Starling Marte: 80-Game Suspension

[Tom Kessenich]

The Pirates' outfielder has been suspended 80 games for testing positive for Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing substance.

[Wolfpac]

This news hurts, he's on my only main event team. It now sucks up a coveted bench spot. I don't know how the Gordon owners dealt with it last year, but i assume most just held on and rode it out.

[Yah Mule]

Nandrolone has been around for decades. I can't believe anybody thought they could slip that through.

[Atlas]

Nandrolone has been around for decades. I can't believe anybody thought they could slip that through.

He probably screwed up the masking agent he was supposed to use.
If true, probably more out there.

[Bronx Yankees]

This news hurts, he's on my only main event team. It now sucks up a coveted bench spot. I don't know how the Gordon owners dealt with it last year, but i assume most just held on and rode it out.

My condolences to you and other Marte owners. Absolutely terrible (and shocking) news. It is one thing to draft a player and take the risk that he gets hurt. It is another thing altogether to find out that one of your players is being suspended, out of the blue, for half the season for steroids. It also sucks in that the seven-player bench is short enough without having dead wood on it for three months, but I do think you have to keep him if at all possible.

This news hurts one team in every NFBC league. These owners did not make bad picks. Nor did they get burned by injury - a risk faced by every player. Instead, they were simply extremely unlucky to draft a highly-skilled and highly-compensated player who apparently decided to cheat. It's also a sad reminder that try as it has, baseball has more to do to clean the sport up from steroids. (Interesting that with Gordon last year and Marte this year, the steroid user has not been the big power hitter type, but "speed-first" players.) Shitty news.

Mike

[Wolfpac]

This news hurts, he's on my only main event team. It now sucks up a coveted bench spot. I don't know how the Gordon owners dealt with it last year, but i assume most just held on and rode it out.

My condolences to you and other Marte owners. Absolutely terrible (and shocking) news. It is one thing to draft a player and take the risk that he gets hurt. It is another thing altogether to find out that one of your players is being suspended, out of the blue, for half the season for steroids. It also sucks in that the seven-player bench is short enough without having dead wood on it for three months, but I do think you have to keep him if at all possible.

This news hurts one team in every NFBC league. These owners did not make bad picks. Nor did they get burned by injury - a risk faced by every player. Instead, they were simply extremely unlucky to draft a highly-skilled and highly-compensated player who apparently decided to cheat. It's also a sad reminder that try as it has, baseball has more to do to clean the sport up from steroids. (Interesting that with Gordon last year and Marte this year, the steroid user has not been the big power hitter type, but "speed-first" players.) Shitty news.

Mike

Mike,

Yes great write up, as the grief sunk in, rational thinking has prevailed, he will be sucking up a bunch spot.

[Driver Love]

Crushing news. So frustrating. My team is strong and off to a great start. The loss of Marte especially hurts because if this team has a weakness it is in speed and now I am down 25ish steals out of nowhere. Not that it hurt as bad but last year I drafted Ervin Santana so I seem to attract the cheaters.

[TOXIC ASSETS]

The real problem here is that it could be just about anyone who is juicing. Maybe Dallas Keuchel is juicing this year as his numbers are obscene. Maybe Andrew McCutchen decides he needs to juice to get his numbers back up to previous levels. Maybe it's player X or player Y, a scrub, or a star, on a contender or on a last place team. Nobody knows.

[Yah Mule]

If John Lackey wants to accuse Eric Thames of juicing, he should find his balls and just do it. Making cryptic comments and winking at reporters is chickenshit. Thames was tested last week and passed. Hate myself for not owning him at all.

[Rainiers]

If John Lackey wants to accuse Eric Thames of juicing, he should find his balls and just do it. Making cryptic comments and winking at reporters is chickenshit. Thames was tested last week and passed. Hate myself for not owning him at all.

I think Lackey could be more helpful by leaning on the Player Association to toughen up PED testing protocol. It's a crying shame that non-cheating players have to share payrolls with those that do cheat. The sooner the players push ownership harder for more testing, instead of the continued use of trying to use drug testing as a bargaining chip, the sooner baseball will be rid of most cheaters.

Having said that, I'm fine with Lackey suspecting Thames without accusing him. Heck, for those that knew Thames as a stuggling 25-YO MLB player, one has to raise an eyebrow to this now huge man who has returned from overseas as a 30- YO. It's a normal process that suspects are suspects before they are accused. As long as we all presume his innocence until proven guilty.

As for that recent urine test, it means nothing in the scheme of things now. Likely it was taken after the period time when PEDs, if any , were no longer detectable. And if it were a positive test, the public probably would not know for a couple months, give the time the players' appeal process takes to run its course.

[Yah Mule]

I think the perception that he went overseas and came back huge is very exaggerated. This dude was always rocked up. This is a picture from 2011.

[Rainiers]

IMG_1379.JPG (70.45 KiB) Viewed 3800 times

Funny, but this is the guy I remember from 2012 in Seattle. The muscles seem to come and go quickly with this guy.

[Rainiers]

IMG_1381.JPG (63.66 KiB) Viewed 3798 times

Here is a recent photo. Is it just me, or does his head seem bigger too?

All in all, I would not have recognized Eric this spring if I had seen him. The transformation he has had since his days in Seattle/Tacoma is huge. It reminds me of someone else who was transformed.