This April, MLB batters hit just .249 in April, getting on base at just a .319 rate, and slugging just .382. By comparison, the average April from 1994-2010 saw a .264/.345/.421 stat line, higher than the 2011 production by a wide margin. In fact, the numbers from April in each category are lower than for any April in that previous stretch.
From 1981 to 1993, however, the numbers were .252./.322/.378, nearly identical to this year's figures.
Sports Illustrated's Joe Posnanski argued Wednesday that while this return to pre-steroid era batting levels may not be only caused by PED's exit from the game, it is certainly one of the factors in play.
Posnanski likens the progression to the collapse of Tiger Woods' golf game. Steroids introduction and removal from the game may have been one of many causes of the 1994-2010 statistical era, just as the scandals surrounding Woods' personal life is one of many reasons for the decline in his golf game.
During the steroid era, he argues, steroid use was highly incentivized by the league. There was little testing, and home runs were the name of the game, as far as the marketing of the league was concerned.
While the uptick in testing circa 2005 may have been a factor in the reversal of incentives, the larger one, Posnanski believes, is simply that of public pressure.
Now, though, if a player gets caught using steroids, a scandal ensues, and that stigma and fallout isn't worth the risk. Hall of Fame level players get spurned by the voters. Great players are discredited in the eyes of fans, and mediocre players find it hard to get a job.
The only players who would go against such incentives would have to be truly desperate and delusional, such as Manny Ramirez, argues Posnanski.
Baseball does seem to be entering a pitcher's era, and the risks associated with steroid use have surely changed, so putting two and two together is a sensible conclusion.
Still, it's hard to believe that players have stopped doing what they've always done in the sport — looked for that extra edge.
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