considered one of the best in the game. The one thing that will likely be harmed however is his legacy as one of the best of all time. People can forgive a cheater, but they wont embrace him as one of their heros.

And can anyone really forgive the man that looked Katie Couric in the face and lied?

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?

Changes may mean good news for the Nationals

A new trend appears to be rising in major league baseball. An odd one, and surprising one. For the last 15 years major league baseball has been a game of dollars and cents, well at least dollars, lots and lots of dollars. The teams with the most money have dominated the standings as they sweep up all the talent with unbelievable contracts and take a lot of the pride out of smaller market teams. It seems though, that we may be seeing a change.

In the past the best young players of the game would come into the league and play out their rookie contract, usually earning no more then 500K a year, with a large bonus of course. At the age of 24 or 25 when their options were out, they would sign a 2 or 3 year, sizeable contract, to assure they would stay with the team that developed them and raised them. After their first big contract was up, they would enter the free agent market, a talented and accomplished player between the ages of 26-28, ready to sign a whopper of a deal.

Derek Jeter signed an 11 year 189 million dollar contract at the age of 27. Manny Ramirez signed an 8 year 160 million dollar deal at the age of 28. At the age of 27 Todd Helton signed an 11 year 151 million dollar contract, and the biggest one of all, Alex Rodriguez, signed a 10 year 262 million dollar contract at the age of 26.

Ridiculous amounts of money sure. It was good for the players; they made big time long term deals and didn’t really have to earn it. Players like Mike Hampton, Danny Neagle, Kevin Brown, and Adrian Beltre have never come close to matching the expectations promised with the signing of their deals. It was good for the big market teams regardless of the flops however. The small teams did the lay work, the scouting, the drafting, and dealt with the growing pains, while the big teams snatched them up with super contracts and won championships.

This season however has seen a huge and confusing change. The youngest stars of the games are signing long term deals, for lower amounts of money earlier on. Today Ryan Braun, who recorded possibly the best rookie season ever last year, signed an 8 year 45 million dollar contract before he finished his second full major league season. The numbers are staggering; at the age of only 23 last year Braun hit .324 with 34 homers in only 113 games. The potential contract for Braun three to four years down the line would be huge, even Alex Rodriguez like, yet with his new contract he promises not to be a free agent until the age of 31, and legitimately could be missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars.

Braun isn’t alone. Hanley Ramirez, arguably a greater talent then Braun signed a six year 70 million dollar contract, making him a free agent at 30 and a Marlin for six more years. Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who last year made a huge splash as in their playoff run, singed a 6 year 31 million dollar contract this year as well. Perhaps most surprisingly Tampa Bay prospect Evan Longoria, before even playing a week in the majors, was locked up in the sunshine state for six years at 45 million dollars. It seems the brightest stars of tomorrow are already locked in with low market teams for a good part of the next 10 years.

While nothing is certain yet, this appears to be a good thing for baseball. The smaller markets will no longer have to try to compete in an uphill battle for the players, they won’t have a mere 2 or 3 year window to win with the talent they have developed, and maybe the balance of power will even out. My question however, is what does this mean for the Washington Nationals who have yet to sign up their young star, Ryan Zimmerman.

Zimmerman renewed his contract this season for relatively the same amount he made last year, for about half a million dollars. Will the Nats be smart like the other small market teams and sign Zimmerman up for a long term deal and an undervalued contract? It seems to me they have a rather good bargaining point. Zimmerman is of course a great young player who is the center point of this franchise, but lets be honest he is not playing well. His numbers have never matched that of Ryan Braun or even Troy Tulowitzki, so his contract logically certainly should not exceed theirs. It seems that this has been a touchy subject the Nats just want to put on the shelf until the end of the season, but I think for the best future of the franchise, the Nats should try and get Zimmerman a new deal along the parameters of his peers.