- 06:24 PM
- 04/19/24
I think the comment by Frank Robinson is not a good idea. 1st Performance enhancing drugs are not going to help make someone a .300 hitter. I don't care who you are...if you can't hit a 98 mph fastball, steriods aren't going to help you. If you can't hit a curve, steriods won't help. 2nd Homeruns and Steriods. Sure they might make your homeruns a little more towering but not much. Not enough to take a 20hr per year guy and make him a 50hr per year guy. Look at Barry's homers. The majority are bombs. He doesn't hit wall scrapers. So steriods aren't going to do anything to his homerun numbers the only guy steriods will help is the guy who hits a lot of long flyballs to the warning track. Steriods might let a few of those out. But not enough to allow him to take out any records. THe players who would benefit from steriods are the pitchers. The steriods will increase their stamina and cause their fastballs to have more pop. THey can be helped by them but a .300 hitter is going to become a better hitter because of them. He is going to become a better hitter because of time in the cage learning to recognize pitches( like Barry Bonds).
posted by elwin at 11:28 PM on August 24, 2005
Robinson:Erase stats after failed drug tests!
The difference between a .250 batter and a .300 batter is the ability to see a pitch and react. Steriods will not help reaction speed. Steriods will not increase vision. I read somewhere once that Barry Bonds can read the lable on the ball as it is coming at him at 98 mph, and he know if it is a curve, slider, fb, changeup - whatever, before it leaves the pitchers hand. This is why he hits for such high average. Steriods, I don't care who it is, won't help a player be able to do this. I do agree with your point on the ground balls but not to the effect of 20 to 30 points added to a batting average. You actually think that Barry is a +.300 hitter because of steriods? It is because of superior vision and good reflexes. Barry( and many other +.300 hitters) are able to tell that the pitch will be a strike or ball before it leaves the pitchers hand. Steriods don't help any of this. A marginal hitter doesn't become a good hitter because of steriods. And steriods don't necessarily bulk you up. There are the anabolic steriods that turn people into monsters but then there are other Performance Enhancing Drugs on the banned list that get pitchers able to throw 120 pitches without tiring. YOu take a pitcher that can throw 120 without tiring and put him next to a normal guy, the normal guy starts getting shelled at 100 pitches.