Steroids, stinkage spell doom for Mota, By: Jim Ingraham

11/04/2006

Talk about not being able to catch a break. That was the Indians in 2006. They had Guillermo Mota - pre-juice.
It figures, right?
In case you missed it, Mota has been suspended by Major League Baseball for the first 50 games of the 2007 season after testing positive for steroids.
In the first 50 games of the 2006 season, Mota tested positive for stinking as a reliever for the Indians. No urine sample was necessary. His 1-3 record, 6.21 ERA and nine home runs allowed in 37 innings were all the evidence necessary.
It was an open-and-shut case. Guilty as charged, of rampant stinkage.
Indians officials agreed, although it took them a lot longer than everyone else to arrive at that conclusion. Tribe officials waited until Aug. 11, when their season had already been long since flushed down the toilet, before designating Mota for assignment, which is a polite way of saying to a player, "Go on, get outta here."
When the Indians dumped Mota's name on the waiver wire they were stunned to get a call from the Mets who, incredibly, offered the Indians a minor-league player in exchange for Mota. The Indians considered the offer for less than one second before saying, "Yeah, sure. Thanks!"
Then a funny thing happened.
Mota joined the Mets and suddenly became Goose Gossage. After going 1-3 with a 6.21 ERA for the Indians he was 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA for the Mets, helping them win the NL East title.
What's wrong with this picture, right?
"When I saw how he pitched for the Mets, I just thought it was a classic case of an American League pitcher going to the National League," said Indians general manager Mark Shapiro, referring to the DH-less, i.e. more pitcher-friendly, lineups pitchers get to face in the NL.
"But I also saw some changes in his pitching pattern," said Shapiro. "He always had good velocity with us. But with the Mets he started throwing his changeup more, and the hitters chased it a lot out of the strike zone."
What Shapiro didn't see, of course, was that Mota had become a chemically enhanced reliever. If ever there was concrete before-and-after statistical evidence of something fishy going on, this was it.
What was Guillermo's Motavation for taking steroids? Duh! How about mere survival in his chosen profession? When the Indians designated him, he was dangerously close to pitching his way out of baseball.
Still, Shapiro says he was "surprised" to hear about Mota's positive test for steroids.
"He was a great teammate while he was here," said Shapiro. "We were all pulling for him. It's disappointing to see this happen to him."
With the Indians just now beginning to formulate their offseason shopping list, Shapiro admits that the ballclub, as a matter of policy, tries to do as much background checking on players as possible to avoid the unwitting acquisition of a player with a fondness for steroids, human growth hormones or any other substances that might stamp the player as a potential drug-store cowboy.
"You do as much checking on players as you can," said Shapiro. "A lot of it is hearsay, and it can be dangerous to make assumptions based on hearsay."
But there are also other indicators that can be red flags.
"If we see a dramatic decline or increase in a players statistics, we might look deeper into their medical history," Shapiro said. "If you see a guy whose body is constantly breaking down, that can sometimes be a red flag."
One of the reasons the announcement of so many trades and free agent signings can be delayed for several days is because the teams want to wait until they get a full medical report on the players they are acquiring - for obvious reasons.
Nobody wants to hire a player who is about to be suspended for using illegal drugs.
"I wouldn't say we've backed off on a guy because of concerns about steroids, per say," said Shapiro. "But what we look at closely is how healthy a player's connective tissue is. What types of injuries has he had? Are there a lot of ligament, cartilage and muscle pulls? Is a player aging at a more rapid rate than he should? All of those things can impact our decision on a player."
Indeed, when a team is considering signing a free agent or acquiring a player in a trade, the report a general manager gets from his medical team can be just as important as the reports he gets from his scouts.
"Medical information today is more important than ever because the (financial) stakes are higher than ever," said Shapiro.
Nevertheless, despite the increased testing and more severe penalties - not to mention the inherent health risks that come with such behavior - for those found guilty of using illegal substances, some players fearlessly continue to try to beat the system.
Which proves that while professional sports leagues can legislate all they want against the use of illegal drugs, there is not now, and never will be, any way to legislate against sheer stupidity.