Bartolo Colon Reportedly Fails a Drug Test
Well, Melky Cabrera might now have some company. Jon Heyman is reporting that Bartolo Colon has failed a drug test and is subject to a 50 game suspension by MLB, which would end his season and make him ineligible for most of the playoffs.
Colon has been fantastic for the A’s this season at age 39, but his career revival was subject to some skepticism surrounding the injections of platelet rich plasma that he received in 2011, which raised questions about what kinds of treatments are performance enhancing in a viable way and which ones should be illegal. Colon was the poster child for the positive effects of PRP, and it seems unlikely that promoters of the treatment will continue to lean on him as evidence of its success.
For the A’s, this is certainly a blow, but the arrival of Brett Anderson from the disabled list now looks like incredibly valuable. Anderson might not be able to pitch at the same level that Colon did, but he should be able to replace most of that production, and help keep Oakland in the pennant race.
For Colon, my guess is that this will be the end of the line. He had trouble finding work last winter, and now heading into his age 40 season and coming off a PED suspension, I don’t imagine too many teams will be lining up to give him another shot.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Can this be “Year of the Least Surprising PED Busts?”
I had trouble mustering a reaction to either this or Melky greater than shrugging at how unsurprising it was they failed a test.
waiting on Mike Trouts positive test
Watch your tongue
…and your back
Trout is from New Jersey, that’s more evidence than a positive test.
you spelled trout wrong. p-i-e-r-z…
Whoever is accusing Pierzynski has obviously not been watching him play. He’s just getting lucky and running into a bunch of bad breaking balls.
The internet is full of experts on things they never even see.
Don’t know about you, but I was surprised by Marlon Byrd. Proof that steroids aren’t a cure-all.
Was it entirely clear when he was caught exactly?
Considering his numbers this year, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone showed up at his house with a cup to pee in the second he got the needle out.
Poor Marlon Byrd.
not sure how you reached that conclusion. do you know something about his past use or non-use?
KJ – Some folks don’t get the inside joke….
COMPLETELY agree with emindor3rd. 35 year old catchers routinely set career highs in HR and slugging. i mean, his slugging is only up, what, 80 points from his career high (in 2003). it’s not like the offensive environment has dissipated in the last 10 years. also, he’s only been scraping them out–18 out of his 23 are rated “plenty” or “no doubt”. further, his babip is only 10 points less than his career avg babip which clearly marks him as very lucky and bound for regression. and keep in mind, there is zero economic incentive for him to use PEDs. at most, he’s looking at *maybe* 20MM extra guaranteed dollars from a multiyear deal based on this level of production.
I don’t think you read his comment correctly.