Renck: Colorado Rockies’ Michael Cuddyer wants performance-enhancing cheaters hit hard

But Andrés Galarraga’s 1996 splits are okey-dokey.

“The sport keeps getting black eyes. You get through one storm and you get punched in the other eye with another one,” Cuddyer told The Denver Post after a weather-shortened practice. “It gets old.”

...Cuddyer wants a one-year suspension for the first positive test and a lifetime ban for the second.

“I think 100 percent guys would be for it. I can’t speak for everybody, but listening to certain guys’ comments and talking to certain guys, I think guys would be all for stiffer penalties,” said Cuddyer, 33, who is entering his 13th season in the majors, second with the Rockies. “That’s a full year’s pay and then you can never play again. If that’s not a deterrent, I don’t know what is.”

...The players I talk to want a tough, strong policy. They want a level playing field with major penalties for rogues.

“The game is getting clean, but when we continue to see stuff (like Biogenesis) pop up, it looks like we are not. It would definitely take clean players stepping up and asking for more (discipline),” Cuddyer said. “I firmly believe there’s more clean players than not. If we are serious about this, we should do it.”

Interestingly, Cuddyer cited Braun’s case last spring as a reason for more severe punishment. That Braun escaped suspension because of a chain-of-custody violation with his urine sample is proof the system works.

“You hear the argument: ‘What about a false positive?’ I get that. At the same time, we’ve seen guys admit to it and guys who have gone through the appeals process and not be suspended,” Cuddyer said. “That tells me if there’s a mistake, it gets righted in the end.”

...“If baseball players get held to a higher standard, that’s fine,” Cuddyer said. “I get tired of the continuing cycle of baseball getting punched in the nose.”