Bickford Suspended 50 Games

[MrTPlush]

Stearns this is not what we meant by targeting high quality prospects.

[brewmann04]

50 games big time mistake going to miss half of a season not good news.well opens a spot for another i guess.

[Eye Black]

Chris Kusiolek speculates Bickford's path this season may include extended Spring Training, Biloxi, and Fall League...

 

@calikusiolek: Unfortunate hook for Phil Bickford, who was on this Instructs. Itinerary may include Extended, Biloxi and back for Fall League

[FVBrewerFan]

Not going to debate if weed should be legal, that's for the political forum. I will say this. Even in stated where pot is legal, employers still can and do test for it and fire employees who fail a drug test. Bottom line, every one of us follow rules at work we don't agree with. As someone said, either he's stupid or addicted. Both are troubling.

[Patrick425]

There are only two possible explanations - true drug addiction or utter stupidity.

 

Jeffress smoked in an effort to treat seizures resulting from an undiagnosed case of juvenile epilepsy, so there are more than two possible explanations, though I agree the two you listed are the most likely.

 

Couldn't he have gotten some kind of exception for that?

 

You would think so, and sorry, I have to roll my eyes every time a MLB player gets caught using and they then come up with some medical excuse as to why they were using the substance. Maybe it was true for Jeffress, but wow, baseball players sure have a lot of medical issues that can be helped by weed or PEDs.

[sveumrules]

How could he have requested an exception for a condition he didn't know he had? Jeffress failed his tests between 2006 & 2009. The condition was not diagnosed until 2013.

[bullox]

Not a good sign regarding the "makeup" that is deemed important for pitchers.

 

Are you saying pitchers who smoke don't have the makeup to be good pitchers?

 

Weed isn't the problem. It's the decision making. Whether or not you think that smoking weed should be against the rules, it is. And you need to abide by the rules to be able to play a game for millions of dollars.

 

Do we even know for sure that it was weed, or is this conjecture?

[bullox]

If it's weed I'm not concerned.

 

 

The concern should be for the decision making.

[MrTPlush]

If it's weed I'm not concerned.

 

 

The concern should be for the decision making.

 

And the fact he just lost half a season of developement or the fact another positive test comes at the mercy of a 100 game suspension(full year) OR two more is 100+ to total ban.

 

So yeah one should be quite concerned.

[TURBO]

If it's weed I'm not concerned.

 

um, ok...

 

Still against the rules, and his next offense is 100 games, possibly a lifetime ban for his 4th offense, not sure.

 

I find that very concerning.

 

Seems like at this point in his career, especially with a prior conviction, the kid should have his priorities in order, and doing anything he can to advance his career.

 

Either he is addicted, or he is an idiot.

[brewerfan82]

I think the point is that it would be much more concerning if it were other things (PEDs or harder drugs or domestic abuse, etc.). Obviously it's not preferable, but this becomes a non-issue once he's on the 40-man roster and it's not like all 21 year olds that have partaken in smoking weed are addicts or idiots (outside of the fact that most 21 year old guys kind of act like idiots regardless), so I wouldn't be overly concerned that it's a long term problem. It's great if you've never done anything inappropriate or against the rules in your life, and it's easy to think that if you were in these guys' shoes that you'd be more mature because of the opportunities they have that they could be risking, but in reality, they're just kids like all of us once were and he's still in that age that a lot of us are still experiencing life for the first time without supervision, trying different things with our friends, and, yes, a lot of times doing stupid things. Most of us survive and grow out of it in time. But smoking some weed is really low on the list of things I'd be concerned about long term from a 21 year old.

[FVBrewerFan]

We never said we didn't do stupid things at 21, I know I did. Doesn't mean what Bickford did isn't incredibly stupid.

[Roderick]

Glass half full. He'll avoid 1/3 of a season's worth of wear and tear on his arm.

Why not shelve him for two years and then bring him up to the majors. He won't have any wear and tear.

[StearnsFTW]

Never understood why players still do this stuff. Regardless of how you feel about weed every minor leaguer knows it's against the rules and they will be suspended if they use it. Bickford is a legitimate prospect who could make millions of dollars throughout his career. To risk that so you can smoke weed is just so stupid to me. Not as stupid as what Larry Sanders did but stupid none the less.

 

C'mon. He's 21 years old. A lot of 21 year olds do this kind of stupid stuff.

 

Granted he has a much more lucrative career path than most, but he's still 21.

[brewcrewdue80]

If it's weed I'm not concerned.

 

um, ok...

 

Still against the rules, and his next offense is 100 games, possibly a lifetime ban for his 4th offense, not sure.

 

I find that very concerning.

 

Seems like at this point in his career, especially with a prior conviction, the kid should have his priorities in order, and doing anything he can to advance his career.

 

Either he is addicted, or he is an idiot.

 

If he gets banned from the minors, would that include him playing in the Majors? Or would he essentially become a Rule 5 pick where he is to remain on the ML roster and not be sent to minors where he is banned from playing?