Spinning Out of Control

First off, if you've not read the Deadspin story, go ahead and read it, but I'll just highlight the important part. According to some supposedly reputable sources, Chris Mihlfield, the off-season trainer for Albert Pujols, is one of the redacted names on the Jason Grimsley affidavit depicting steriod and HGH usage.

OK, so let's reiterate this. We have a site (while popular, not actually a breaking-news kinda place) who admit their sources are good but not great saying that a blacked out name is tied to the biggest star in MLB. Most of the time, that's not a good thing. And, according to a lot of fan response (Cardinal and otherwise) this apparently means Pujols is guilting of juicing. I've heard jumping to conclusions makes for great exercise, but this isn't a leap I'm willing to make (even if I was at 100%!).

Let's stipulate that all the affidavit says is true. (I've seen some posters have done some work a la the Dan Rather memo scandal which indicated Mihlfield's name doesn't fit the redacted portion and that you'd be able to see the d at the end stick out of the redaction, but let's pass on that for the moment.) What the affidavit says is that Mihlfield told Grimsley where he could get some amphedimenes and Mihlfield gave him the name of a source. The context indicates (at least to me) that Grimsley asked for the information. If this is true, it's likely that Mihlfield wasn't actively pushing the "greenies" but had some information. If Pujols's reputation as a strong Christian is legitimate (and I have no reason to doubt that it isn't), it seems unlikely that he'd going around asking for illegal drugs.

Also, the story states that Pujols was using HGH, which is undetectable under current screening practices. However, it seems like when I hear about people using HGH, they either are still using other steroids or switched once baseball started testing for the detectable ones. Granted, they didn't started their stringent testing in the minors until 2002, after Pujols was up in the majors, but if you look at his physical appearance from when he started in the majors until now, you won't see a whole lot of changes. There was a note on Viva El Birdos about the fact that the age listed on his community college baseball card that is almost exactly the same as it is now. If he was doing steriods all that time, he should have been caught in the testing the last couple of years. If he stopped in '04, his stats should have shown a dropoff. That didn't happen.

In fact, Pujols has been one of the most consistant players in the majors, at least where the numbers are concerned. Sure, he took off this year before the injury, but if anything that helps lay to rest those persistant rumors that he's old than he says he is--he is reaching that Age 26/27 window where players are known to start hitting their prime. It's just that his "pre-prime" was so fantastic, his prime should be more so.

OK, enough of that. The "sky is falling, Pujols is dirty" crowd has really twerked me off. Drug test says he's dirty, it's understandable. Mihlfield is providing all his clients with steriods, a la Greg Anderson? A little shaker, but still a solid reason for worry. This, though? No big deal, in my book.

On to better topics: Looks like we'll be making a run to Little Rock tomorrow morning. Apparently the LCD screen on our digital camera has some sort of technical problem, since it won't come on (or if it does, it won't stay that way). According to the e-mail I exchanged with Canon, it sounds like it'll have to be shipped off for repairs, but we are taking it to Best Buy since that's where Meron got it and the warranty is still valid. We'll probably do a few other things while we are down there.

Other than that, not much going on. The Cards are looking rough since Pujols went down, though that's mostly due to insufficient pitching rather than a breakdown in the offense (though that hasn't been all that swooft either). According to the Post-Dispatch, Jocketty is stepping up trade talk, but even if something gets done it'll probably be 2-3 weeks until it happens.

My main fantasy team resides in 5th today (out of 9), which is much better than where I was a couple of weeks ago. I even tied for second one day, though I've done a slow slide since then. Having Pujols out obviously doesn't help me very much.

Gotta wrap it up. Have a great weekend!