I am in my 50th year on this planet and have to tell you that the beginning of this baseball season might be the most intriguing I've ever experienced.

Of the many interesting things that transpired over the first 10 days of the 2011 season, two thoughts captured my thinking:

     -> How wrong the baseball media is concerning steroids
        and
     -> How wrong the media pundits were who picked the Braves over
        the Phillies

Steroids and Older Players

The steroid era is over.  Everyday players in their mid to late thirties will never have the offensive statistics that the cheaters of the nineties and early years of this century have had.

I blog this because the current baseball media pundits still believe that aging players will contribute this year like they have in the past, and said writers do not fully understand the beneficial effects that steroids provided the cheating players.

Baseball writers seem to think that the only benefit steroids provided the cheating players was more bulk strength.  They seem to think that steroid usage only enhanced home run and power numbers.

The truth is, everyday strength and recovery were, and is, one of the most beneficial aspects of steroid use.  Players using steroids and HGH are stronger day in and day out, and do not tire like the players who are clean.
The baseball writers that think today's older players aren't going to have a dramatic drop off in production are naïve and rather ignorant.

Below is a small sample of what I am referring to, and I admit that it is a very small sample, but the players in italics are integral parts of teams that the baseball writers have declared as the teams to beat.
 
  Albert Pujols - .143 (35 AB)          Jorge Posada - .138 (29 AB)
  Derek Jeter - .206 (34 AB)             David Ortiz - .257 (35 AB)
  Johnny Damon - .125 (32 AB)       Vladimir Guerrero - .270 (37 AB)
  Alex Gonzalez - .250 (36 AB)         Carlos Pena - .190 (21 AB)

I am not accusing the players above of using steroids.  I am however, pointing out that because they are clean players, (except maybe Ortiz?), they cannot be expected to maintain the numbers that they generated earlier in their careers.

Baseball writers either do not expect this decline, or do not understand this.  I will revisit this theme throughout the season to confirm or disprove this theory.  And I will collect more data and player statistics.

So Much for the Braves

The Phillies took 2 out of 3 from the Braves this weekend.
They out hit the Braves .295 (31-105) to .237 (23-97), and outscored them 16-8.
And they did this without their number one ace Doc Halladay taking the mound.

In the series, Dan Uggla was 0-10 and is now hitting .158.
Brian McCann was 2-10, dropping his average from .433 to .361.
Shane Victorino was 9-13 and raised his average to .417.
Chooch Ruiz was 6-9 and raised his average to .346.

These are the respective team's second tier star players and how they play will go a long way toward dictating how successful both teams will be.

So far, the bench and non stars of the Phillies are outperforming the other team's players.

Also, the Braves are now 4 back in the loss column.  This means that for the Braves to win the Division, they have to play 5 games better than the Phillies for the remainder of the year.  Not gonna happen.

In their first nine starts, the vaunted starting five for the Phillies were 5-2.  This is what the Braves must contend with.

And think about this.  The Phillies and Braves have 15 games remaining between each other.  If the Phillies go 9-7 in those games, the Braves will have to play 7 games better than the Phils to pass them.  Again, not gonna happen.

Since 2001, the Phillies have the most pinch hit grand slams in the Majors, seven.  There are two other players currently on the team other than Ruiz who have a pinch hit grand slam.  Can you name them?

Peace Out.