Melky Cabrera Suspended 50 Games After Failing Drug Test

[MiamiHomer]

Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal
Just announced by #MLB: #SFGiants' Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games without pay after testing positive for testosterone.

...

[DColts]

I guess he's not going to be paid this offseason now?

[kusch]

wow. Did he really think he was going to get away with it?

[jOOj]

He would have if it wasn't for those darn kids and a pup named SCOOOOBY DOOOBY DOOOOO!

[Bobbob1313]

wow. Did he really think he was going to get away with it?

It will probably end up being worth it for him anyways. I bet he still gets a solid contract this offseason.

[Fritz]

ROOOOOBY ROOOOOBY ROOOO!!!!!!

[jOOj]

Bo Bobb is the Scrappy Doo of this episode.

[Bobbob1313]

A public apology to Melky Cabrera

SAN FRANCISCO – Medical school graduates take the Hippocratic oath, which can be distilled into three words: Do no harm.

Journalism school grads take no such oath, but our duty is clear: We’re bound to seek the truth, to be as fair and accurate as possible and to serve the interests of readers.

I thought I was doing that Friday when I chose to ask Melky Cabrera about rumors that I had heard from several different readers who had contacted me via email and my Twitter account over the past few days. I had no idea where these rumors started, but the questions were starting to mushroom about whether Cabrera flunked a drug test and would face a 50-game suspension.

Let’s be clear: There is no evidence that there is any shred of truth to these rumors. Cabrera knew nothing about it. He contacted the union and his agent. They told him the rumors were unfounded as well. If Cabrera had failed a test, he and the union would’ve been the first to know. The rumor, to my knowledge, is a red herring. Cabrera even suggested to me that Dodgers fans could have made it up as a distraction.

I wasn’t 100 percent sure what to do next. On one hand, it’s my duty to serve readers who look to me to provide accurate information about the team I cover. On the other hand, knocking down the rumors would serve to give greater voice to them.

Ultimately, I decided to serve the truth.

Upon reflection, I did more harm than good.

We live in a different media universe and the rules are changing every day. Information is immediate. The level of interaction between fans and journalists is greater than ever. Anyone can self-publish any thought that rumbles through his or her head, true or untrue. It can be a confusing cacophony for any journalist, and it certainly is for me at times.

It’s my job to serve readers. But what if it’s just one tenth of one percent of my readership who are asking these questions? Is it my responsibility to respond to them in a public way?

Asking these questions from a different vantage point: If I were Melky Cabrera, would I appreciate a reporter who knocked down a rumor that was just a whisper in some corners of the Internet? Or would I be royally pissed to see my name mentioned alongside PEDs, no matter the context, by a credentialed, professional journalist?

It’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, it should have been obvious to me. It wasn’t.

In retrospect, I made the wrong decision to address these rumors on my Twitter account and disseminate it to my 30,000-plus followers.

So I feel it’s important that I issue a public apology to Melky Cabrera for giving greater voice to a rumor that, to the best of my knowledge and on his word, has absolutely no basis in fact.

I can only hope that he, and the rest of the Giants clubhouse, coaches and front-office personnel, at least understand that my motivations were not nefarious or self-oriented in any way. I wasn’t looking to create a story. I was trying to squash one that has no basis in fact.

As I often say to folks who ask me to describe my job, I write about the Giants, not for them. In this case, I’m not apologizing because I’m seeking their approval. I’m apologizing because it’s the right thing to do.

About that, I am certain.

[Mainge]

So he didn't fail a drug test? Now I'm confused.
--------------------
Well he clearly did so I don't know what that writer is talking about

[Miamarlin21]

I wonder if San Fran would want Carlos. And I wonder if he'd go there and play the outfield everyday.


/pipedream

[Namaste]

Twitter weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Bobbob1313]

So he didn't fail a drug test? Now I'm confused.
--------------------
Well he clearly did so I don't know what that writer is talking about

It's from three weeks ago. I forgot to include that.

[jOOj]

Thanks a lot, Scrappy.

[dim]

It will probably end up being worth it for him anyways. I bet he still gets a solid contract this offseason.

This. He'll still get a nice multi year deal. It won't be what he would've been if he got away with it, but it'll also be a nicer contract than what he would've gotten if it was solely based on his previous seasons numbers.

[HUGG]

But a closer examination of Cabrera's numbers suggests an alternate possibility: Performance-enhancing drugs haven't done much at all for his offense.
Yes, Melky's hitting .346, a full 62 points better than his career average. But everything else he's doing is in line with his usual performance. He's walking in seven percent of his plate appearances and striking out in 12 percent of them, which are the same figures he's had all his career. He's hitting line drives on 21.8 percent of his batted balls, only a slight uptick from his usual 19.7 percent mark. The 10.7 percent of his fly balls he's hitting for homers is in line with the 10.3 percent of his fly balls he hit for homers on the 2009 Yankees, back when he was supposedly a loser.

The only big spike for Cabrera came with his BABIP (batting average on balls in play). His career BABIP is .309, but he hit .332 on balls in play last year and .379 on balls in play this year. Good luck explains some of this, and we can explain even more by looking at Cabrera's underlying numbers.

Players who hit more ground balls will have higher BABIPs than players who hit more fly balls. (Derek Jeter, our modern BABIP champion, hits a bonkers 58 percent of his batted balls on the ground.) Cabrera hit more ground balls this year than last year, so his BABIP ticked up. As for the pre-2011 spike, Cabrera got faster after losing 20 pounds during the offseason. In 2011, he set career highs in infield hits—with 26—and bunt hits—with 8. Those balls would have been outs in past years, but because of his new physique they were hits in 2011. His BABIP and batting average increased accordingly.

This year's version of Melky is more or less last year's version of Melky, only with a different approach at the plate: more ground balls. And last year's Melky was more or less the same old Melky he had always been, just a little lighter on his feet. That transformation isn't outlandish for a player entering his prime, and it sure as hell isn't indicative of a player receiving a significant chemical boost.

But MLB only needs dirty urine; it doesn't have to prove that the drugs worked. Easy enough. So the real challenge ahead awaits Cabrera's agent, Dominic Torres. Torres will have to prove to interested teams that the drugs didn't work. He should consider the numbers above a head start.

http://deadspin.com/5935216/did-perf...-melky-cabrera