MLB warns sexual enhancers may include PEDs

Major League Baseball in a memo warned about the “very real risk” of over-the-counter sexual-enhancement pills after at least two players this year were suspended for performance-enhancing drugs and claimed the banned substances found in their urine came from the unregulated products, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.

The use of over-the-counter pills, which are often purchased at gas stations is prevalent among baseball players, according to multiple sources. It prompted the league to send out a memo on Monday that outlines the risk of consuming non-NSF-certified supplements.

The memo, obtained by ESPN, warns that “these products are often contaminated with prohibited and unsafe ingredients” and that players are subject to discipline even if they inadvertently ingested a banned substance.

Former No. 1 overall pick Tim Beckham suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug

Seattle Mariners utility man Tim Beckham, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday.

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The 80-game suspension will carry over into the 2020 season. Beckham will serve the first 48 games this year and the final 32 games next year. The Mariners signed him to a one-year, $1.75 million contract this past offseason and can retain him as an arbitration-eligible player next year.

Beckham, 29, opened the season as Seattle’s shortstop before settling into a utility role. He’s hit .237/.293/.461 with 15 home runs in 328 plate appearances while playing all four infield positions as well as left field. Beckham is a career .249/.302/.431 hitter with 63 home runs in parts of six MLB seasons.

Even before this happened, not exactly the career you’d want from a #1 draft pick, is it?

Athletics starting pitcher Frankie Montas suspended 80 games for positive PED test

Oakland Athletics starter Frankie Montas was suspended 80 games without pay by Major League Baseball after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He can return in late September but is ineligible to pitch in the postseason.

The suspension comes on the heels of Thursday’s dramatic 5-4 win in which Matt Chapman hit a two-out, three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays to clinch Oakland’s fourth straight win. Montas started the game, allowing just one run on four hits in eight innings with nine strikeouts.

“I am deeply saddened to confirm that MLB recently notified me I have tested positive for Ostarine, a prohibited substance under MLB’s Joint Drug Agreement,” Montas said in a statement through the MLB Players Association. “

Davidoff: Why I’ll vote for Robinson Cano for Hall of Fame, despite PED stain

The case for Cano

*Eight-time All-Star
*Five top-six finishes in MVP voting
*Two Gold Gloves
*.304 career average, .846 career OPS, 314 home runs, 1,244 RBIs
*Career WAR of 69.5
*WAR higher than those of Hall of Famers Tim Raines, Tony Gwynn, Eddie Murray, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, Carlton Fisk, Edgar Martinez, Ryne Sandberg, Ernie Banks, Roberto Alomar, Pee Wee Reese, Andre Dawson, Willie McCovey, Dave Winfield, Mike Piazza, Harmon Killebrew, Yogi Berra, Vladimir Guerrero and others

The curious case of the retired MLB player who got suspended for PEDs

Baseball is a sport where there’s an inherent interest in seeing things we’ve never seen before. Whether it’s a home run landing somewhere we never imagined or an outfielder making a throw we can’t even comprehend. Baseball is at its best when it surprises us.

So how about this?

A former Seattle Mariners catcher who retired last year was suspended by Major League Baseball on Thursday for using performance enhancing drugs.

If you’re confused, that’s OK. We were too.

Something for all the fans of soft-boiled mysteries among us.

Top Giants pitching prospect Logan Webb suspended 80 games for PEDs

Logan Webb, one of the San Francisco Giants’ top pitching prospects has been suspended 80 games for PEDs. The substance: Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. Which I dare you to say three times super fast.

“Screwball” Documents the Absurdity of A-Rod’s Role in Biogenesis Through the Backdrop of Miami

Screwball understands that the story it’s telling is a farce. (It’s not called “Screwball” for nothing.) The Biogenesis steroid scandal was one of the biggest in baseball history and took down one of the game’s greatest stars in Alex Rodriguez, but it reads like an Elmore Leonard novel populated exclusively with morons, or like a Coen brothers movie rewritten by the Farrelly brothers with a dash of Harmony Korine. So smartly, the documentary treats the sordid affair like the comedy it is—a saga with huge consequences, and yet one that started over a measly $4,000 debt. The result is an exhaustive yet fun retelling of the strange, stupid peak of MLB’s PED frenzy, and one well handled by producer and director Billy Corben, who is no stranger to shining a light on Miami’s shadiest nonsense. The film is out Friday in theatres and will be released on VOD on April 5….

The connection between Bosch and Rodriguez yields some of Screwball’s best material. Bosch recounts that, in their first meeting, A-Rod—despite Ramirez having been busted and suspended in 2009 (in true Manny fashion, he mistakenly took a dose on the wrong day)—immediately tells him, “I want what Manny was taking.” His connection with Rodriguez was his most profitable, and like a low-rent Scarface, Bosch rode that success to financial windfall. He also got a window into the high-octane weirdness that is A-Rod, like the Yankees third baseman’s all-white Manhattan apartment (including the floors), or the time he drew the three-time MVP’s blood in the bathroom of a Miami nightclub, only to lose the vial while partying that night.