Do Steroids Give A Shot in the Arm?

It is not known exactly how many of baseball's positive tests have been for steroids. Major League Baseball does not reveal the substances for which players test positive and Manfred declined to provide generic statistical information about results after considering the request for a week, saying he and his staff were too busy to compile it. Minor league and major league players are randomly tested for about four dozen different steroids along with stimulants and recreational drugs.

In the two seasons that MLB has publicly announced drug-test results, 12 major league players and 95 minor leaguers have tested positive. Six of the major leaguers and 48 of the minor leaguers -- slightly more than half of the overall total -- have been pitchers, according to an analysis of the results by The Post.

That includes Mets minor leaguer Yusaku Iriki, who was suspended for 50 games Friday and is the first player on a major league 40-man roster penalized under baseball's new steroid rules. Iriki had spent his entire career in Japan before signing with the Mets in January. He was playing for Class AAA Norfolk.

Manfred said positive tests from the inception of minor league drug testing in 2001 have shown that steroids are more popular among pitchers than commonly believed, a fact he attributed to the expectation that such drugs can help pitchers better endure the grind of the long season.

"It was a mistake for people to assume it was hitters and not pitchers from the beginning," Manfred said. "The speculation is that in addition to bulk, there is a recovery period issue with respect to steroids that will allow you to pitch more frequently."

But is that true? Steroids have not been shown to aid in the recovery of the connective tissue that is heavily taxed during pitching. They merely allow the muscles to recover more quickly, presumably providing pitchers only a partial benefit.

Another theory is that because leg strength gives pitchers more power, and steroids help build that strength, then it must be a benefit for pitchers to take them. But in order for that theory to hold true, pitchers would have to take steroids and work on strengthening only their lower bodies, and they would still be subject to the side effects that weaken connective tissue.

"One of the things steroids do is build mass," said Larry Starr, a baseball trainer for 30 years for the Reds and Florida Marlins who has been credited for the rise in strength training in baseball during his years in Cincinnati in the 1970s. "The second thing they do is help you recover quicker. The third thing they do is give you a feeling and ability to go back into the weight room and lift more. The question is, are those criteria important to making a pitcher better?

"You might have some selling points on it . . . but the problem with increased mass and increased strength using artificial means puts extreme test on the connective tissue and ligaments."

Jeff Bruksch, a former Stanford star who tested positive while pitching for a Class A affiliate of the Reds last year, said young players feel pressure to bulk up when they see the size of those with whom they are competing for jobs. Though fearful of testing positive or just uncomfortable with the idea of using injectable steroids, Bruksch said, many are willing to try dietary supplements that claim to build strength and that are available online or at nutrition stores, trusting that if they are freely available they won't produce positive tests.

"Players have obviously gotten bigger in baseball," said Bruksch, who blamed his positive test (he declined to reveal the substance) on an over-the-counter product he purchased at a nutrition store. "There's a constant competition to stay with everyone else. . . . A lot of guys come from college or high school and they haven't really worked out. Once you get in the mix with guys that are a lot bigger than you . . . there's definitely pressure to get bigger and throw harder."

Added Bruksch: "I'd feel like I'm cheating myself if I never lifted weights and tried to get stronger and bigger. If I relied on what I just naturally had, I don't think I ever would have played professional baseball."