Since the scapegoating of Barry Bonds first began it has become increasingly obvious that steroids during the 1990s & early 2000s wasn't some rare thing in MLB that only a few home run sluggers like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were using but instead so prevalent that the question is more "Who was *NOT* taking steroids?" rather than who was.

Because of the obvious prevalence of steroid use among almost all major league baseball players the witch hunt of Barry Bonds has become absolutely absurd to anyone with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together. And yes, to any silly people out there still trying to scapegoat Barry Bonds: Your favorite player did steroids too. Get over it. They still were not as good as Bonds and they never will be. Deal with it.

The ridiculous waste of tax payer money that is the witch hunt of Barry Bonds has now been put on indefinite hold as it's clear that the federal government has greatly overstepped the law in their single minded pursuit of Bonds.

If the federal government wants to go after someone in regards to steroids in baseball they should go after major league baseball itself and the owners of the teams who ignored the issue for years instead of trying to scapegoat Barry Bonds.

Also to the idiot sportswriter (Rick Reilly) at ESPN who wrote this dumb ass story about Albert Pujols taking all of Barry Bonds MVP awards: You are a moron. You have completely missed the point of the Alex Rodriguez thing. The point isn't for you to now go looking for a new mythical "clean" player but instead to admit that steroids use was so prevalent during this time that it's moronic to try to give some players credit for being "clean" while taking away the accomplishment of the so called "dirty" players.

Your self-righteousness makes me ill.

And your memory is lacking. Wasn't it just last year that there was significant suspicious about Pujols himself? Would anyone really be surprised if Pujols did steroids? I would honestly be extremely surprised if he had not.

This is not about finding "saviors" who were "clean" during the steroids era you brain dead fool. This is about accepting the reality of the times. If you want to go after anyone about steroids, go after the owners and MLB itself for not giving a crap that players were on steroids when it was helping the games popularity (and thus helping them make more money.)

Labels: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, steroids

Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids.

Admit it to yourself: EVERYONE IN BASEBALL DID (AND PROBABLY STILL DOES) STEROIDS. You should all be ashamed of yourself for the way you demonized Barry Bonds. Everyone did steroids, and guess what? Bonds was still better than everyone else. Deal with it. Bonds is the greatest hitter of his generation.

And the federal government needs to stop wasting our tax money on their Bonds witch hunt. Isn't there anything better they could be doing with that money and with that time?

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Also a little shout out to Jose Canseco. Remember when he said A-Rod did steroids and everyone was like "oh there goes Jose again." Looks like there goes Jose again telling the truth. Everything he's said has turned out to be true. Just fucking deal with it all of you prick ass motherchickens. Seriously, duck you! Bonds is better than you. He is a God amongst mortals. Bonds: The greatest ever.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, steroids

Do not be confused into thinking that George Mitchell's report released yesterday is some sort of all inclusive report that includes every player who has done or is doing HGH/Steroids. It is only a small sampling. It is only the players they were able to catch red handed.

Jose Canseco calls the report a joke and says that among the many more players that should be on the list are Alex Rodriguez.

Yes the same Alex Rodriguez that hypocritical Barry Bonds haters have been hoping will break Bonds career home run record so that an steroids user won't be #1 all time.

The fact is that the Barry Bonds witch hunt of the past five years has been nothing but ridiculous. Everyone that has taken part in that witch hunt should be ashamed of themselves.

It's time for you to admit the following: Your favorite player and your favorite team have all taken steroids/HGH too. And guess what: They were still not as good as Barry Bonds and they never will be. All of this time you've been whining about Barry Bonds you've missed the chance to appreciate the greatest player of all time playing at his peak.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds

Game 4 of the World Series? That was over before it was over: As you can see I called the series int he 5th inning last night. Plus who cares about a World Series game played at Coors Field? That's not even really baseball. They should come up with some other term for the game played at Coors Field and they certainly shouldn't include the stats accumulated there among Major League totals. All Rockies hitters deserve an asterisk by their statistics.

On to more interesting news:

AL MVP Alex Rodriguez Will Not Be A Yankee Next Season.

Despite the fact that the Yankees were ready to offer him huge amounts of money, Alex Rodriguez has opted out of his Yankees contract. This is a move that the Yankees have said they will not tolerate. They have made it clear they will not join the bidding on A-Rod if he opts out of his Yankees contract and yesterday Hank Steinbrenner said "It's clear he didn't want to be a Yankee. He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field. I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee."

Now the question is where will A-Rod go? Perhaps he will take over for Barry Bonds in San Francisco? The Red Sox? Cubs? Angels? Mets?

One also wonders what big names the Yankees will go after to try and replace Rodriguez. Will they finally go after pitching instead of hitting?

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

Alex Rodriguez, Yankees 3B
.309 AVG, .418 OBP, .637 SLG, 53 HR, 140 Runs, 151 RBI, 24 SB

Rodriguez has had an incredible season statistically and he's the #1 reason that the Yankees made the playoffs. Rodriguez is my choice for AL MVP and I have no doubt he will win the award.

David Ortiz, Red Sox DH
.330 AVG, .444 OBP, .615 SLG, 34 HR, 114 Runs, 116 RBI

Ortiz is actually leading Rodriguez in OPS (1.059 to 1.055) and he's had a great season but as a DH he would need to be beating a 3B in HR & SLG to have any chance at the award.

Magglio Ordonez, Tigers RF
.359 AVG, .430 OBP, .591 SLG, 28 HR, 116 Runs, 136 RBI

Ordonez has had a career year and is probably going to win the batting title and he would have a good shot at the MVP if it wasn't for A-Rod's awesome year.

Carlos Pena, Devil Rays 1B
.278 AVG, .405 OBP, .616 SLG, 44 HR, 96 Runs, 119 RBI

Looking at the home run numbers in the AL this year makes A-Rod's season all the more impressive. Pena is the only other AL batter to have more than 34 HR (Ortiz is 3rd in the AL with 34 HR.) This has been a breakthrough year for him. He had only hit more than 18 home runs once before and that was in 2004 when he hit .241 with 27 homers. Pena has been one of the best sluggers in the big leagues this year. It'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up next season.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Pena, David Ortiz, Magglio Ordonez

Alex Rodriguez is catching fire again. He seems to be finishing the season how he started it, red hot. At this rate he looks like he has a good shot of surpassing 60 home runs this year. If he does reach 60 then he would be only the 6th player to do so (Along with Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, & Barry Bonds.)

Last night he hit his 50th and 51st home runs of the season. And actually while I'm writing this I just found out he hit another one in the first inning of today's game in Kansas City. That's 52. And the game is only in the 2nd inning, so who knows he could be adding to that total even more today.

The Yankees are 80-62, remember back when they were well under .500? Seems like a distant memory.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

Alex Rodriguez hit his 47th & 48th home runs of the season in the 7th inning of the Yankees 10 to 2 win over the Mariners in New York tonight.

He became the first Yankee in over 30 years to hit 2 home runs in an inning. The last time it happened was June 30th of 1977 when Cliff Johnson did it in Toronto.

Rodriguez was at the DH spot rather than his usual place at 3B because of a sore right ankle. In fact he was sent to a hospital for tests on the ankle after arriving at Yankee Stadium with a limp.

Rodriguez now has 512 home runs in his career, tying him for 17th place all time with Ernie Banks & Eddie Matthews.

#1 on the all time list of course is Barry Bonds and he also added to his career total tonight. Bonds hit #762 in the first inning of the Giants 5 to 3 win over the Rockies in Colorado. According to San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy the pitch that Bonds hit out was a 99 MPH fast ball. The pitch was thrown by rookie Ubaldo Jimenez who became the 449th pitcher to give up a homer to Bonds.

It was Bond's 28th homer of the year. He's now hitting .277 with a .483 OBP (1st in the majors) and .583 SLG (3rd in the NL.)

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds

A Rod snapped out of his modest home run drought (29 at bats) to become the youngest player to ever hit 500 home runs today. He's the 22nd player to reach the milestone and the second this season.

Last week Jose Canseco mentioned in an interview that Rodriguez is "not who he appears to be." While he did not make an outright claim of Rodriguez using steroids he did say to "wait and see" and that there would definitely be something about Rodriguez in his upcoming book.

Rodriguez has mostly escaped the steroids witch hunt that has plagued baseball in general and other sluggers such as Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi specifically.

Some have said that Rodriguez doesn't seem like he's taken steroids because he's not as big as other sluggers. This point is easily refuted because many of the players who have actually tested positive have not been particularly "huge," many of them have been weak hitting players and pitchers. In fact a majority of the players who have tested positive have been pitchers.

Others have said that since Rodriguez has been so good his whole MLB career (which started when he was just 19 years old) there's no reason to believe he took steroids to get better. This is also easily refuted. For one, Canseco has admitted to taking steroids his entire career, so there's a precedent of players doing so. For another, by the time Rodriguez started his career in 1994 there's reason to believe that steroid use was already widespread. Thus it is possible that Rodriguez has used steroids throughout his career.

Certainly I am not claiming that Rodriguez has used steroids, merely that you cannot deny the possibility based on circumstantial facts. It would not surprise me at all if Rodriguez has dabbled in chemistry.

---

The first player to reach 500 this year was Frank Thomas who hit 2 more homers today to raise his career total to 505.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez

A new feature here at BigShowBaseball.com is going to be a look at the best hitters and pitchers of each decade. I'm going to start in the present and make my way back.

The first period is 2000 to 2007 (through yesterday's games.) Of course there are 2+ seasons left in this decade so we'll have to come back to take another look at the end of 2009.

So then, who is the best hitter of the 2000s? The answer should be no surprise. Barry Bonds. Bonds won 4 consecutive NL MVP awards from 2001 to 2004 and should have won the award in 2000 as well. The 5 years by Bonds from 2000 to 2004 is arguably the greatest 5 year span in the history of baseball by any hitter, thus Bonds is the easy choice for the best hitter of this decade despite missing most of 2005 with injury and being far less successful in 2006 and thus far in 2007.

The OPS+ leaders for this period leave no doubt about Bonds complete dominance during this decade.

OPS+ leaders for 2000 to 2007 (2000 PA MIN.)

1. Barry Bonds 224
2. Albert Pujols 169
3. Jason Giambi 163
4. Manny Ramirez 163
5. Alex Rodriguez 155

Considering the above numbers it's no surprise that Bonds also dominates the slugging percentage leaders for the decade (Bonds is at .726, Pujols is second at .622) and OBP leaders (Bonds is at a Godlike .519.)

How about Home Runs? Alex Rodriguez does lead in home runs during this period with 351 but Bonds is second at 309 despite missing almost all of 2005 and having nearly 1500 less at bats than A-Rod.

Batting Average? Discounting Todd Helton (which one should always do any player with inflated Colorado numbers) Bonds is 4th in batting average during this period despite his .270 average last year and .269 thus far this year. His overall batting average from '00-'07 is .323 which is behind only Suzuki 's .333, Pujols' .330, & Guerrero's .329 batting average.

One of the most revealing stats (both of Bonds dominance and the lack of protection Bonds receives in the Giants weak lineup) is the fact that during the 2000s thus far Bonds has more than double the amount of IBB of any other player. Bonds has been intentionally walked 381 times this decade. Vladimir Guerrero is second with 186.

The real question is not who is #1 as that is obviously Bonds but who is #2? It looks to be close between Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez. I would give Rodriguez the advantage because it is so close and Rodriguez has the benefit of playing (and playing great) in 2000 when Pujols did not enter the Majors until 2001.

Labels: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Best By Decade

Tonight had a chance to be one of the most historic nights in the history of baseball with Tom Glavine going for his 300th win, Alex Rodriguez going for his 500th home run, and Barry Bonds going for a all time home run record tying 755th homer.

Unfortunately for these three, none of them could get the job done tonight.

Glavine came the closest as he pitched a great 6 innings for the Mets in Milwaukee tonight. He allowed just 2 hits and 1 run (although he also had 5 walks) in 6 innings tonight. He left the game with a 2-1 lead but he lost his 300th win when the game was tied in the 8th. The Brewers went on to win the game in the 13th inning by a final score of 4-2.

Alex Rodriguez went 0 for 5 for the Yankees as he one of the few Yankee hitters not to have a big game. The Yanks beat the White Sox in New York by a score of 16 to 3, behind a franchise record tying 8 home runs.

Perhaps A-Rod is pressing due to what Jose Canseco said? If you haven't caught it yet Canseco said he "has stuff" on A-Rod and when asked if he A-Rod ever did steroids he said "wait and see" (for his new book.) Clearly this could be seen as a publicity stunt by Canseco. But I don't see how you can just dismiss what he says considering that it looks like most of what he said in his last book was true. A lot of people dismissed what he said about Rafael Palmeiro and look how that turned out.

Bonds went 0 for 2 with 2 walks to finish off his awful July (save July 19th, that was a good day for him.) Bonds hit just .186 in July. He's had an up and down season this year.

April - .356
May - .194
June - .364
July - .186

Bonds has historically been amazing in August so it'll be interesting to see if he can keep up that trend. Even last year when Bonds was cold most of the season he hit .333 in August. 2004? He hit .414 in August that year. Although the .472 he hit in April that year was what really stands out. He also had an absolutely ridiculous .696 OBP in April of '04. I'm actually wondering if that's the greatest month of any hitter ever. An OPS of 1.828 for a full month has to be among the best if it's not the record.

As far as this magical trifecta of baseball history, I suppose if A-Rod and Bonds remain stuck there's a possibility for it to happen again on Glavine's next start.

It doesn't seem that unlikely that they'll remain stuck because of the way Bonds and Rodriguez have been hitting recently. Bonds has been in an awful month long slump other than his 2 home run game on July 19th. And Rodriguez has now gone 17 straight at bats without a hit as his batting average has dropped under .300 (he's now at .298)

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Tom Glavine

Alex Rodriguez hit his 499th career home run yesterday. He's now just one short of becoming the 22nd player to hit 500. A-Rod turns 32 tomorrow. Barring some unforeseen incident, he will be the youngest player to hit 500 home runs. Currently the youngest player to ever reach 500 is Jimmie Foxx who was 32 years, 336 days old when he did it. Foxx was only the second player to ever hit 500 home runs at the time (1940.)

Rodriguez hopes to not follow the same path as Foxx after hitting #500. Foxx's career quickly fell apart after that and he only hit another 34 home runs before retiring at age 37.

The oldest player to hit #500? Ted Williams at age 41. Williams would have done it much sooner but missed much of the prime of his career due to World War II. Willie McCovey and Eddie Murray were both 40 when they hit #500.

The first member of the 500 home run club was Babe Ruth who hit #500 on August 11th, 1929. He was 34 years old. Ruth's feats are all the more impressive when you consider he started his career as a pitcher in the dead ball era.

Tom Glavine won his 299th game yesterday. When he gets to #300 he'll be the 23rd pitcher to do so.

While the 500 home run club seems to be losing it's luster with lesser players such as Rafael Palmeiro joining it, the 300 win club is becoming harder and harder to get into. 6 of the 22 current members of the 300 win club got to #300 before 1900. The club was founded by Pud Galvin in 1888, so it's been around 41 years longer than the 500 home run club.

It's very possible that by the end of this year the 500 home run club will have more members than the 300 win club.

A-Rod will become the 8th player since 1996 to join the 500 home run club. And as I mentioned earlier there are 3 more players who will likely join the club either this year or next. On the other hand Glavine will become just the 3rd pitcher to win #300 since '90. The other two? Roger Clemens (2003) and Greg Maddux (2004.)

While home runs have gotten easier over the years to hit. Wins have got harder to get (for starters.) This is because of the 5 man rotations and the fact that pitchers are taken out earlier in the games (which means more wins for relievers, and less for starters.)

The only other active pitcher who looks to have a shot at 300 wins (any time soon) is Randy Johnson. He has been plagued by injury problems and will be 44 years old by the end of the season. Johnson has 284 wins.

Because of this it's quite likely that Tom Glavine will be the last pitcher to win 300 games for a very long time.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Tom Glavine

Yup. It's official!

A-Rod has now gone 12 games without a home run. In those 12 games he is 12 for 45 for a .267 batting average. He also only has 3 walks which gives him a pathetic .313 OBP over the past dozen games which is still a couple of points higher than his even more pathetic .311 slugging percentage over the period.

It is duly noted of course that due to his hot start Rodriguez is still leading the majors in home runs with his 14 and is still on pace for 76 homers and 200 RBI but those "on pace" numbers are dropping fast...

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

Tonight the Yankees finally won a game but Alex Rodriguez went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. He's now 1 for 14 in his last 4 games.

A-Rod now at .348/.412/.899 for a 1.311 OPS

Barry hit his 8th home run tonight and just missed in another at bat with a very long fly ball before getting intentionally walked and then walked again.

Bonds is now at .362/.519/.828 for a 1.347 OPS

That's right. For all of the big talk about A-Rod's great April at age 31. Barry Bonds is now statistically having a better month than him at age 42. Sure Rodriguez is good. He's a good hitter for a 3B. But come on now. This is Barry Bonds time. The man is a legend among legends. Everyone else will merely be a footnote in comparison.

There was Babe Ruth. Then there was Ted Williams. Now there is Barry Bonds.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds

The Yankees lost to the Red Sox last night 11 to 4 as their only starter who was getting the job done, Andy Pettitte, got demolished.

The Yanks now have the 3rd worst team ERA in the major leagues at 5.12 and at 8-13 they also have the 3rd worst record in MLB.

How could a team getting paid so much be so bad?

Perhaps the worst thing for the Yankees is that many of their hitters including Rodriguez, Giambi, Posada, and Jeter are having great seasons so far. Sure Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are underperforming. Matsui has had injury problems and Doug Mientkiewicz and Melky Cabrera suck. But all things considered their offense is performing about as well as it can be expected to perform. They are scoring quite a few runs. In fact, they lead the major leagues in runs scored. The problem is their pitching is just so awful that it doesn't matter how many all star caliber players they have in their lineup.

Just imagine how things would be looking if A-Rod hadn't hit those two walk off homers earlier in the year. 6-15?

Alex Rodriguez does appear to be slowing down and without his heroics the Yankees can't seem to even stay close. In his last 3 games he's 1 for 10 with just 1 single. His numbers have dropped to .365/.429/.941 and he has just 2 games left to hit another homer to break the record for home runs in April. He and Albert Pujols (2006) share the record with 14 currently.

But no, the absolute worst thing for the Yankees right now has to be Mariano Rivera. For so long the Yankees could count on Rivera to come in and shut their opponents down when needed but not this year. Rivera has blown both save opportunities he has had this year and is without a single save through April 27th. Last night he came in for the 9th to try and keep the game within' striking distance. The Red Sox were up 7 to 4 when he entered. Rivera could only get one man out while allowing 3 hits & a walk. All 4 base runners scored for the final 11 to 4 margin. Rivera's season ERA is now an insanely awful 12.15!

Labels: Alex Rodriguez

The Yankees lost again tonight. They now have an 8-10 record. Despite scoring boatloads of runs they can't seem to get it going because their pitching is pure crap.

Their starting pitching is atrocious other than Andy Petite and this year even the bullpen has become suspect with Mariano Rivera showing serious signs of slippage.

This means the Yankees are wasting one of the greatest Aprils in the history of baseball. Alex Rodriguez hit 2 more home runs tonight to tie Albert Pujols record from last season of 14 for April. Rodriguez also went for 4 for 5 and now has a .400 batting average for the year.

A-Rod's Crazy #'s: .400 AVG, .453 OBP, 1.053 SLG, 14 HR, 26 R, 34 RBI

He's now on pace for 126 home runs and 306 RBI. Not to mention 270 hits and 234 runs. Add that to a .400 batting average and you have I don't know, RIDICULOUS?! When is this guy going to slow down?

It's really amazing that the Yankees have the loaded lineup they do and that they are getting one of the greatest Aprils in history from Alex Rodriguez and they are still sitting at 8-10.

Labels: Alex Rodriguez

Hello everybody and welcome to my first of many posts here on Big Show Baseball. I am happy to have the opportunity to blog about the greatest sport ever created. I hope you all enjoy the site.

Now, I am going to get something out of the way right off the bat so there is no confusion. I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan. That means that from time to time, I may get a little excited about another Albert Pujols walk off home run or a Chris Carpenter trip to the mound that turned into a ten strikeout, complete game masterpiece. But I am not going to go Bill Simmons on you and write about the Cardinals every single post. On top of that, when in an argument, I usually do not let the Cardinal red blind me to numbers and facts.

For instance, I am not one of those Cardinals fans that think Albert Pujols was completely robbed in the MVP voting last year. That vote could have gone either way and I believe Ryan Howard deserved it just as much as Albert Pujols. Besides, as a fan, I'll take a World Series championship over Albert Pujols winning an MVP any day.

But enough about the Cardinals. The upcoming baseball season is going to be a great one. The Barry Bonds home run chase is probably the most anticipated event of the summer for some and the least anticipated event of the summer for others. The arrival of Daisuke Matsuzaka and his famous (and possibly not even real) gyroball to Boston has been one of the hottest offseason topics and promises to be one of the biggest stories of 2007. As usual, the national media will focus a very trained eye on New York and Alex Rodriguez and his struggles. Will the Cardinals be able to repeat as champions and become the first team to win two titles in this decade? And of course, where will the steroid scandal lead us next?

The answers to these questions and many others can only be answered throughout the season. We hope you enjoy following the 2007 Major League Baseball season here at Big Show Baseball. Here is to another great season of baseball.

--Ryan Reynolds

Labels: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Chris Carpenter, Daisuke Matsuzaka, gyroball, Ryan Howard, St. Louis Cardinals, steroids