Mitchell Report Update Thread

by Jon Marthaler on Dec 13, 2007 2:06 PM EST in News Comment 23 comments

Check out Jesse's news about the Twins signing Adam Everett below...

I'll post updates about the Mitchell Report's contents here.

12:57: Jeremy Schaap, flipping through the report on camera, just suggested that both Denny Neagle and Rondell White are named as players who wrote personal checks to Mets clubhouse guy Kirk Radomski.

1:08: Here's the link to the report.

1:11: Yep, both White and Neagle are named in the report. Both sent checks to Radomski, who supplied both with steroids. However, this was before White was a Twin, and long after Neagle was with the team. The last check from White to Radomski was dated September of 2005; he joined the Twins in 2006.

1:15: Former Twin Chuck Knoblauch is named as one of the guys that Yankees trainer Brian McNamee injected with HGH. This was, of course, after Knoblauch left the Twins.

1:19: Mitchell says he wants Selig to "forgo" punishing players named in the report, except in cases where the abuse was so serious it taints the integrity of the game. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds - George Mitchell's looking at you.

1:24: Yeah, that earlier list? It's pretty much complete bunk. Bret Boone, Matt Lawton, and Juan Rincon all do NOT appear in the report.

1:27: An unreported incident involves the Twins. A quote from the report:

In 2000 or 2001, a visiting clubhouse manager working for the Minnesota Twins found a used syringe on top of a trash can in the visitors’ clubhouse. He brought the incident to the attention of the Twins manager, Tom Kelly, who told him to dispose of the syringe and to be careful doing so. Kelly confirmed the incident and said that he did not report the incident to anyone because he felt it "wasn’t any of [his] business" and that it was the other team’s issue to address.

So the report suggests steroids were used at the Dome, but by somebody in the visiting clubhouse. (I'm not suggesting Tom Kelly has anything to do with steroid use here, don't get me wrong.)

1:35: Former Twin Chad Allen cooperated with Mitchell, and is named in the report. The report suggests that Allen did this after leaving the Twins, but that he did it in response to a knee injury he sustained while with Minnesota.

1:39: Former Twin Dan Naulty is named in the report as a steroid user. Naulty admitted that he used steroids before the 1993 season (and, presumably, afterwards), while he was with Twins minor league affiliate Fort Wayne. Soon after, he began rising through the organization, to AA ball in 1994, AAA in 1995, and then to the majors with the Twins in 1996. Here's the quote from the report:

Naulty started using steroids as a minor league player, before the 1993 season, because he needed to put on weight. Naulty learned about steroids from other players. After starting his steroid regimen Naulty reported to spring training for the 1993 season approximately 20 pounds heavier and throwing five miles per hour harder than he did the year before. Naulty said that he went "from an A-ball pitcher to a major league prospect in a matter of two years."

As far as I can find, Naulty is the only person named in the report to use steroids while with the Twins organization.

1:50: The Jack Cust and Brian Roberts phenomena? Yep, juiced.

1:51: Nathan has posted the entire list of people named in the report in the comments. Check it out.

Final Thoughts: From a Twins standpoint, I think the two biggest stories are Rondell White and Dan Naulty. White's a big story because he was buying steroids at least through the end of 2005. His OPS+ was 122 that year, he signed with the Twins in the offseason, and promptly turned in OPS+ numbers of 66 in 2006 and 48 in 2007. He was often injured during those two years, too, and the easy connection - true or untrue - to make is that he stopped taking steroids before joining Minnesota, which caused him to have terrible years (and, effectively, steal money from the club.)

Naulty is a big story because he was actually with the organization at the time of his use. Who in the Twins minor league system knew about him using steroids, if anyone? Did his teammates know? Who else in the minor-league system at that time used steriods, if anyone?

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The list

All the players listed in the section 3B: "Information Regarding Purchases or Use of Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball" (section 3 is "Radomski¹s Distribution of Performance Enhancing Substances to Major League Baseball Players")

Lenny Dykstra
David Segui
Larry Bigbie
Brian Roberts
Jack Cust
Tim Laker
Josias Manzanillo
Todd Hundley
Mark Carreon
Hal Morris
Matt Franco
Rondell White
Roger Clemens
Andy Pettitte
Chuck Knoblauch
Jason Grimsley
Gregg Zaun
David Justice
F.P. Santangelo
Glenallen Hill
Mo Vaughn
Denny Neagle
Ron Villone
Ryan Franklin
Chris Donnels
Todd Williams
Phil Hiatt
Todd Pratt
Kevin Young
Mike Lansing
Cody McKay
Kent Mercker
Adam Piatt
Miguel Tejada
Jason Christiansen
Mike Stanton
Stephen Randolph
Jerry Hairston
Paul Lo Duca
Adam Riggs
Bart Miadich
Fernando Vina
Kevin Brown
Eric Gagne
Mike Bell
Matt Herges
Gary Bennett, Jr.
Jim Parque
Brendan Donnelly
Chad Allen
Jeff Williams
Howie Clark
Nook Logan

Section IX. B."Alleged Internet Purchases of Performance Enhancing Substances By Players in Major League Baseball"

Rick Ankiel, Paul Byrd, Jay Gibbons, Troy Glaus, Jose Guillen, Jerry Hairston, Jr., Gary Matthews, Jr., and Scott Schoeneweis, and former players David Bell, Jose Canseco, Jason Grimsley, Darren Holmes, John Rocker, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams, and Steve Woodard."

by nathaneide on Dec 13, 2007 2:50 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

There are a few more

I haven't read the report yet, but according to one of the commenters on Deadspin (I recognize the list from there), this list doesn't include anything from the section on BALCO that mentions, at the very least, Bonds and Sheffield.

by BeefMaster on Dec 13, 2007 3:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

no Pujol, or Griffey

I'm glad there's been no Albert Pujols connections, yet at least. I don't really know why but I like the guy a lot and when I first heard rumor of him earlier I was worried. Same with Griffey Jr. Talk about a stand up guy. If he had juiced there's no doubt he would have broke the HR record long ago.

by halfchest on Dec 13, 2007 3:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

we never had a 30 hr hitter for so long...

Rondell White may be a great guy but the fact is, he should be held accountable for artificially/illegally inflating his value while employed by other teams in order to steal money from this organization.

the twins should be praised by mlb as one of the few organizations (from what the report indicates) that neither encouraged it in the clubhouse, nor knowingly employed players who used steroids at the major league level. People wonder why we never had a 30 home run hitter for so long. Did anyone ever think that it was because we played by the rules? Are we the only team in baseball that maintained competitiveness despite being disadvantaged by all the cheating that was going on around us. The Mitchell Report is a testament to the strength of this organization, just like winning in the face of proposed contraction was 5 years ago. We are gonna keep on stickin it to the man even after the imbalanced economic forces in baseball steal away the game's best player, and you know why? cuz we are the minnesota twins and thats what we do.

by ndeprey09 on Dec 13, 2007 4:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Cough JuanRincon Cough

I've said this before, but I'm impressed by Twins fans' ability to blot out the fact that the team had, and still has, a player on its roster that actually tested positive and was suspended.

The Twins aren't entitled to occupy some sort of moral high ground any more than any other team.

On a similar note, there are apparently some emails in the report among Red Sox execs speculating about Gagne before they traded for him. You think this stuff didn't occur to the Twins before they signed Rondell White? And yet they went ahead anyway.

Look, I don't care much about this stuff. but the Twins don't get a free pass. They aren't The Little Engine That Could, they are a huge, profit-making enterprise.

by Eric in Madison on Dec 13, 2007 5:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yea but...

rincon was never named in the report. i mean i know the report is not the end-all be-all of steroids, but what about false positives. not that this clears his name, but there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding players that had a positive test. Does anyone know how many of the players who actually tested positive were named in the report?

plus we dont like rincon anymore

by ndeprey09 on Dec 13, 2007 6:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Rincon was not a false positive...

The steps the labs take to administer the tests make the likelihood of a false positive less than one in ten million. Much less than that, actually.

If you see someone test positive for something, it's because it was in their body.

by ubelmann on Dec 14, 2007 2:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Was it steroids?

They did not say what performance enhancing drug he tested positive for. The list of banned substances goes beyond steroids.

One thing I found interesting is the well publicized comments of Mike Scoscia, re: Rincon. It's interesting to note that Scoscia's own top set-up guy at the time (Brandon Donnelly) is named in the report. When you look at Donnelly's career, steroids make a lot of sense. He was a AAAA player who suddenly added about 20 lbs to his frame and 5 MPH to his fastball. In contrast, Rincon always threw this hard and always was this stature. If Rincon tested positive, it's pretty likely a one-time thing. Donnelly seemed like a habitual user to me.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Dec 14, 2007 9:15 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I seem to remember...

...hearing that Rincon took some kind of an illegal healing supplement. Something to try and help him get back from injury. Perhaps someone else here can remember better then I can.

-Flip

by Flip27 on Dec 14, 2007 10:03 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ever since he got caught...

...Rincon's performance has declined, which you must admit is unusual for a player of his age.

It seems quite likely to me that Rincon was taking some kind of PED, got caught doing it, stopped, and saw his performance decline (in particular, his strikeout rate has gone way, way down.) He may have had no idea that the substance was illegal/against the rules, but considering that we have a positive test sitting there right in front of our faces, I think that's a reasonable position.

I don't really even think it matters whether or not it was steroids. The drugs that are on the list are on the list for a reason.

by ubelmann on Dec 14, 2007 3:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Lol

"White has had injury problems during his career (including four trips to the disabled list) and told Radomski that he needed performance enhancing substances to "stay on the field.'"

Ain't that the truth? What a d-bag.

Replace Nick Punto.

by rayken on Dec 13, 2007 5:10 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Ryan kept saying...

...he's the greatest human being you'd ever want to know. Somehow that doesn't jive with being a cheater.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Dec 13, 2007 5:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Santana

I wonder if Santana is set to be traded in the next couple of days to shift the attention of the mitchell report back to baseball. I wonder if this is why the trade hasn't occured yet along with more deals to come Bedard, Haren.....

by doofus04 on Dec 13, 2007 6:15 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Everyone saying

Everyone saying this list proves the Twins have some innocence is being nieve. You'll note that simply nobody in the Twins organization complied with the report. The players were concentrated on a small number of teams because only a small group came forward with experience in only the small number of franchises they were employed by.

Furthermore, Dan Naulty, a long time Twins prospect and player who was a Twin fro several years admitted to taking steroids all throughout his major league tenure and extensively during the minors as well. If you think there isn't certainly at LEAST several players who were tied to the same activities as him, probably through the same sources, you would almost certainly be wrong.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Dec 13, 2007 7:20 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

just the tip of the iceberg

Just because they found a few suppliers does not mean they found all the suppliers. Remember that when commentaters opine that they've finally got to the bottom of the problem. It's clearly still a tiny fraction of those who used them. Remember, even when warned in advance of a test, and excluding HGH, a huge number anonymously tested positive. I think there's way, way more. People who are not on this list should not be given a free pass. The list proves there were a lot of people who did it, and justifiably ruins the reputations of the people on it, but not being on it doesn't mean Juan Rincon or anyone else is innocent. It's a sad era, and the focus should not be on finding everyone since that's impossible, but on ending the era once and for all through stringent, independent testing.

by by jiminy on Dec 13, 2007 7:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I agree

I agree. We're never going to be able to go back and figure out everybody who did it, but we can root it out going forward.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Dec 13, 2007 8:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks

for posting and updating on this, Jon, I appreciate it. I think you may have helped us to one of our biggest days...when people searched for The Mitchell Report on google, it netted us a massive number of hits. At least by TwinkieTown standards.

by Jesse on Dec 13, 2007 11:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Actually...

...this is unofficial because I haven't always tracked this, but in my memory the biggest day we've had was Dec 4, during the Winter Meetings. We'll beat our unique visitors for that day, although not the page views.

A lot of those hits came from your prelim posting of the report as well. That's good work.

by Jesse on Dec 14, 2007 12:02 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Hits

Hey, that's pretty cool. I had no idea we'd get extra traffic because of it, but I'm glad we did.

I should have pulled an ESPN and spent the whole day "reporting" that "Twinkie Town has learned that..." even as the rest of the world read the report. A missed opportunity, to be sure.

by Jon Marthaler on Dec 14, 2007 3:27 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

A

Here's how to revere-pull an ESPN...

A large, east coast, media conglomerate has learned that...

How would they feel if we credited THEM like that as they credit us as "an online source"

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Dec 14, 2007 4:49 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Rondell Stealing Money?

Jesse, c'mon man. I'd hardly consider the 2nd half he put together in 06 at the price of $2.4 million stealing money. He was also the only offensive player to show up in the 06 ALDS. It made sense to give him that 1 year incentive deal in 07. It was a good, cheap risk to take.

by TheMattWilke on Dec 14, 2007 1:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

It wasn't me

I didn't say that. In fact, I agree with you that White was a good risk.

by Jesse on Dec 14, 2007 3:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Actually

The Mitchell Report was devastating. It wrecked the popular belief that steroids are an elixir, a magic potion that sends home runs flying from a bat no matter who swings it. So guys, trust yourselves! That's sport!

by iuuomike on Dec 17, 2007 9:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs