Guest Expert Matt on PED's

Below is an analysis offered my friend Matt, an expert in fitness and perforamce enhancing drugs:

There are several several different kinds of Testosterone that are manufactured, for sake of argument lets say he was injected with Testosterone enanthate (one of the most common). It is true that test has the ability to increase overall muscle mass, strength, and create an "alpha male" type mentality. However, as anyone who knows baseball can tell you, those positive side effects have little to do with a players overall ability to play the game.

While added strength at the plate theoretically may help you hit the ball with greater brute force, the added muscle mass can also result in slower bat speed due to the extra bulk, water retention, blood pressure increase, as well as muscle and joint soreness caused by the drug. There are many aspects that go into hitting a baseball, that is why it is universally known as the "single hardest feat in sports". Among them are hand eye coordination (test will not help with this), technique/mechanics (test will not help with this), bat speed (as stated can be hindered), and patience... gotta wait on that curve ball (the alpha male mentality will hinder this as well).

Setting aside those factors, your average testosterone cycle, depending on the type used, is 12 to 16 weeks, followed directly by a regiment of drugs designed to counter the negative side effects of testosterone rebound. This regiment is called PCT or Post Cycle Therapy. This typically lasts 12 to 16 weeks as well, the general rule of thumb is time on cycle = time on pct = time off cycle. This brings one full cycle of test done correctly from 24 to 36 weeks, or 6 months to 9 months, plus maintaining your hard earned gains when completely off cycle. If not done properly the chances of retaining the mass and strength gains you worked for diminish greatly.

Mathematically, even if you were to start a cycle the very first day of the off season, your cycle plus pct would take you to the beginning of the next season. During which time you would need to work like a beast in the gym to maintain the added strength/mass. How many baseball players do this? Is that even possible when playing for six plus months straight?

This does not even include the negative estrogenic affects testosterone can have. It builds a negative feedback loop within the endocrine system, which then produces more estrogen as well, which clearly is counter productive to the desired result. "There is no crying in baseball".

If Melky was using, the amount of "performance enhancement" he would have gained would be negligible, and would likely only be of use in the first month or two of the season at best. In my opinion these goals could easily be reached with a solid diet, workout regiment, and legal supplements such as creatine, and amino acids. In fact, he would have been better off, the lack of side effects and ability to use those substances throughout the season would give him more of a competitive edge.