Chris Davis Suspended for Amphetamine Use
Dan Connelly of the Baltimore Sun broke the news, since confirmed by MLB:
Waiting on official word but hearing Chris Davis has tested pos for amphetamines. 25 game suspension
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) September 12, 2014
The Orioles have 17 regular season games remaining, so this puts Davis out for the rest of the year, plus eight additional games beyond the regular season. The interesting question, which I have not yet been able to find the answer for, is what this will do to his postseason eligibility when the suspension ends.
You’ll recall that MLB and the player’s association updated their PED suspension policy this year, after not being happy with Jhonny Peralta playing well in October last year, making players who failed a test for PEDs ineligible for the postseason, even if their suspension ended before the playoffs began. However, stimulants have a different tier of penalties than PEDs, as you’ll note by Davis’ 25 game ban, and it isn’t entirely clear whether this postseason ban applies to stimulants as well.
MLB’s official tweet mentions that Davis will be suspended for the postseason, but does not mention whether its for just the eight remaining games beyond the regular season — which would mean he’d be eligible to return for the World Series if the Orioles got that far — or whether the postseason ban for a failed PED test applies to stimulants as well. The best guess is that it doesn’t, and that Davis will be allowed to return for a potential World Series once his suspension ends, but that highlights a pretty odd divide in the rules. MLB’s penalties clearly judge a failed test for PEDs as a worse offense than one for stimulants, but it doesn’t exactly follow that having a recently-suspended PED user tarnishes the postseason in a way that a recently-suspended amphetamine user does not.
But it seems like those might be the rules, as odd as they seem.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
I know this is Instagraphs, but holy CRAP that was fast.
What happened? I wasn’t paying attention.
Oh no! What will they do without his 200/300/400 production!
Are you suggesting that, as punishment, the Orioles should be forced to play him?
I’m similarly amused by all this hand-wringing about what might happen if the Orioles make the World Series. Of course, I haven’t checked the standings since my team gave up at the July trade deadline.
In 12 hours I’ve lost Stanton and Davis and my playoffs start tomorrow. Oh good.
Could you please give me more details on your fantasy team. I’m writing my dissertation on people complaining about fantasy sports. I think its a pretty original subject, since no one else really cares about your fantasy team, so no one’s ever written about it.
And the reply that no one cares about his fantasy team is pretty original too. The snarky reply also deserves a dissertation. To be read by and cared about by about as many people as most dissertations.
Why is it that some people always seem to get their panties bunched up whenever someone mentions their fantasy team on Fangraphs? I get it, Rotographs is for all things fantasy, but I guarantee that nearly everyone reading this site is managing at least one team…
Agreed. I think it’s obnoxious and then the piling on with the plus votes.
I don’t think that’s right, MDL. A lot of us regular FanGraphs readers have no interest in fantasy. We care about real baseball.
Considering that fantasy baseball generally never includes defensive value and often uses very primitive and inadequate stats that don’t portray even a player’s hitting or pitching value well, I’m surprised so many progressive baseball fans are interested.
In general, the biggest problem is that people’s fantasy teams are not relevant to FanGraphs articles. We don’t need to know or care how some baseball news affects someone’s team. Tell it to your friends or league mates. No reason to post a comment on FG about it.
Gloss over it.
Plenty of leagues are trying to incorporate fielding metrics, advanced or otherwise, and to a degree position eligibility requirements make fielding relevant.
Regardless, one’s lack of interest in an innocuous post is hardly grounds to act like a jerk to the poster.
You still had Davis on your team? Yikes!
Chris Davis caught using Adderall without the exemption that 100+ other players in baseball have. What a joke of a drug policy.
It’s not exactly a vague policy – if you need the Adderall then get the exemption. Problem solved.
“Need the adderall”
Need it for what? To be more focused, and therefore successful, in your livelihood? Because that’s what most people get it for.
I think he’s got a hardship case here. If he actually has ADHD, he couldn’t focus enough to jump through the proper hoops to get his exemption before taking the drug.
It’s the guys who did focus enough to get the exemptions who are obviously phonies and therefore should be suspended.
Thanks Yossarian.
It’s a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, and he *still* failed and got suspended. That’s squarely on him, however inconsistent or arbitrary the policy may be.
My suspicion is that people who get busted for Amphetamines and claim it was just Adderall weren’t just using Adderall.
Your suspicion is right. But the surprising thing here is that he actually got caught, not that he was using.
Chris–totally agreed.
Adderall is amphetamine, amphetamine is adderall.
When you get it generic the bottle will say ‘amphetamine salts.’
Just because middle class college kids like to pretend they aren’t doing speed when they pop a couple pills to write a paper, doesn’t mean adderall isn’t amphetamine.
I’m curious, if a player is diagnosed with ADHD, are they allowed to take Adderall?
Yes
Only with exemption, which Davis did not have here.
I thought speed was cool with the anti-PED crowd, given their love of the 50s and 60s ball players that have admitted using it……
A question about CBA contractual interpretation?
I DEMAND A WENDY DAVIS ARTICLE
I, too, would be interested in a baseball article written by a Texas gubernatorial candidate.
Well, she is a Harvard Law grad, so I’m guessing she’d do a decent job deciphering a few lines in the CBA.
My question is how does this work? Can he return in the middle of the ALCS if it takes more than 8 games? If so, do the Orioles have to play with 24 guys before his suspension is up?
Actually, both Wendys in question are Harvard Law grads.
lol… Wendy THRUM of course…
Chris Davis + Wendy Thrum apparently mixed in my mind.
Although I’d be interesting to hear what the Texas Gubernatorial candidate has to say as well.
Wendy THURM. I’m gonna stop now.
IT’S WINDY THURM.
This happens to me all the time.
Suspensions in the playoffs should count for two or three times as much as regular season games, maybe more.
Although in this specific case, it may be addition by subtraction. Or at least non-subtraction by subtraction. Using whole numbers:
26 (cumulative Orioles’ batters’ WAR, YTD) – 0 (Davis’ WAR, YTD) = 26.
His 2nd half wRC+ and WAR are 109th and 124th among 160 qualified hitters in baseball, respectively. They’ll be okay.
The only real benefit Davis brings to the team in a postseason setting is the ability to pop a homer or two. In a single game setting, this can be very valuable. But chances are he was going to be a strikeout machine providing little to no offense with below average defense at third.
yeah but I’d be interested to see what you think about Wendy Davis writing a commentary about this though.
The primary other benefit Davis can provide is related to the fact that opposing teams (pitchers, managers) still fear him because of last season and because of the threat of the game-changing HR thunderbolt.
He leads the team in BB% by a considerable margin, which isn’t necessarily saying much, but it’s something the O’s are already severely lacking. Yes, part of that is because he extends ABs by swinging and missing at pitches other hitters would put in play. But it’s also clear that when he gets ahead in the count, pitchers sometimes decide discretion is the better part of valor and put him on base. With the power the Orioles have throughout the lineup, any baserunners we can get are very valuable.
The other impact he makes is in the late innings of close games, when opposing managers are disproportionately likely to match up with Davis with a situational lefty because of his power. In a long series, doing so creates the subsequent choice of (a) quickly churning through relievers or (b) leaving your situational lefty in for more than one hitter. By batting Davis ahead of lefty mashers like Pearce and Hardy, Buck ratchets up the pressure on that decision even more. It’s a dilemma that can potentially benefit the Orioles no matter what the opposing manager chooses to do.
Wonder if the O’s will offer arb. I think that money is better spent somewhere else.
This was his second failed test. The program call for a warning on the first. One must question his intelligence for continuing Adderall use after his warning.
But, but…all those other guys do it!
I feel ya bro.
Here is a change to the CBA that needs to be made. When caught, the number of games in the suspension only applies to the regular season. The player automatically is suspended for ALL Post Season games. That way, they cant use, get suspended and get rested while the other guys are playing and then come back fresh.
As it now stands, Davis serves his suspension and can use it as a time to get refreshed, heal some injury that may be hidden and THEN be able to come back and help the Orioles in the Post Season (if they are still in it). That doesn’t seem fair to me and it also doesn’t seem to be enough of a deterent.
The rule should also apply to guys on the DL.
A few years ago, Edinson Volquez was recovering from Tommy John surgery and failed a drug test. Given that he was still on the DL and months away from coming back, the games the Reds played counted for the games he was suspended. So, he was able to cheat, get caught, suspended and STILL be able to play when he came back.
122 MLB players received a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) and 119 got it for Adderall. That’s 10% of MLB players and that number is on the rise. For the general population, the number for the same drug is 4.4% for people with ADD/ADHD.
If 1 out of 10 players are using Adderall thru MLB’s TUE, that means at least 2 or 3 players have it in the clubhouse. If this is the new drug of choice that somehow parallels to the days of the “cream or clear”, it’s not surprising more players are getting caught using it without the exemption. Maybe MLB needs to re-reevaluate it’s policy on PED’s.
I don’t know if /how Adderall has a definitive effect on the performance of MLB players, but once again something’s a bit murky in MLB and it’s drug/PED policy to allow a banned substance in the clubhouse.
What I would like to know is if he was able to get an exemption in the past, why couldn’t he get one this year? Did his therapist all of sudden have a morality check and not want to see his name in there with Tony Bosch?