ajc: O’Brien: Heyward’s growing as fast as expectations

And stuck on the bottom (thworckk!) is this roidial jazz from former Braves catcher Javy Lopez.

Lopez was then asked flatly if players were looking at steroids as an option and using them.

“Uh, yes,” he said. “In my opinion, yes…. I mean, how can I explain this? It’s like if you’re going to race cars, if you’re going to race a car and some people are using nitro in the fuel [Lopez laughed], and you see them winning all the time, and you’re using regular gas – you know what? If they’re using nitro and they’ve been winning, well, I’d be stupid enough not to use nitro, too.”

To which one of the hosts replied that he [the host] couldn’t believe everyone else didn’t think that as well.

“Exactly,” Lopez said. “But the game of baseball — just because you use steroids doesn’t mean you’re going to hit the ball hard. I know a lot of players – not a lot of players, but I know players — who use steroids and you know what? They struck out more. Couldn’t hit the ball.

“The bottom line is that in baseball, you still have to hit the ball. Steroids do not help you hit the ball or make you the ball better. You still have to have the talent. You still have to have the talent. But it does help you to hit the ball farther.”

Asked about pitchers also using steroids in that period, Lopez said, “Pitchers obviously throw a lot harder, throw a lot faster [on steroids]. You face a pitcher who’s using steroids. The pitcher’s facing a batter that uses steroids…. It’s a mess. We talk about that. But you know what? I’m glad that everything came out. Now when you see a player out there, you can’t say 100 percent, but at least you know [with some degree of certainty] they’re clean.”