Giant Hypocrisy

[NJYankeeFan]

Excellent article. Not something I usually say about Passan.

SAN FRANCISCO – Of all the teams to grow a conscience about performance-enhancing drugs, of course it had to be the San Francisco Giants. For years, Barry Bonds made Lance Armstrong look like a lightweight, and nobody here did anything. On the Giants' playoff roster today is Guillermo Mota, one of the only two-time offenders of baseball's drug policy, and they're happy to use him in relief.

Then there is Melky Cabrera, banished, shunned but not forgotten. The Giants want nothing to do with him as they float into Game 1 of the World Series, in which they'll host the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night at AT&T Park – a game they have the privilege of playing at home, by the way, because Cabrera won the National League home-field advantage by taking All-Star Game MVP honors.

. . .

To add a hitter of Cabrera's caliber, on the other hand, especially going into a series in which the designated hitter will be used, could provide a boost to an offense that will need it against a tough Tigers pitching staff. For more than two-thirds of the season, Cabrera was the Giants' No. 3 hitter, in front of Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval. If he was coming off an injury, not only would they welcome him back, he would get the loudest ovation at the stadium. Because it's PEDs, suddenly the Giants want to play principled franchise.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/melky-cabrera-s-exile-from-san-francisco-reflects-poorly-on-giants.html

[Allie Fox]

Passan is a tool. I often wonder how it is certain people have a job in their respective field.

[dominik]

pagan and pence look like they are roid raging.

just kidding I think that two juiced players is hardly an evidence that the whole team is doping. some red sox and yankee teams had a lot more juicers.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Mota took childrens cough medicine

how outrageous

and that Melky Cabrera he was a Giant for 4 months

oh the hypocrisy

and of course the Yankee GM inquiring if free agents "knew about PEDS" before he would consider signing them is totally OK

[Pere]

Not sure what the point is. The Giants are putting the team they want on the field. Is it the best possible team, within the limits of the rules? Maybe not--but that's usually debatable with postseason rosters for any team. The Giants certainly have more information about it than Passan or we do. And if team image and a move against PED culture are part of their calculations, Passan doesn't make much of a case for how that would be wrong.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

because Cabrera won the National League home-field advantage by taking All-Star Game MVP honors

Yeah one player was the difference in an 8-0 laugher

LMAO

[DownUnderDodger]

And playing a player who has not been playing for 50+ games ahead of players who are in a winning line-up? That would make very little sense!!

[9RoyHobbsRF]

here is a slam dunk in your face response from a giants beat writer
(partial)

Which brings me to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. If you do not read him, you should. He is one of the best baseball writers in America because he is thoughtful and witty and has no sacred cows
And this morning he wrote a column on the Giants and Melky Cabrera that was 100 percent wrongheaded

Frankly, that has me scratching my head.

For once, the Giants took the proper stand on a drug cheat and now they are being chided for it. If a child steals a dollar out of his dad’s wallet, and the dad lets him get away with it once, Papa shouldn’t be excoriated for punishing the kid or his brother when they do it again.

But there are other issues that Passan and others who have not been around the situation fail to understand. And they have nothing to do with the Giants’ company line that they just wanted to go into the postseason with the players who got them there, or that Cabrera would not be in game shape. In no particular order:
•Nobody aside from a few of Cabrera’s closest friends want him back. When confronted with the rumor that he failed a drug test, he lied to everybody in that room — friends, trainers, coaches, etc… Granted, he had a right under the Joint Drug Agreement to keep his positive test a secret until the appeals process was complete, but that does not make the lie any easier to take for his teammates.
•Not only has Cabrera not apologized, he hasn’t even spoken to anyone on the team — even his friends who have reached out to him.
•Cabrera betrayed every single fan who walked into that ballpark and embraced him, who pushed to make him an All-Star starter, who got into the whole Melk Men craze. Fans were heartbroken when he was suspended. He used the Giants and their followers in a cynical, testosterone-fueled drive to win a rich contract this winter in his first year of free agency.
•While Cabrera and a representative concocted a scheme to create a phony supplement to plead ignorance about the source of the testosterone found in his body, the same Major League Baseball investigators who uncovered that plot came to the Giants and said, “You know what? We believe Mota’s story that he inadvertently ingested Clenbuterol when he took a swig of cough medicine during a bout of bronchitis.” I got this confirmed not just by the Giants, but by MLB. To me, there’s a difference between systematic use of testosterone and a one-time ingestion of an asthma medicine, if that’s really what happened.
•The Mota and Cabrera positive drug tests, heaped upon the Giants’ reputation as a harborer of drug cheats going back to the Bonds days and the Mitchell Report, forced team owners and the front office to look in the mirror and take a stand. Had they let Cabrera back, the Giants forever would have been branded as an organization that doesn’t care about how it wins.
•The argument that Cabrera is better than Gregor Blanco is irrelevant. The Giants moved on without Cabrera and ran away with the National League West once he was gone. They then came back from two three-game deficits in the Division Series and NLCS in part because of their unity, which would have been upset from the get-go if Cabrera were allowed back in the room.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I usually like Passan. I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish here. I guess he's been watching a lot of partisan news channels in wake of the elections and wants to see how fun it is.

I hope a companion piece about my home town is next. It's only fair.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

I usually like Passan. I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish here. I guess he's been watching a lot of partisan news channels in wake of the elections and wants to see how fun it is.

I hope a companion piece about my home town is next. It's only fair.

yeah timing is a little peculiar - october surprise

[GiambiJuice]

Hey Jeff...

I+_481f9a0bef1997bcd95f50aa3ceafd9d.jpg

............

[ian2813]

•Nobody aside from a few of Cabrera’s closest friends want him back. When confronted with the rumor that he failed a drug test, he lied to everybody in that room — friends, trainers, coaches, etc… Granted, he had a right under the Joint Drug Agreement to keep his positive test a secret until the appeals process was complete, but that does not make the lie any easier to take for his teammates.
•Not only has Cabrera not apologized, he hasn’t even spoken to anyone on the team — even his friends who have reached out to him.
•Cabrera betrayed every single fan who walked into that ballpark and embraced him, who pushed to make him an All-Star starter, who got into the whole Melk Men craze. Fans were heartbroken when he was suspended. He used the Giants and their followers in a cynical, testosterone-fueled drive to win a rich contract this winter in his first year of free agency.
•While Cabrera and a representative concocted a scheme to create a phony supplement to plead ignorance about the source of the testosterone found in his body, the same Major League Baseball investigators who uncovered that plot came to the Giants and said, “You know what? We believe Mota’s story that he inadvertently ingested Clenbuterol when he took a swig of cough medicine during a bout of bronchitis.” I got this confirmed not just by the Giants, but by MLB. To me, there’s a difference between systematic use of testosterone and a one-time ingestion of an asthma medicine, if that’s really what happened.
•The Mota and Cabrera positive drug tests, heaped upon the Giants’ reputation as a harborer of drug cheats going back to the Bonds days and the Mitchell Report, forced team owners and the front office to look in the mirror and take a stand. Had they let Cabrera back, the Giants forever would have been branded as an organization that doesn’t care about how it wins.
•The argument that Cabrera is better than Gregor Blanco is irrelevant. The Giants moved on without Cabrera and ran away with the National League West once he was gone. They then came back from two three-game deficits in the Division Series and NLCS in part because of their unity, which would have been upset from the get-go if Cabrera were allowed back in the room.

Will Cabrera get a ring if the Giants win?

[chicagowhitesox1173]

Will Cabrera get a ring if the Giants win?

After reading that I dont think he will. I'm wondering now if he'll be allowed to come back to the Giants.

[Rich the Giants fan]

I read that and thought it was the biggest load I've ever read. What the heck do you all want? Would you rather they just said, "sure, go ahead, we don't mind a steroid cheat!" If you buy Mota's excuse, and the Giants do (that does not necessarily mean I do), then Mota's positive test was the result of taking children's cough syrup, which is a lot different than using testosterone. Using a substance without checking to see if there are any substances inside it that you shouldn't be taking is stupid, but not the same as what Cabrera did. The Giants did the right thing in keeping Melky off the roster. Is Passan really getting all uppity about it? Scr-- him.

[Rich the Giants fan]

After reading that I dont think he will. I'm wondering now if he'll be allowed to come back to the Giants.

He will be a free agent, and I don't see them offering him a contract, even at a discount.