Twins pitcher suspended for violating baseball's drug policy

Posted at 12:35 PM on May 2, 2005 by Ben Tesch (2 Comments)

Minnesota Twins pitcher Juan Rincon was suspended for 10 days Monday, making him the fifth player disciplined under Major League Baseball's new policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Here's the story.

Comments (2)

So what exactly does a middle relief pitcher/set-up man need to take steroids? How exactly does that help his game?

Hitters, I get. But relief pitchers. Next thing you're going to tell me is that Gary Kasparov was on the juice.

Posted by Joe Sherry | May 2, 2005 3:51 PM

The general principle of using steroids is that you will get stronger, which can benefit nearly any type of player, just in different ways. Relief pitchers could use it to strengthen their muscles and ligaments, which might allow them to throw a little harder or be able to throw a little more often (although with the drugs there's a higher risk factor which could produce just the opposite.)

With someone like Rincon and the other fairly low-impact names being fingered, I would guess the reason to take them is to get good enough to get into (or stay in) the big leagues.

Posted by Ben Tesch | May 3, 2005 9:07 AM

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