A wash. You have to take this in context. I have heard the majority of players who take/have taken steroids are pitchers, and I am sure ARod faced plenty who took Steroids. Ala Clemens?

Not at all saying it is OK or not cheating, but you have to keep it all in perspective...

the problem though,

clearly, clearly hitters benefitted more.

the extra velocity that a pitcher gained had less impact than the extra bat speed the hitter gained

if it was an even wash, then the numbers of HR's hit per year should not have increased by 1,000 during the steriod era.

If pitchers got added velocity from steroids, and hitters got added bat speed, you would expect the power numbers to go up exponentially.

If a pitcher throws a 100 mph fastball to a regular player, the player probably doesn't have the bat speed to make contact, and thus probably strikes out. If the pitcher throws that same fastball to a juiced player with better bat speed, his chances of making contact increase. And since the incoming ball is faster, and the bat is faster, it means that ball will go farther. So a fly ball to the warning track is now a HR partially because of the hitter, but also partially because of the pitcher.

Also, I think the mentality of pitchers became "I can over power this guy." There was less focus on command and movement. Therefor you ended up with pitchers who had a good fastball and nothing else, so hitters could key off the one pitch. I think this was especially true of middle relievers and closers who were marginal pitchers to begin with. I suspect steroids were more rampant with these guys. Starters may have used steroids, but probably not to get stronger. They probably used them to recover faster from their last outing.

it seems though that all the opposite field home runs would still indicate that the roids are benefitting the hitter more than the pitcher

Brett Boone should not have been hitting an 85 mph or a 90 mph or a 95 mph fastball out of the park to right field

Max power and distance comes from pulling the ball. And for very few guys dead centerfield.

[This message has been edited by W (edited 2/9/2009 12:41p).]

It's not a wash at all because it simply allowed the people with great talent to have even greater talent.

Steroids didn't make every pitcher crank it up to 95 mph just like it didn't make every hitter crank up their bat speed.

What it did allow was people on both sides of the ball to inflate their numbers because they could just feast on those that never really had the talent to begin with. They became more dominant over those that didn't have the raw talent to begin with.

If it benefited both sides equally then you wouldn't see home runs at an all time high during what has no been proven pretty conclusively to be the steroid era.

i think pitchers would use steriods more for longevity than power.

Pitchers used roids to recover more than they did to gain speed on the fast ball. Roids help you recover much faster.

quote:

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Pitchers used roids to recover more than they did to gain speed on the fast ball. Roids help you recover much faster.

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Exactly. You may have seen a handful of guys moving from the high 80's to low 90's in the velocity department, but no one was suddenly throwing 105 or blowing away strikeout records.

[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 2/9/2009 5:35p).]

the one guy that I can think of that became a high-velocity strike out pitcher (somewhat magically) was Kevin Brown. His strike out per 9 inning ratio increased dramatically in the late 1990's. And of course he looked like a body-builder during those seasons too.

W

I believe he was always considered a power pitcher, it is just that during your time frame he gained more control. I would wonder if he walks went down too, I bet they did.