Ron Kroichick, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
The popular steroid image of Herculean sluggers swatting long home runs does not fit Elvis Avendano, William Collazo or Ricardo Rodriguez. They weigh 165 pounds, 175 pounds and 185 pounds, respectively.
Avendano, Collazo and Rodriguez are among the 47 minor-leaguers suspended recently after testing positive for steroids, and they have something else in common: They're pitchers.
Twenty-one of those 47 players are pitchers, illuminating an often overlooked benefit of performance-enhancing drugs: Not only can they help increase muscle mass, they also can accelerate recovery after games and workouts.
That counts as a huge asset for pitchers and hitters alike. Rapid recovery could help athletes in virtually every sport, not only those where strength and power matter most.
The first major-leaguer suspended for testing positive for steroids, Tampa Bay's Alex Sanchez, is a 180-pound journeyman with four career home runs in nearly 1,400 at-bats. Monday's suspension of Minnesota reliever Juan Rincon, also for a positive drug test, reinforced the reality that pitchers are not immune, either.
"It's not about getting big as a pitcher, it's about recovery," said Tom House, a former major-league pitcher and coach who co-founded the National Pitching Association near San Diego. "A pitcher who recovers more efficiently over the course of the year will have more left in the tank at the end of the season. ...
"The prevailing thought is you take steroids to get big, hit the ball farther and be a gorilla. It's almost the opposite for pitchers -- they want muscles that repair quickly and recover."
House preaches against steroids to the high school pitchers he counsels at clinics and camps. He acknowledged it's sometimes tough to convince the teenagers they can become stronger, and recover faster, without using steroids.
They hear what's happening at the professional level, where suspicions have long stretched beyond muscle-bound position players. One source close to the game said players often joke about the relentless focus on home-run hitters, knowing pitchers are equally culpable. Pitchers talk of gaining strength, adding velocity and recovering more quickly while on steroids, the source said.
This would not surprise Padres general manager Kevin Towers, who often has wondered in recent years about pitchers who increase their velocity by 6-7 mph in one offseason.
"I think a lot of pitchers were trying to be quiet, lie dormant and complain about small parks and big power hitters, when they were just as involved (in using steroids)," Towers said.
Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are known to promote muscle repair and growth, especially when taken in high doses and combined with intense workouts and high-protein diets. Dr. Gary Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University and longtime steroid expert, suggested pitchers could take lower doses and still gain benefits in recovery.
Those benefits could apply to their specific duties -- relievers who want to be available for 70 to 80 appearances per season, or starters who need to shed soreness between outings.
"The body is always breaking down and building up muscle tissue," said Dr. Marc Safran said, director of sports medicine at UCSF. "A lot of times the soreness after workouts comes from the muscle breakdown. Steroids slow that process and allow the buildup more than the breakdown."
Long after he retired, Nolan Ryan illustrated the significance of recovery for a pitcher. Ryan participated in a charity event a few years ago in Round Rock, Texas, a promotion in which businessmen donated as much as $10, 000 to take their swings against him.
Ryan, in his mid-50s at the time, consistently threw 89 to 91 miles per hour. One pitch registered 93 mph on the radar gun, prompting several Round Rock minor-leaguers to excitedly, half-jokingly tell Ryan he still could pitch in the majors. "Maybe if I only have to pitch once a month," he said.
His point -- recovery after a start is instrumental and becomes more difficult with age -- helps explain why steroids tempt pitchers. Anecdotal evidence confirms these drugs boost endurance, vital in a 162-game season.
Jose Canseco, in his book about steroid use in the game, detailed the benefits beyond adding bulk. Canseco, an admitted user, noted players inevitably become tired and lose strength over the course of a six-month regular season. He found aid in steroids.
"But the added strength isn't even the most important benefit for a baseball player," he wrote. "What makes even more of a difference in terms of performance is the added stamina it gives you all year-round. On the last day of the season, you feel as strong as you did on the first day of spring training."
Another first-hand example, outside baseball but still revealing, came from author/cyclist Stuart Stevens. He made himself a human experiment, taking various performance-enhancing substances (under a doctor's supervision) to see how they would help his athletic performance.
Stevens then wrote about his experience in a November 2003 story in "Outside" magazine. One passage described how his body reacted after a cycling event in central California in March '03.
"The last time I'd ridden 200 miles, I felt awful the next day, like I'd been hit by a truck," Stevens wrote. "After the Solvang race I woke up and felt hardly a touch of soreness. ... I realized I'd entered another world, the realm of instant recovery."
It's easy to see why this realm would seem inviting for athletes in all sports and of all sizes. Avendano, who pitches for Class-A Stockton (an A's affiliate), blamed his positive test on what he thought were vitamins he took in the offseason in his native Venezuela, according to A's director of player development Keith Lieppman.
The Angels declined to comment about Collazo, now on the roster at Triple- A Salt Lake City. Rodriguez, who spent last season at Class-A Rome (Ga.) in the Braves' system, admitted using steroids in "a weak moment" while playing winter ball, Atlanta director of player personnel Dayton Moore said.
Teams lean heavily on radar-gun readings to evaluate young pitchers, another logical motivation for minor-leaguers to try the drugs. Detroit Tigers pitching coach Bob Cluck, no fan of the reliance on radar guns, said so many prospects hear "they don't throw hard enough," some probably become seduced by the idea of increased velocity.
Even pitchers who say they do not use steroids still hear the stories.
"You hear they help performance and add miles (per hour) to your fastball, " said Tomas Santiago, a pitcher with Class-A Modesto. "And also for pitchers, because the season is so long and we depend on our arms, I've heard people do it to maintain performance through the season without fading at the end.''
Said A's pitcher Barry Zito: "I think for pitchers, recovery is bigger than strength. It's a pretty big thing to have a pitcher who doesn't get hurt, who's available."
That's the twist for those 21 minor-league pitchers. They might have wanted to make themselves available to pitch more frequently, but they ended up missing 15 games by testing positive.
The breakdown
MINOR LEAGUERS
Positions for the 47 minor-leaguers suspended:
Pitchers...21
Catchers...9
Infielders...12
Outfielders...5
Listed weights
(Three not available)
175-under...9
176-199...22
200-over...13.
MAJOR LEAGUERS
A look at the five major-league players suspended:
JUAN RINCON
Team: Twins
Position: Pitcher
Age ...26
Height ...5-11
Weight ...215.
ALEX SANCHEZ
Team: Devil Rays
Position: Outfielder
Age ...28
Height ...5-10
Weight ...180.
JORGE PIEDRA
Team: Rockies
Position: Outfielder
Age ...26
Height ...6-0
Weight ...190.
AGUSTIN MONTERO
Team: Rangers
Position: Pitcher
Age ...27
Height ...6-3
Weight ...210.
JAMAL STRONG
Team: Mariners
Position: Outfielder
Age ...26
Height ...5-10
Weight ...180
E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick@sfchronicle.com. Chronicle staff writer Jorge L. Ortiz contributed to this report.
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©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
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