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Re: The MLB Thread
A-Rod blood treatment care toes a fine line
by Jeff Passan / Yahoo! Sports
Five years ago, I asked a question: What is a performance-enhancing drug? I had read a study from Denmark that espoused human growth hormone’s ability to heal broken bones faster, and it turned my 20/20 vision on the issue to 20/20,000.
If HGH truly promoted healing when administered in safe doses by a doctor, not only did it belong off banned lists but it needed to be used as regular treatment in trainers’ rooms. Drug regulation in Europe, of course, is far less stringent than in the United States, so studies replicating those findings haven’t been – and won’t be – done here anytime soon. Researchers there continue undeterred, and 20 countries now offer something called Orthokine.
Alex Rodriguez went to Germany for it, though he just as easily could have gone to Italy or Russia or Israel, where doctors too will draw your blood, spin it in a centrifuge with some sort of proprietary concoction to concentrate the growth factors that purport to prevent arthritis and then inject it back into an injured area. A-Rod got it in his balky right knee and left shoulder. He went on the advice of Kobe Bryant, who received treatment on his right knee.
And it’s imperative to note that everyone who matters in the anti-doping world, from the zealots who rail against the use of PED’s to the sports leagues that enforce the rules, consider Orthokine and its cousin, platelet-rich plasma therapy, a treatment and not a drug. How they make such a distinction I’m still not quite sure. And that’s where we are in this great big intersection of sports and science: at a line that blurs by the day, one in which treatment and performance enhancement become indistinguishable.
Take Orthokine. Kobe raved about it enough that A-Rod traveled to Dusseldorf to work with the doctor, Peter Wehling, who conceived the procedure to help treat the aging battle osteoarthritis. Athletes glommed onto it, and A-Rod and Kobe are only the latest to visit a man many consider a healing shaman.
The procedure, as Wehling outlines it, does nothing against sporting bodies’ drug laws. It takes a legal substance (a person’s blood), manipulates it (like doctors do during, say, surgery) and uses it to heal (as cortisone, for example, does inflammation). There is seemingly no ethical or moral quandary.
Until realizing that to attack the interleukin-1 protein that doctors believe facilitates arthritis, Wehling’s procedure involves stimulating growth factors – similar growth factors to IGF-1, which is on baseball’s banned list, and other drugs non grata.
Why, then, are Orthokine and PRP not outlawed by the World Anti-Doping Agency? Why was Bartolo Colon allowed to have his fat stem cells harvested and injected into his balky arm? What is the difference between either of those and HGH taken responsibly?
[ Related: Kobe confirms he directed A-Rod to German doctor ]
“I was in the car today thinking about it,” said Dr. Gary Wadler, a longtime member of the WADA committee that determines the banned list annually. “The distinction between enhancement and therapy – it’s not easy.”
For something to make the banned list, Wadler said, it must fulfill three criteria:
• The capacity to enhance performance
• Use can result in negative health consequences
• Violate the spirit of sports.
The criteria show the power of WADA and how sports leagues fear its negative press, because anybody can see that a list based on three such principles is insultingly subjective.
As troublesome as the first two tenets are – who’s to say what constitutes performance enhancement, and almost any medicine can be bad if taken irresponsibly – the last one is abhorrent. From an ivory tower, a group of well-paid men and women determine what is right and wrong for the sporting consciousness. It’s big government without an election to determine who does the governing.
WADA tries, Wadler said, to solicit opinions not just from the anti-doping community but sports leaders, political figures and others. Put enough good minds in a room and you’d like to think a rational-enough consensus will come together. And yet politics always has a way of interfering, and let’s be honest: WADA exists solely because of the demonization of the very drugs it judges and of which it profits from testing.
A-Rod got flayed for taking one such drug, primobolan, an anabolic steroid. He did it, he admitted, to improve his performance. Had A-Rod offered healing from injuries as his excuse, maybe he would have gotten off with less grief. Probably not, because he’s A-Rod, but in retrospect his honesty is admirable. Any player today who says he used a substance to heal may not get the benefit of the doubt but certainly gets off easier than those whose intentions would seem to violate WADA’s ever-holy spirit.
Rodriguez isn’t the only player to have called MLB asking permission for blood spinning. Others have contacted the commissioner’s office, too, and have been told essentially the same thing A-Rod was: do it at your own risk.
Officially, the procedure receives neither approval nor disapproval from MLB, though if the league doesn’t say no, it’s essentially saying yes. It can’t explicitly do so, though: If a player who gets it done happens to test positive for a banned substance, baseball wants to ensure he doesn’t use even a tacit approval as a defense to overturn a potential suspension.
Frankly, nobody at MLB is quite sure what to make of Orthokine and PRP. A healed A-Rod is great for the game just as a healed Kobe is great for basketball. Still, as much as the league tries to shake off the double-standard – Kobe soaking in praise from TV broadcasters for doing all he could to get healthy, A-Rod catching another level of hell and impressing Dante in the process – baseball can’t help but wonder where exactly this thing is going. If two players from its marquee franchise have been injected with their own blood and their own fat in the last two years, what’s next?
“Science is moving forward to take care of patients, and that’s what we’re supposed to do,” said Wadler, now an associate professor at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. “I don’t want to not have things available to me as a doctor because of the abuse by athletes. We’re going to continue to develop new technologies. Gene-based therapies – we realize the potential.”
Once it comes to that – athletes turning on and off genes to calibrate success – the policing of performance enhancement almost certainly will die. For now, though, as the line remains even the slightest bit visible, WADA goes about its fight with vigor. It spent months, Wadler said, debating PRP before deeming it legal. There was not enough evidence, he said, that PRP significantly altered an athlete’s blood, even if Wehling claims Orthokine enriches it up to 1,000 times.
“I promise you,” Wadler said, “it’s a very tedious prospect with a lot of debate. We try to get things right.”
It’s difficult to envy Wadler and those charged with regulating drugs in sports. Their mission is noble. They crave fairness. They try to stand for something good. They understand most fans, deep down, would prefer an even playing field over one with blown-up freaks. Athletes always will look for an edge, proven by a pair that took trips to Dusseldorf to work with a doctor whose product is not approved by the FDA. There will be more like it and more athletes who seek it.
And soon enough, when we ask that imperative question – what is a performance-enhancing drug? – not even the doctors in charge of determining the answer will know what to say.
Re: The MLB Thread
Andruw Jones stays with Yankees with one-year return deal
by AP
NEW YORK (AP)—Andruw Jones is staying with the New York Yankees, agreeing to a $2 million, one-year contract that allows him to earn another $1.45 million in performance bonuses.
The deal, agreed to Friday, is subject to a physical.
Jones signed with the Yankees last winter to provide a right-handed bat off the bench and hit .247 with 13 homers and 33 RBIs in 222 plate appearances. A five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove, he played 39 games in left, 19 in right and 16 at designated hitter,
In addition to his base salary, Jones can earn $45,000 each for 100 and 125 plate appearances, $70,000 apiece for 150, 175, 200 and 225, $170,000 each for 250 and 275, $220,000 apiece for 300 and 325 and $300,000 for 350.
Re: The MLB Thread
Padres acquire Carlos Quentin from White Sox for 2 players
by Bernie Wilson / AP Sports
SAN DIEGO (AP)—Being traded from the Chicago White Sox to his hometown San Diego Padres couldn’t have been any more convenient for All-Star outfielder Carlos Quentin.
“I get a call and they said I’ve been traded to San Diego. I’m already here,” Quentin said on a conference call shortly after the trade was announced Saturday.
Four years after trading Quentin from Arizona to the White Sox, new Padres general manager Josh Byrnes is bringing him home.
Byrnes made his second bold move in two weeks when he acquired Quentin for two prospects.
“Trading him is pretty high on my list of regrets,” Byrnes said. “That group in Arizona had a lot of talent. Carlos always stood out for his intensity and his style of play. Having a chance to get him back became very appealing here this offseason.”
The trade is expected to bolster San Diego’s offense, which was dreadful as the Padres finished last in the NL West at 71-91, 23 games behind the Diamondbacks. Quentin has four consecutive 20-homer seasons, including 36 in 2008.
“Improving our offense is a priority this offseason and the acquisition of Carlos gives us a proven middle-of-the-order bat,” Byrnes said. “We specifically targeted Carlos because of his production and his hard-nosed style of play.”
While Quentin started the last two seasons in right field for the White Sox, he’s penciled into left field with the Padres.
The White Sox received minor league pitchers Simon Castro, a right-hander, and Pedro Hernandez, a left-hander.
“San Diego came back and obviously put something on the table that attracted us,” White Sox GM Ken Williams said. “Both of these guys are guys that we can ultimately see, and we can see them very quickly here.”
Castro went 7-8 with a 5.63 ERA in 22 starts between Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A Tucson last season.
“He will be the first to admit that last year he did not distinguish himself amongst some of his peers that were also considered top prospects at the time,” Williams said. “We’ve got to get him back there. Just one year ago you wouldn’t have been able to get this type of guy.”
Williams said Dayan Viciedo goes into spring training as Chicago’s starting right fielder.
On Dec. 17, Byrnes dealt right-hander Mat Latos to the Cincinnati Reds for four players, including starter Edinson Volquez and Yonder Alonso, the leading contender to start at first base.
The two moves reverse a recent Padres trend of dealing big leaguers for prospects and shedding salary. Byrnes said the Padres were able to make these deals because his predecessor, Jed Hoyer, did a good job of acquiring prospects over the previous two years before he left to become GM of the Chicago Cubs.
“Talking to (CEO) Jeff Moorad, if we had ways to stretch our payroll, get the right guys to be competitive in 2012, maybe be a surprise team in 2012, and with that foundation that gives us a chance at real sustained success for a number of years, that’s the ideal,” Byrnes said.
While GM of the Diamondbacks, Byrnes traded Quentin to the White Sox for minor league first baseman Chris Carter in December 2007. The Diamondbacks had taken Quentin in the first round of the 2003 amateur draft after he helped Stanford reach the College World Series three straight times.
Byrnes said the Diamondbacks had a surplus of outfielders in 2007 and moving Quentin helped build a trade package for Dan Haren, who was obtained from Oakland 11 days after Quentin was traded to Chicago. Carter was one of six players Arizona sent to Oakland in the Haren deal.
“My real regret is really how much over time we missed his intensity,” said Byrnes, who oversaw an NL West title in 2007 with Arizona, but was fired in July 2010. “A group that had success and now failure and now success, could have used his personality around a little bit.”
A shoulder injury limited Quentin to just one game in the final month of 2011, but Byrnes said the outfielder is healthy.
The 29-year-old Quentin hit .254 with 24 home runs, a career-high 31 doubles and 77 RBIs in 118 games in 2011, when he made his second All-Star team.
In 2008, he made his first All-Star team, won the Silver Slugger award and finished in the top five of AL Most Valuable Player voting.
Quentin has heard the talk about how spacious Petco Park eats up fly balls, but isn’t worried.
“I was here when the park was first built and I’m familiar with it. I played in it. I’m fortunate to have the size physically and be able to be successful personally. I’ve always had the approach of hitting first and staying within myself. I’ve found that to be most ideal to produce power. I’m not planning on changing that at all. I’ll become familiar with the ballpark.”
Byrnes thinks Quentin will be OK.
“He’s got huge power, so he has hit a good number of homers to right, right-center,” the GM said. “It’s a tall order for any player in Petco, but from center to the left-field foul pole, they’re gone in any park. … Since we play half our games on the road, he’ll be a real threat. When we were down two or three runs, we didn’t have enough of a threat in the lineup. We feel Carlos will bring that.”
The Padres hit the fewest homers in the majors (91); had the lowest batting average in the NL (.237); the second-highest strikeout total in the majors (1,320); and scored only 593 runs, second-lowest in the NL last season.
Quentin attended grade school in suburban Chula Vista and was a three-sport standout at University of San Diego High. He was chosen San Diego’s Male Athlete of the Year in 2000.
He was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award during his last college season, 2003.
Re: The MLB Thread
I'm not really sure how excited the Padres should be over this pick up. Sure being in his hometown might be an attitude-changer for Quentin, but he's obviously a former All-Star in decline, and he's not the power bat answer to their very obvious offensive woes, in the HUGE ballpark that is Petco Park, and how virtually impossible it is in that park to hit home runs.
Re: The MLB Thread
Yeah I do too. But at the same time the NL West is a very winnable division. Nobody knows if Kirk Gibson's re-energized D'Backs was a fluke and a one-year wonder, what will the Giants do with Buster Posey returning, how is the Dodgers situation going to work or will they stay mediocre, the Rockies performed way under expectations last season...
The NL West is very much a division way up in the air. The Padres could pull a D'Backs in 2012 and suddenly be a surprise winner. You just never know.
Re: The MLB Thread
Hanley Ramirez endorses switch to third base
by Joe Frisaro / MLB.com
MIAMI -- Hanley Ramirez has no problem with playing third base.
The position change has been expected since the Marlins signed Jose Reyes in early December. But until now, Ramirez had not publicly endorsed playing somewhere other than shortstop.
In recent weeks, the three-time All-Star talked with manager Ozzie Guillen about sliding over to third.
The Marlins have stated they envision having a dynamic left side of their infield, with two All-Star performers.
In an interview with The Associated Press while in the Dominican Republic, Ramirez shed some light on playing third.
"I've talked with Guillen, and what we both want is to win with the Marlins," Ramirez told the AP. "When January arrives, we'll see what happens with the position change and everything else. If it's at third, fine. Wherever they put me, I'll do it in order to win."
Since Reyes signed, there have been numerous reports that Ramirez was upset over being asked to play third. Ramirez never asked the team to be traded, or for the Marlins to restructure his contract.
In November, when it became public that the Marlins were talking with Reyes, Ramirez told reporters: "I'm a shortstop."
Changing positions is one challenge for Ramirez right now. The 28-year-old also continues to rehab his left shoulder, which required surgery in September.
The shoulder is responding, and Ramirez is expected to be ready for Opening Day.
Ramirez said his shoulder is 95-percent healed.
"I'm very happy, better than ever," Ramirez said. "We're the new Marlins. I'm also a new Hanley. Good things are coming for this upcoming season."
Re: The MLB Thread
The NL West is up in the air, but not for the Padres. Giants got a championship rotation, Dodgers have re-amped their team in the off-season, Diamondbacks have added Jason Kubel, a power lefty, along with keeping their playoff team from last year. And the Rockies will stil around .500 in my opinion. I see the Padres finishing last in the NL West
