Statistics, Performance Enhancing Drugs, and Major League Baseball–II.

First, I would like to point out to my opponent that all of his sources are broken, because he copied and pasted this argument from another of his debates. Thank you for allowing me to have this rematch. Now, you seem to have forgotten to include a definition for "legitimate" again, so until you provide an alternate sourced definition, this is the one we will use: Legitimate - "conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards" [1] "1. A PED's positive effect on baseball playing skills is unknown and likely minimal." The known effects of PEDs [2]: "Reports indicate that use of anabolic steroids produces increases in lean muscle mass, strength, and ability to train longer and harder." "1a. Many of the players using PEDs were actually bottom-of-the-ladder MLB players and minor leaguers" This can be explained. The people who couldn't make it to the major league decided that they would cheat to get in. The boost wasn't large enough to get them to the very top, but they made it. "This shows that despite their PED use, they weren't good enough to stick around in the Major Leagues." Perhaps their PED use led them to realize that PEDs were messing with their life because of other side effects [3], which led them to quit, and they could no longer stay in MLB. "1b. The physical gain from steroids, most notably increased muscle mass, is vastly overstated in its importance to playing baseball well." Muscle mass and strength sound good, but the training is the major part for baseball. Training is basically a wild card, because it can be applied to any muscle group, including the core-abs, the oh-so-important muscle group for baseball. "Another important part of baseball, actually, especially in pitching, is flexibility." How many pitchers use steroids? "The last important muscle group in hitting and pitching is the lower body. Steroids, however, have a much more pronounced effect on the upper body than the lower body..." This implies that there is an effect on the lower body. "Using a 'spliced' power factor, which accounts for the changes in equipment manufacturing, there is NO 'power spike' that supposedly occurred during the Steroid Era, as a result of PEDs." I'll make two comments on this one [4]: 1. Notice how the power factor was going down rather steeply until the "Steroid Era." The slackening of this decrease could very easily be attributed to PEDs, as they seem to be the only factor left in the graph. 2. Notice the one "power spike" between 1986 and 1987. "Naturally, within each there are jigs, both up and down, from year to year, but they are (saving perhaps the 1986 - 1987 bump that no one seems to understand) relatively small jigs on the overall scale of the graph." PEDs? "3. Due to the most likely very high numbers of players who were using PEDs during the Steroid Era, any advantage gained by a player was usually cancelled out by an advantage gained by an opposing player." And what about the players who actually play by the rules and don't use PEDs? What do you propose? "If 95% of the pitchers Barry Bonds faced were also using steroids, then aren't his records still legitimate?" For one thing, the pitchers gain less from steroids. For another, if the baseball is going faster, and Barry Bonds is hitting harder, this would lead to an increase in home runs, because quick fast balls are the optimal pitch for a home run. That's why they pitch down-the-line fastballs in the home-run derby. Therefore, steroid use on both sides leads to even more home runs, so it definitely can't be legitimate. Finally, what about the 5% of the pitches that weren't backed by steroids? Those would still interfere with the statistics. Again, what is to be done for the players who played by the rules? So, because PEDs DO have an effect, and the playing field isn't COMPLETELY even, and the statistics ARE influenced, the resolution is NEGATED. 1. http://www.merriam-webster.com... 2. http://www.drugfree.org... 3. http://www.associatedcontent.com... 4. http://steroids-and-baseball.com...