Forrest Whitley Issues His Own Statement Via Twitter...

As you may have heard, 20-year-old Astros pitching sensation Forrest Whitley was suspended by the league for a failed substance test. It has still, to date, not been confirmed exactly what the substance was - which, as has been noted here at TCB and elsewhere, is itself newsworthy and unusual, and which has fueled speculation that the test might have been for a substance like “caffeine” (this would be what Keith Law suspects) or even that Forrest might have missed a testing appointment - which results in an automatic 50 game suspension, and would also obviously not include a named substance responsible for the failed test.

Nothing is confirmed in this regard, but no matter what the genesis of the failed test is, the budding young superstar is not shying away from taking responsibility for his actions. After some (understandably) felt and commented on various Astros sites, including this one, that the first statement released felt “canned” or “written by a lawyer”, Forrest took to Twitter himself today to make a statement:

One hopes that Astros fans will be as forgiving with the young man as they were with Craig Biggio when he faced DWI charges and still went on to be a beloved, Hall Of Fame player with the city of Houston...or, for a more recent example, how the fans embraced Alex Bregman even after a twitter encounter with a fan last season. Young men (all of us) are foolish and unwise, and testosterone doesn’t help the situation. Mistakes get made by everyone - it’s just gratifying to see a young man take responsibility, make no excuses like “I don’t know how it happened”, and prepare to move forward and get even better as a result.