Steroids can be all too tempting, By: Katrina Waugh
The Astros organization hopes minor leaguers don't use drugs to help improve their bodies.
07-22-07
At the end of each season, minor leaguers in the Houston Astros organization are handed a manual with daily workout plans. They are also told if the Astros want them to get bigger, stronger, slimmer, faster or some combination of those things.
The organization can only hope those plans don't translate in a player's ear to "go get some steroids."
"It's what we fight against," said Astros assistant general manager and director of player development Ricky Bennett. "We give them the information. We talk to them about making the right choices. But when they leave us in the middle of September we have no way of knowing what 160 guys are going to do over five months."
The Astros give players a list of banned substances and talk to them in spring training about "making good choices," Bennett said.
"It's a constant battle really, to give them the information so they won't make a choice that could hurt them and hurt their career."
Major League Baseball began testing minor leaguers for steroids and handing out suspensions in 2001 but did not start announcing those suspensions or differentiating between performance enhancing drugs and recreational ones until the spring of 2005. The Web site baseballssteroidera.com lists 127 minor leaguers -- 66 of them pitchers -- suspended for using banned performance enhancers since then. Two of them have been in the Astros organization, and both played for the Salem Avalanche.
Outfielder Adam Seuss, then with the Avalanche, was suspended for 15 days in 2005 and was released by the Astros later that season. At the time, the Astros were quick to point out that Seuss had been with the New York Mets organization when he was tested, though he had been an Astros minor leaguer the season before and was picked back up by Houston at the end of spring training.
This year Astros catching prospect Lou Santangelo was caught and suspended 50 games. Santangelo had been Salem's catcher in 2006 and won the home run derby at the California League-Carolina League All-Star Game.
Both Seuss and Santangelo were first-time offenders. The difference in the lengths of their suspensions came because Major League Baseball stiffened its penalties. Now players get a 50-game suspension for a first offense, 100 games for a second offense and a lifetime ban for a third offense.
Santangelo has returned to Class AA Corpus Christi now that his suspension is up, but he hasn't regained a prominent position with the team or the organization.
Santangelo, Bennett said, will get a couple of starts a week behind J.R. Towles, who called up from Salem in Santangelo's absence.
Towles has hit .320 with nine doubles, nine home runs and 31 RBIs in 46 games for the Hooks. He was named to the U.S. team in the Major League All-Star Futures Game.
"We're not holding it against [Santangelo]. He made a mistake; he's put it in his past," Bennett said. "But on the other hand, he's got to earn his position back. Look at what J.R.'s done. We can't take it away from him.
"It would send the wrong message."
