Rafael Palmeiro tests positive for steroids

WFAN | 08/01/05

[Kryptonite]

I thought then that he doth protest too much. Instincts right on target once again...

[JohnnyZ]

He's only had one full season before this, so it's not as if we have an extensive track record to use in his case.

1500 AB over four seasons with a .360 Slugging %, .552 so far this year.

Point is people do develop more muscle and power and become better hitters and athletes.

Beliefs about how they accomplish it are largely based on faith, testing, and faith in testing.

[Publius Valerius]

Just as a note, there are no eligible players with 3000 hits who are not in the Hall of Fame. Likewise with 500 home runs.

Combine the two, and the guy is a first ballot stone cold lock, steroids or no.

[Alberta's Child]

That's not a surprise . . . There are only about 25 players in history with 3,000 hits, and about 20 with 500 home runs.

The 3,000 hits is a far more impressive statistic in this era of steroid-enhanced power figures, as evidenced by the fact that there are very few active players closing in on 3,000 hits (besides Palmeiro, the only other active players who came into this season with 2,400 or more hits were Barry Bonds, Craig Biggio, and Julio Franco.

The 400+ home run club, on the other hand, is littered with active players -- most of whom have a very realistic chance of reaching the 500-HR plateau. These include Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, and Ken Griffey Jr. (all of whom have already surpassed the 500-HR mark), plus Jeff Bagwell, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Gary Sheffield, and now Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez.

I expect that it won't be long (4-5 years at most) before the 500-HR club has more members than the 3,000-hit club, and that is primarily a function of steroid-induced power numbers.

[Steve_Seattle]

I put Henderson and Rose in the same category: they were both kind of short to begin with, and adopted exaggerated, crouched batting stances which reduced their strike zone to about 10 inches. So pitchers were forced to groove it right down the middle to them to avoid walking them, which enabled them to get a lot of hits. Couple that with longevity, and the hits added up. But I think 3,000 hits plus 500 homers is quite a feat; the evidence of that is that only 4 or 5 players have done it.

[Steve_Seattle]

He [Yaz] also hung around for way too long. If he had retired after 15 years instead of lingering for another 8 seasons, his "pure performance" statistics (career batting average, for example) would have been much better even though his "performance/longevity" statistics would not have been as impressive.

It might be the "hanging around" that put him in the hall. Without his last six years, he would have had 2724 hits, 1445 RBI's, 366 home runs, and about a .294 BA. That's comparable to Jim Rice (2452 H /1451 RBI /382 HR /.298 AVE), who still isn't in the hall. By hanging on, Yaz lost about 8 points off his BA but climbed past the standard hall-of-fame threshholds for hits (3,000) and RBI's (1,500), and got his home runs up to a respectable pre-home run era total of 452.

[Prime Choice]

[Fury]

Re: #111 - Good post.

I am looking forward to Tony Gwynn getting elected to the Hall of Fame. What a hitter!

[the invisib1e hand]

the Clinton excuse is alive and well.