Steroid Rumor Confirmed

Well, I guess the reports were right. In a way. It was reported that an AL outfielder, whom we care about, from a playoff team tested positive for steroid use. It was reported today that Matt Lawton, who meets 3 of the 4 criterium, was that player. I'm not so sure the average baseball fan knows who Matt Lawton is, let alone really cares that he tested positive for steroids anymore than they cared about Carlos Almanzar or Juan Rincon.

This will do a fair amount of damage to Lawton. He is a free agent this offseason and was probably seeking his final contract of his playing career. While Lawton wasn't in for a huge payday, he ahs always been a pretty good on-base guy and more than adequate defensively. Surely there would have been some type of market for a veteran of those qualifications. Now, I'm not so sure. There will be many teams that won't sign him for fear of public outcry. Most fans won't be too sweet on their hometown team signing known steroid users.

So the offseason doesn't look good for Lawton, but I feel like everytime an average major leaguer gets busted for 'roids it makes the Barry Bonds' of the world look a little bit better. Whether or not he did steroids is besides the point. The public perception is that he did. Even if that fact remains true, the public might soon begin to see that maybe steroid use doesn't significantly enhance a players performance. That seems to be the early evidence that we can gather from these low production players being caught with the needle.

♦Digg it   ♦del.icio.us   ♦Technorati   ♦StumbleUpon   ♦Google   ♦Yahoo   ♦reddit