Dodgers minor leaguer Jair Jurrjens suspended 80 games after testing positive for exogenous Testoste

Major League Baseball announced on Thursday evening that Dodgers minor league pitcher Jair Jurrjens has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for exogenous Testosterone.

Jurrjens, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers at the end of March after pitching for Team Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic. At Triple-A Oklahoma City, the right-hander compiled a 4.64 ERA with a 44/18 K/BB ratio in 54 1/3 innings.

Cubs’ John Lackey and Chris Bosio imply Eric Thames is using PEDs

In his post-game press conference, Lackey said (via the Chicago Tribune) that Thames’ home run was “kinda one of those things that makes you scratch your head.” Lackey seemingly very intentionally winked at the reporter who asked him the question.

Bosio appeared on the Mully and Hanley show and was asked about Starling Marte‘s recent suspension after testing positive for Nandrolone. Chris Cwik of Yahoo Sports provides the transcript:

Well, the bottom line is [Thames] has hit the ball and we gotta figure out a way to get around [it]. All that other stuff, I’ll let other people worry about. But he’s doing stuff that I haven’t seen done for a long time.

You start thinking about Ken Griffey Jr., Manny Ramirez when he went to the Dodgers, Barry Bonds … You’re talking about some of the greatest players to ever play this game. So, yeah, it’s probably a ‘head-scratcher’ because nobody knows who this guy is. And when he was here before, his body has changed. But, like I said, I’ll leave that to everyone else and we’re just gonna try to worry about how to pitch him better and get him out.

For what it’s worth, Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports reports that Thames was given a drug test immediately after Monday’s game against the Cubs.

It’s time for a progressive, smart PED plan in baseball

Is he just trolling?

Take the below quote. This is pure conjecture. He has absolutely no idea what’s going on with players right now.

I usually like Passan but the whole article is filled with stuff like this.

Myth: PEDs are on their way out of baseball.

Truth: Earlier this week, I was on the radio with two really smart hosts, Danny Parkins and Matt Spiegel of 670 The Score in Chicago, and PEDs came up. I estimated somewhere between two and five guys per clubhouse are using some version of substances baseball would frown upon. This may be high. It may be low, too.

The point was two-fold: After the steroid era, where some half of players were on something of one kind or another, it is difficult to believe baseball has come close to ridding drugs from its clubhouses, even with the threat of long suspensions. And while the number of suspensions is down, drug-testing experts acknowledge there are plenty of ways to beat the tests, whether it’s taking HGH, which is detectable only in blood, using microdoses of testosterone that disappear quickly or taking boutique compounds that doctors don’t even know exist.

It’s all so cloak-and-dagger. Doesn’t a sporting culture where players could be honest about how they treat themselves – running experiments on their own bodies to find what suits them best and optimizing themselves to extract the best performances possible – sound like something sports should embrace, not run from? Transparency, in this case, leads to knowledge, which helps normalize the substances, which make the game better. And isn’t that the point?

MLBers’ Al Jazeera Suit Could Chill Future Doping Coverage

A D.C. federal judge last week raised eyebrows by allowing defamation claims by two Major League Baseball stars to move forward against Al Jazeera over a 2015 investigative documentary that included claims they had used banned performance-enhancing drugs, sending a warning to reporters covering the underworld of doping to more thoroughly scrutinize sources.

Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson refused to toss defamation claims by Ryan Zimmerman, who plays for the Washington Nationals, and Ryan Howard, who plays for the Philadelphia Phillies, over allegations in the controversial documentary “The Dark Side,” which aired in late December 2015, that they use a banned performance-enhancing steroid known as Delta 2…..

It is clear that Zimmerman and Howard are public figures, meaning that Al Jazeera and Davies are protected from defamation unless there is a showing that they published the alleged defamatory report with a reckless disregard for the truth in their reporting, the standard from the famous U.S. Supreme Court decision in the New York Times v. Sullivan case, according to professor Jane Kirtley, who teaches freedom of the press and mass communications law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

The question for the judge here, she says, is whether a jury could reasonably find Al Jazeera and Davies had done just that.

Heyman: Verlander says ‘test me every day’

Justin Verlander, who’s probably the most ardent hardliner for the strongest drug testing possible, said, “Test me every day.” And he’s not kidding. He’d like to see every player tested upon entrance to the clubhouse each day.

MLB has beefed up its testing considerably, but an everyday test would be unprecedented. It’s also probably unlikely, but Verlander sees it as the best kind of deterrent against illegal drug taking.

“I’m passionate about it,” Verlander said in an interview with FanRag Sports. “ This is a great game. I love the challenge of it. But you like to know it’s fair.”

Verlander believes the failures seen each year are proof it isn’t out of the game, and he is offended when he sees MLB promote someone who’s tested positive (he didn’t want to single anyone out, but it does happen.)

“The proof’s in the pudding,” he said. “Guys are still getting popped.”

Sammy Sosa compares himself to Jesus Christ, denies PED use

Former Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa emerged this week for an interview with former Cubs media relations employee Chuck Wasserstrom, who now writes a personal blog. In the interview, Sosa revealed one of the most head-scratching comparisons in the history of metaphors, equating himself to Jesus Christ.

“It’s like Jesus Christ when he came to Jerusalem,” he told chuckbloggerstrom.com. “Everybody thought Jesus Christ was a witch (laughing) — and he was our savior. So if they talk (bleep) about Jesus Christ, what about me? Are you kidding me?”

Sosa apparently agreed to an interview with Wasserstrom because he “trusts” the author. At least that’s what was written in the blog post. Sosa denied ever taking PEDs and claimed he didn’t care about being omitted for the Hall of Fame.

“First of all, I’m clean,” he said. “They don’t have a case on me. I never failed a drug test. Never in my life. But you know what – this is not my field anymore. I’d rather not be in the Hall of Fame and have a lot of money in my pocket than to be in the Hall of Fame and try to find money to pay my bills.”

The Selig Years

Allan “Bud” Selig, HOF class of 2017. His impact on the game was monumental; his legacy is mixed. Did he ultimately leave the game better than he found it? Part One of a detailed post-mortem of the Selig era.