Alex Sanchez Gets Caught

The first MLB player to actually get caught with a positive steroids test is Alex Sanchez, a player whose steroid-aided bulk powered him to a .386 slugging percentage last year and his release from the Tigers this spring. When you're released by the Tigers, there's only one place to go, and that's Tampa Bay, which is where Sanchez plays now.

The fact that Sanchez, a guy who is never going to be anything more exciting than a fifth outfielder, was the first player caught speaks volumes about who may or may not have been using during the so-called "steroid era." Alex Sanchez is, quite simply, a lousy ballplayer. He hit .322 last year, which is nice, but it was in 330 ABs and he only drew 7 walks, good for a .335 OBP. Combine that with his aforementioned anemic slugging, and you've got yourself a pretty lousy hitter. And by the way, all of this was at the age of 27.

If Alex Sanchez and his career .691 OPS are on steroids, who's to say that steroids really make you a better player? Moreover, if a player like Sanchez is on steroids, it illustrates that literally anybody in baseball over the past 10-15 years could have been on steroids.

I would like to think that a player like Sanchez getting caught will cease the ridiculous talk about barring players from the hall of fame or putting asterisks on record, but it won't. There are far too many people who will see the 90's and 00's as a period of unbalanced, unfair competition dominated by steroid-enhanced athletes. This simply isn't the case; because there were no rules against steroids during this time period, every single MLB player during that era is guilty simply by virtue of the possibility that he could have used steroids without consequence.