Jason Grimsley: the next shoe drops in MLB

[Berzerker]

Grimsley is a veteran relief pitcher for Arizona busted for distributing Human Growth Hormone, steroids, and speed/amphetamine. It appears he was also a go-between for some of the bigger names in baseball, from Bonds to Pujols. They shared the same trainer and Pujols is apparently really tight with the guy.

The Feds have Grimsley by the balls and they tried to get him to wear a wire to get players on tape, he refused... so now the Feds will hit him harder. If he's giving up names he'll still do better than if he clammed up, but if MLB had no rule at the time, I could care less if the Feds banned this stuff. What these guys are doing ain't a crime, but having played baseball (occasionally on pot) I dont like it if some players are hopped up on muscle builders. Cheating only becomes despicable when it works, until then its just irony.

On the other hand, if a hitter puts the meat of the bat on the ball I just threw, he kinda deserves the results regardless of his muscle mass. And if a pitcher can throw it by me, I missed the ball, not him.

Cant say I'm surprised, when people are rapping off HRs at Pujols' pace, it looks suspicious.

[SlowwHand]

And you "hit" on an overlooked point. Yes, they hit it farther on steroids, with the body mass. Steroids do nothing for hand-eye coordination, do they?

[Berzerker]

Plus they still have to lift weights, its not like these guys just take a drug and balloon. I understand the HGH induces faster healing, how can that be a negative? Isn't that what you want from the Doc's treatment? But I cant argue with the results, the steroids combined with weightlifting can produce some monster numbers. Its kinda bad when regular fly balls are leaving the yard because a steer learned how to swing a bat

[pchang]

Are you guys forgetting....

You are talking about home runs. This guy was a pitcher. I figure it makes them even.

[Berzerker]

It looks like he invested bigtime in his brother's pharmaceutical company and it became worth big money, so he says he doesn't need baseball for that. Course the business sells these drugs, hehe. But it ruins the record books if its allowed. I guess thats inevitable as science progresses...

I gotta come clean, I did play competitive softball on speed one season.

[Lancer]

What does human growth hormone do for you?

[Berzerker]

I dont know if it builds muscle, I heard it promotes faster healing. I thought chegitz or Ramo or someone here was using the stuff, albeit probably smaller doses or treatments. I remember someone claiming the stuff made them feel younger.

[Arrian]

It's not just HGH. It's greenies too. I've read his (redacted) statement. This could get really ugly, once the leaks start coming.

He played for a lot of teams. And yeah, he's a pitcher. It's looking more and more like pitchers are just as likely to have used as hitters. For every accusation against Pujols, think about Clemens.

-Arrian

[Jaguar]

Grimsley took steroids, then?

Apparently not the kind that make you good at baseball.

[Arrian]

No more than some of the other scrubs who have been caught. I bet that lots of users are those "on the bubble" guys.

-Arrian

[asleepathewheel]

I posted this in the other thread.

http://www.deadspin.com/sports/baseball/so-weve-got-some-affidavit-names-179400.php

[Arrian]

Leyritz fesses up to using greenies:

While baseball's latest focus in its fight against ridding the sport of performance-enhancing drugs is on human growth hormone, it's another banned drug that a former Yankee fan favorite has confessed to using.

Leyritz is best-known for his three-run homer off Mark Wohlers in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series.
"I can remember my first amphetamine," Jim Leyritz said during an interview Thursday on XM Satellite Radio. "I was out all night drinking with Andy Hawkins and some of the guys on the team. I was a young player."

Leyritz, who broke into the big leagues in 1990 with the Yankees, played 11 seasons in the majors with six different teams.

"I came in. I was hung over, sleeping by my locker. And all of a sudden, [Don] Mattingly came to me and said, 'Hey, you're in the lineup.' And I went, 'What?' He goes, 'Yeah, I just hurt my back.'

"Now I'm walking around, I'm going, 'I don't know how I'm going to do this. There's no way that I can go play this game today.' I ran into my teammate who I knew had some of the 'little helpers,' as they called them.

"He said, 'Take one of these. It should help. It'll take the edge off.'

"So sure enough, I took one. He goes, 'OK, you can take two, but no more than two.' So I popped one more, and I went out and went 3-for-4 with two homers."

According to retrosheet.org, Leyritz is referencing a Saturday, June 30 game in 1990 against the White Sox, where he went 3-for-5 with two homers and four RBI.

His recollection of the day isn't perfect spot-on, however, as Mattingly played first base and Leyritz manned third.

This admission comes in the wake of an investigation of pitcher Jason Grimsley, where Grimsley told federal agents that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

According to court documents, Grimsley failed a league drug test in 2003. Authorities said when he was cooperating, he admitted to using human growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids.

He added that amphetamine use was prevalent in pro baseball, and that it was placed in coffee in clubhouses -- marked "leaded" or "unleaded" to indicate which pots contained the drugs, according to court documents.

During the offseason, owners and players agreed to increase the penalties for performance-enhancing drugs to 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for a second and a lifetime ban for a third.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Berzerker
I understand the HGH induces faster healing, how can that be a negative?

HGH has a lot of harmful side effects, especially with high or prolonged doses. And you always get some idiots who figure "if I take twice as much, it'll work twice as well" and then myth and ignorance percolate down.

[Ninot]

I think the important story, that we are all forgetting, is that Jason Schmidt had 16 strikeouts yesterday!

[Arrian]

Sure, for the MLB 2006 season thread.

-Arrian