Decent article by SI's Cliff Corcoran.
In fact, glancing back at those road rates above, there's a superficial appearance of a power decline beginning, not with his first "clean" season in New York in 2004, but with his arrival in Texas in 2001, which is when Rodriguez claimed he started using performance-enhancers. That decline may be superficial in the above numbers, but in reality it ran much deeper, as I first reported in an analysis I did of Rodriguez's career trends for Bronx Banter following the 2004 season. That piece centered on what I referred to as, "a minor, but still unsettling downward trend in Rodriguez's offensive numbers" that "began with Alex's first season in Texas in 2001, but was disguised by his move from the pitcher-friendly Safeco Park ... to the [hitter-friendly] Ballpark in Arlington."
There is on-going debate amongst writers it seems (notably Keith Law of ESPN) on the effects of steroids on performance.
Obviously, everyone brings up Bonds and his increase in production, yet Law does bring up a valid argument showing that other players have had peak years. He also points out that Bonds had one extreme peak year in 2001 when he broke the homerun record. If he was juicing then and the following years, why did he not continue to produce at such an alarming rate? Was he taking super-steroids in 2001 and then started taking regular steroids after? He questions that.
I like to look at both arguments and I think there's a good one here by some writers. There is no statistical evidence supporting steroids as a performance enhancer. It's mostly just believed to enhance performance. The great players that have been proven to use steroids were always very talented players. Did steroids make them that good if they were already good players? And if steroids do enhance performance, why do the lesser known players (those minor leaguers that were caught for example) not put up great offensive numbers in the minor leagues?
Is it all just hogwash. A false belief heightened by the dangers of steroid use?
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