Statistical breakdown impact of steroids?

[statman0007]

With the whole McGwire incident bringing the steroid debate back to the forefront of sports, I was wondering if anyone had any links to studies that examine the impact of steroid use. I've heard people argue both that steroids do significantly impact ability and I've also heard a smaller group of people claim that the impact of steroids is overstated. It'd be nice to have some objective data in order to make an informed opinion.

[Invader3K]

Incredibly difficult since you can't pinpoint who was doing steroids and when. Also, if a juiced batter was hitting a possibly juiced ball thrown by a juiced pitcher, how would you evaluate that?

[Flood Pants]

This should give you exactly what you're looking for. It made me think a lot.

 

http://steroids-and-baseball.com/

[sheethead]

That site holds everything constant besides defined eras in baseball, and attempts to stratify power results without certain events having effect on the numbers. Its a nice attempt, and it looks like someone put in a good deal of effort, but it is hardly scientific or conclusive. More conclusive results would be to look at Barry Bonds home run totals before and after he became a Sosa/McGwire jealous maniac. Sosa, Brady Anderson, Mark McGwire, etc. Real life studies have been conducted, and there should be absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that PED's were helping these players hit more home runs for longer periods of time.

[endaround]

That fully ignores the fact that two closely spaced rounds of expansion happened.

[JohnBriggs12]

That site says "No one has ever claimed that any PED improves visual acuity or reflex response speed".

 

On the contrary, there's plenty of claims out there that human growth hormones improve eyesight and night vision in particular. Now I don't know for a fact that this is true, but you can find plenty of claims by just googling HGH and eyesight.

 

There's also claims out there that HGH therapy improves the quality of sleep. If that's indeed true, then it stands to reason that better rest and sleep helps a player maximize his reflex response speed.

[topper09er]

I really think the overall effect of the PEDs was to allow players to get and stay stronger and thus play in more games feeling closer to 100% than before and that is the reason for the increased power. Now that is still an advantage over guys like Ruth who felt the wear and tear of 6 months of baseball more, but you still have to hit the ball, and the vast majority of players in the era were known as power hitters who had increased primes. I think the increased HRs came from more at bats feeling fresh and not tired then some magical ability of steroids which increases your bat speed and allows you to get better contact with a baseball. I really think these guys should all be in the HOF and we should look at their numbers in context just like when you see that Nap Lajoie hit .426 in 1901 and understand it is not as impressive as Ted Williams hitting .406 in 1941. McGwire hitting 70 HRs on juice is not as good as Ruth hitting 60 on beer in 8 fewer games.

 

Do we penalize pitchers for getting Tommy John surgery, something that would have significantly changed baseball history and would have allowed many pitchers to stay around much longer? Why doesnt anyone look at John Smoltz and say he is cheating because he has a much bigger advantage compared to older pitchers then steroids could ever give to a hitter? Times change and in this era players had better primes because of drugs they took which were not tested for at the time. They are all still good players and would have been perenial all stars in the 30s just like in the 90s.