SOME CALZONE FOR DEREK

DAMNING EVIDENCE

OK, so Bonds, Sheffield, and Giambi have been implicated in BALCO.

Anyone else notice that Randy Velarde is one of the names mentioned?

Is there any evidence that steroids helped the slap-happy utility infielder? Velarde had been playing in the majors since '88, but didn't get 300 AB in a season until '92. Here's how Velarde has performed the past 10 years.

'92 .272/.333/.386
'93 .301/.360/.469
'94 .279/.338/.439
'95 .278/.375/.392
'96 .285/.372/.426
'98 .261/.375/.404
'99 .317/.390/.455
'00 .278/.354/.400
'01 .278/.356/.424
'02 .226/.325/.331

Those numbers look kinda consistent, but let's analyse them by IsoPwr, where we'd expect some improvement if he was using performance enhancing drugs:

'92 .114
'93 .168
'94 .160
'95 .114
'96 .141
'98 .143
'99 .138
'00 .122
'01 .146
'02 .105

A-ha! Velarde did have a small power spike in '01, which would be around Bonds, Giambi, and Co. started to bulk up, but he regressed considerably in '02 and retired (maybe due to steroid related joint injuries...).

OK, let's be serious. Did steroids benefit Velarde?

In the words of Stephen Jay Gould, "Inconclusive".