The organization took a hit as a whole yesterday. J.A. Not-So-Happ-y didn't live up to his prior debut as an Astro and brought two winning streaks to an end, including Wins-day. Prior to that, four minor leaguers were suspended for 50 games for Performance-Enhancing Drugs. The four were; Richard Rodriguez, Marcos Cabral, Jonathan Fixler, and most notably, Danny Meszaros. Rodriguez was for Stanozol and the others haven't been announced yet.
Rodriguez doesn't hurt much because it's not surprising to see that among Latin-America players and he's playing all the way down in the DSL. Cabral and Fixler are organizational depth players and really don't offer much, if any. The real hit is Meszaros. In no way, do I condone PED use. But, at the same time, I don't hold professional baseball players to the same moral standard as I do to myself and the people I associate myself with. Therefore, I typically give players one free pass as a warning if I think they have the talent to perform without PED's before I completely drop them to my list of professional athletes that I loathe. Although, I still keep it as a reminder in the back of my head and never hold them in the same high-esteem in which they formally stood. This will especially hold true in Meszaros case if the substance turns out to HGH.
I will continue my rant after the jump!
Editor's Note: Lancaster is updated along with Kyle Greenwalt's line adjusted. Also, my sources tell me that Jordan Comadena has been promoted to Lancaster from Lexington. When I say my sources, I mean his twitter account. I'm assuming he will fill either John Curtis or Federico Fernandez's roster spot as they are moved up to take Fixler's spot. In bigger, related news, Bubby Williams has been called up from Greeneville to take his Comadena's roster spot!
As some of you may know, I recently graduated with my Bachelor's of Science in Exercise Science and spent a lot of time researching human-growth-hormone for a research paper for my Exercise Physiology I class. I am by no means claiming myself to be an expert in the field of Ex. Phys. nor in HGH, but I do possess an above average knowledge of the field. When it comes to Exercise Physiology, I only read peer-reviewed articles from respected research journals because that is where you find the real facts because it is reviewed by respected peers in the field to make sure that the testing environment is controlled and the data is viable. Meaning, not just anyone can publish their work in these journals as opposed many of these sites that claim this stuff works. If these studies really do prove something, why are they not published in these journals for other experts to review them? Because the results are not viable and the testing protocol is inaccurate and really doesn't prove anything. Most of the time when "results" are released like those, it's because journals denied the testing protocol for not being viable.
I don't necesarilly advise you to go read the same articles I read unless you have a background in science, health, or some sort of advanced math, preferably statistics. The vocabulary can get pretty intense and takes a long time to read the material. Most of these articles range from 10-20 pages long and it takes me forever sometimes to read through them depending on the subject matter. But, I will give you a brief run-down on my conclusion of HGH. Outside of GH-deficient and elderly populations, HGH administration does nothing to increase muscle mass or performance. A few studies have shown that it will increase the amount of free-fatty acids (FFA) in the blood but has yet to show that increases tri-glyceride metabolism. Meaning, it is possible that it breaks down fats for fuel faster, but that has yet to be proven, or it could simply increase the rate your body absorbs fat from the digestive system. If the first theory is correct, it could increase endurance-based performance only, because fats are only used in the msucle for fuel in endurance exercises because they require lots of oxygen to be metabolized to ATP (primary energy source). The energy system used in maximal effort exercise (like that of a baseball game) uses the high-energy phospate system for ATP. But, at the same time, other studies are showing that HGH use actually increases fatigue in endurance-based exercise by increasing the build-up of lactate (eventually is converted to the more popularly know, lactic acid). That decreases endurance performance.
Back to Meszaros! If it is fact HGH that he was caught for under the new mandatory HGH testing protocol for minor leaguers, I will give him a free pass. Why, because I am very confident that it didn't turn him into the pitcher he is now. Even though his intention was that it would help him and that is a knock on his character, he is young and people make mistakes.
Round Rock won 7-6
- Polin Trinidad (4.78)-6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO-Great outing!
- Gary Majewski (5.31)-1 1/3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 2 HR-That's just awful! Lets release him and call-up Jailen Peguero!
- Jack Shuck (.286)-1-4, BB-It wasn't anything special but I wanted to highlight that he was intentionally walked!
- Brian Bogusevic (.297)-1-3, 2 BB, 3 SB!
- German Duran (.255)-2-4, 2B-He's had two nice games in a row.
- Collin DeLome (.241)-1-4, 2B, BB, SO
Corpus Christi won 8-6
- Jeremy Johnson (4.17)-4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 2 HR
- Edwin Walker (2.14)-1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO
- Jared Wells (3.71)-3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO
- Freddy Parejo (.357)-3-5, 2B, SB
- Koby Clemens (.256)-0-2, 2 BB, 2 SO, SB
- J.D. Martinez (.296)-3-3, 2B, BB-That's what I want to see!
- Lou Santangelo (.221)-1-2, 2 BB, SO-Guess who's going to get most of the playing time at catcher now that Fixler is suspended?
Lancaster won 11-3
- Kyle Greenwalt (5.85-6.02)-5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO-Ignore the unlucky stat of two unearned runs and that is a very solid start.-Official scorer changed and charged all runs as earned.
- Mike Modica (4.64)-2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
- Jay Austin (.274)-3-6, HR, 2 SB-Great job Jay Austin! That wasn't a Lancaster aided HR either.
- Brian Pellegrini (.302)-2-5, HR
- Andrew Simunic (.349)-3-5, 2B
- Mark Ori (.272)-2-5, 2B, 2 SO-Its not everyday you see a 1B batting 8th.
- Jose Altuve (.333)-3-5, 2 3B, SO-Wow, its nice to get one triple, but two! He's adjusting well to Lancaster.
- Jonathan Villar (.412)-0-4, 2 BB, 2 SO, SB
Lexington lost 2-0
- Zachary Grimmett (.381)-6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO-He's starting to adjust to the rotation nicely.
- Colton Pitkin (5.02)-2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO
- Jio Mier (.223)-1-4, 3 SO-I'm starting to get depressed...
Tri-City lost 7-2
- James Robinson (3.86)-3 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
- Michael Kvasnica (.241)-2-5, SO
- Daniel Adamson (.287)-3-4, 2B, SO-Somebodies about to lose playing time in center field...
- Buck Afenir (.309)-2-4
Greeneville-Off
GCL Astros lost 5-2
- Angel Gonzalez (4.38)-2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO-Talk about being unlucky...
- Juan Mojica (4.26)-2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO
- Luca Martone (.172)-2-3, BB-I list him mostly because I hadn't looked at him at all til now. He doesn't turn 18 until October and he's Italian.
- Ronald Sanchez (.164)-0-4, 3 SO