Ivan Nova Reportedly Under Investigation by Major League Baseball

Put this under the "really, really bad timing" department. According to the New York Post's George A. King III (and Baseball America's Jim Callis), Major League Baseball is currently investigating Yankees pitchers Ivan Nova and Wilkin de la Rosa for "allegedly injecting each other with B-12 shots last season when they were teammates in Trenton."

Yankees' rookie Nova is supposedly under investigation by MLB (WSJ)

Uh oh. As we know from The Roger Clemens Situation, B12 is not always as innocuous as it sounds. To wit, King continues: "MLB wants to make sure that the shots were indeed B-12."

Oy. Nova recently moved into the Yankees starting rotation to take the place of the ineffective (and currently below replacement level) Javier Vazquez and has been somewhat of a big surprise for the Yankees in 2010. It would be quite a shame if it were revealed that he had some, er, "assistance" with that rise in prospect status. If Major League Baseball finds that the shots are anything unkosher, the Yankees could lose Nova (and de la Rosa) for 50 games for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

In the shorter term, this would be devastating for a Yankees' team that needs to find some consistent starting pitching to hold off the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays. While those two teams battle each other in St. Pete tonight, the Yankees will be at the mercy of the MLB investigators to find out what happens to Nova. Here's hoping that they really just had vitamin deficiencies. Right now all they seem to have is some report that they injected each other with what appeared to be a vitamin. But in this age of performance enhancing drugs, anytime there are needles (and an MLB investigation) involved, you have to be curious.

There's no need to jump to conclusions yet, but in a season where the Yankees don't need to do any more worrying about their starting staff, this is yet another thing for the Yankees and their fans to worry about.

Trivia Tuesday: Before the Power Surge

On Sunday, Alex Rodriguez tied Frank Robinson on the all-time home-run list. At the end of the 1998 season Frank Robinson was 4th all-time on that list and there were only 15 members of the 500 home run club. Today, Robinson is tied for 7th and there are 25 members of the 500 home run club. But let's turn our dial back before the home runs flew out of the park due to steroids or HGH...can you name the other 14 members (besides Frank Robinson) of the 500 home run club as of the end of 1998? Bonus points if you can tell me the order they were in.

No cheating. Put your answers in the comments below. Good luck!


Bonus question: There are only five active (as in still playing) Major Leaguers who have more home runs than recently-elected Hall of Famer Jim Rice (382) but less than the 500 home run club. Can you name those five between the two?

Study: HGH Significantly Increases Sprint Capacity in Healthy Recreational Athletes

I've heard the argument that there is no proof that HGH actually helps to improve the performance of athletes. This study may blow that all out of the water. This trial is the first to show that growth hormone positively affects physical performance. Here are the details from the video and then the press release:



Philadelphia, May 4, 2010 – A study released today in Annals of Internal Medicine, the flagship journal of the American College of Physicians (ACP), finds that human growth hormone (HGH) improves sprint capacity in healthy recreational athletes. This is the first trial to demonstrate that HGH improves athletic performance.

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The Real Problem with the Edinson Volquez Suspension

I'm sure everyone heard about a mystery player who was going to be suspended for PEDs. Then it was a New York player. Then definitely not a New York player. Then an NL player. Then a pitcher. And finally it was revealed by SI's Jon Heyman as Reds injured pitcher Edinson Volquez (picture from the article). So he's caught, he's suspended 50 games, he learns his lesson, and all's good (well, except for the children who lose a role model)...well not quite. Why? Craig Calcaterra of HarballTalk explains why the suspension starting immediately doesn't work in this instance:

[Volquez] cannot pitch and would not be able to until at least July, due to recovery from Tommy John surgery.  The suspension, in contrast, will be over in June.  Sure, his pay will be docked, but he will miss exactly zero games that he otherwise wouldn't have missed...Volquez will essentially have no change whatsoever in his recovery and return...

Not that his fine will be insubstantial -- he'll be docked roughly $137K of his $445K contract this year, plus some fines I imagine -- but his baseball life will not be altered one bit by the suspension.

Think anyone is going to have a problem with this?  Oh, yes. Yes they will.

I certainly do. Volquez is basically getting off because of "time served". He's getting a free pass because he's injured now. If Volquez was suspended for hitting a guy with a pitch, the suspension would start once he comes off the disabled list (unless he was Cliff Lee, of course). But because of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it starts right now.

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Uncle Lou Comes To the Rescue, May Be Watching Weeds

You have got to love Lou Pinella. After Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto admitted smoking pot, Sweet Lou came to his defense. Via ESPN Chicago:

"Look, I have smoked dope one time in my life," Piniella said before the Cubs faced the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. "And it didn't do a damn thing for me, and I never tried it again. I'm fortunate because of that. A lot of people do. You can even buy it in California from a pharmacy."

Yes, you can, Lou, sort of. Have you been watching this season of Weeds? Because Silas and Doug are opening up their own "pharmacy" now (or is it a farm-acy if you're selling weed?). It's a really good show if you don't watch it.

Anyways, this is not the only World Baseball Classic violation it seems. Sidney Ponson was caught taking what he says are diet pills, but are being described as a "stimulant". I've seen Sir Sidney before and I'm pretty sure that he's not on diet pills. Not positive. But pretty sure. They're certainly not helping his pitching with the Royals (1-5, 7.27 ERA).

So diet pills and pot? Sounds like a college campus to me.

Braves Fans Stating the Obvious

Check out the top left corner of the picture. The Braves fans wanted to make sure the whole world knew that Alex Rodriguez cheats and so they taped it to the stairs so it would be on TV (it has since been taken down).

But we already knew he cheated on his wife so I don't know why this is anything new...maybe he's cheated on Kate Hudson and she sent an operative to post the sign.



Ohhhh.....they mean he takes steroids? I get it!

Well I guess that it's working as he's having a big game along with the rest of the Yankees offense. This offensive outburst is what the Yankees desperately needed. Now they can come back for the Subway Series Part Deux and feel comfortable about their offense.

Well, until they try to hit homeruns in Citi Field...

What Is Wrong With Big Papi (According To The Interwebs)

Well Big Papi is laying the Big Stinky so far this season and the whole internet is abuzz trying to figure out why. Some have maintained this could be PED withdrawal, but the only evidence to the fact is that he started surging when he played with Manny Ramirez (caught using a banned substance), has a sudden drop-off in numbers, a rash of injuries, and well...actually, that explanation sounds quite logical. But in the absence of outwardly calling him a steroids user (CHEATER!), let's look at some other reasons the World Wide Web has thought David Ortiz hasn't been Big Papi so far this season:

-Baseball Prospectus with the best of their experts takes a shot on ESPN.com, going through a performance analysis, scouting report and health report. The health report is interesting because it says that the lack of power probably doesn't come from the tendon issue. And in their performance analysis, they delve a little deeper into the problems that Ortiz has been having which look much worse when you break it down: "Ortiz was whiffing at pitches he previously had crushed, or he could not get the right timing on some mistakes out over the plate, hitting lazy fly balls instead of his typical bombs. He also was laying off many pitches, becoming passive in some at-bats as he attempted to get on base however he could. The problem was especially obvious in the two 2008 postseason series the Sox played, as Ortiz struggled to amass any kind of power. In 43 postseason at-bats, he had just four extra-base hits, only one of which was a homer. He also struck out in one-quarter of his plate appearances."

-I had previously linked to this, but it's worth noting that back on May 1st, Baseball-Reference started the "Is David Ortiz Finished?" talk. Here's a passage (BTW, they talk about "good" news being him still playing well and "bad" news being him finished...I'm not so inclined to agree with their wording) "The good news is that Ortiz has a long way to go before his current streak [of no homeruns] reaches to top. The bad news is that the four longer streaks all came when he was still with the Twins, before he became the power hitter he was at his height with the Red Sox. What surprises me is the degree to which Ortiz has dropped off. All players age and all players eventually retire. But few drop off so suddenly." Yeah...um...about that...

-Baseball Musings debates with Beyond The Boxscore on why Ortiz's power has fallen. Beyond the Boxscore says that Big Papi is chasing bad pitches. Baseball Musings agrees, but disagrees, and has a way to tell if he's really done: "I think that’s not the cause of his power drop, but a result of it. He’s less confident at the plate, so he’s chasing pitches trying to make something happen. His spray chart is quite interesting. He’s 2 for 12 pulling the ball, 3 for 13 hitting up the middle, but nine for nineteen going to left. Maybe it’s time to end the shift against David. If that does happen, you’ll know other teams think his ability to pull the ball hard is really gone."

-The Boston Globe says that there is truly a "Papi dilemma": the inclination is to resist giving up on him because he showed the Red Sox fans to believe...but the circumstances have become so dire that it may be useless for fans to believe he'll find a way out of it. The author also says, like all Red Sox fans, that they don't believe "David Ortiz's wonderful legacy in Boston was built fraudulently". But poll those same fans and ask them if they felt the same about Manny Ramirez...

-From a fantasy perspective, ESPN's Grand Theft Roto says "Forgive me, father (and I mean my actual dad), for I'm about to sin. After watching Big Papi go 0-for-7 on Thursday with three strikeouts and more men stranded than the first season of 'Lost,' I simply have to take off my Red Sox-colored glasses. There are only eight players in the majors who have hit more fly balls than Ortiz this year, and all of them have at least three homers. I'll love you forever, Papi, but I'm trading you for almost any player who I believe still has 20 homers in him. Excuse me while I go beat myself about the head and neck with a Red Sox commemorative mini-bat."

-Even Sox fans over at Over the Monster are very ready for Papi to sit for a while (I understand being upset...but isn't this a little harsh after how much Ortiz has done for the organization?)

-MannyBeingManny and other sluggers (Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado and Alex Cora...though I doubt the latter would be considered a slugger) have reached out in support of Papi (LA Times on Manny and Boston Herald on the other sluggers). In the LA Times piece comes the best quote from Ortiz about his struggles after going 0-7, six of them with runners in scoring position: "I don't feel like talking right now," he said after the game. "Just put down, 'Papi stinks.' "

-River Ave. Blues looks at the decline and fall of David Ortiz and compares it to another former Red Sox slugger, Mo Vaughn. But River Ave Blues also says what a lot of Yankee fans are thinking: "For me, this decline has been bittersweet for a number of reasons. First of all, I basically predicted it back in January 2006 when I analyzed Ortiz’s contract situation for the now-defunct Talking Baseball blog. I’m also glad that the Yankees no longer have to face the David Ortiz of old who would refuse to make outs against New York.As a fan of the game though, I hate to see the competition go out this way. I’d see the Yanks face Ortiz and win that battle while he’s at his finest. We can watch A.J. Burnett or Joba Chamberlain strike out Ortiz now, but that’s hardly an accomplishment today. With 30 strike outs in 157 plate appearances, that’s all Ortiz does anymore."

-Deadspin suggests that maybe Big Papi needs a hug, using this ominous quote about Ortiz's personal life: "'People don't know,' Ortiz said. 'Sometimes they think we just come here to play baseball and that's it. We're human beings like everyone else. We have things to worry about. Sometimes that gets in the way. It's hard to have that free open mind you need to play this game. There's no way you can play this game with a busy mind. No way.'" Well...maybe Manny is on his mind? Or maybe he's just upset he can't rip out the heart of Yankees fans anymore (he has teammates for that now)? Or maybe his deal with the devil (read: PED) is over and Big Papi is finished. I doubt it.

But maybe he wishes his jersey was still buried underneath Yankee Stadium. Because since then, it seems he hasn't been the same. I loved the battles between Big Papi and the Yankees, but I can't say I'm sad to see him go. Edgar Martinez, Luis Gonzalez and Manny Ramirez have all had huge hits against the Yankees in my lifetime, but no hit stings quite like those off the bat of David Ortiz. I think, more than him being done, it's a player who hasn't been able to adjust to his declining skills. Some players are stubborn and continue to struggle doing what they had done before but can't physically do anymore, some adjust and continue to play well for the rest of their career. Time will tell which side Big Papi falls on.