Atlanta Braves CF prospect Jordan Schafer has tested positive for admitted using HGH. Here’s why that’s interesting:

1. Schafer is the Braves’ top prospect and is expected to take over in center next season, if not sooner.
2. MLB doesn’t test for HGH.
3. HGH doesn’t work.

Let’s start with number one. Schafer impressed Bobby Cox this offseason, performing well in both the Arizona fall league and in the Grapefruit League.

Here’s what ESPN’s Keith Law had to say about Schafer, who he ranked as the 27th best prospect in the majors:

Schafer isn’t Grady Sizemore, but not many players are. He is an excellent athlete and has the strength in his arms to hit for average and power, but he has some mechanical issues. His load at the plate is a little too deep, and he doesn’t have the bat speed to overcome it, so he commits early and often ends up way out in front. He also gets too pull-conscious in games, despite showing a good whole-field approach in batting practice. On the plus side, the ball comes off his bat well, and if he can shorten up his swing, he should see improvement in his contact and long-term in his power output. He plays a strong center field with an above-average arm. I don’t project him as a top-shelf center fielder right now, but he is ranked this high because he has the physical tools to become one with some work on his swing.

It’s safe to say Atlanta is counting on Schafer to play a large roll, next year and beyond.

Moving on to number two. If MLB doesn’t test for HGH, then how did Schafer get caught? That’s a good question. I don’t know the answer. Presumably he got caught buying, or selling, or transporting … really, your guess is as good as mine. I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming days. But it makes you wonder: so often, steroid users are outed when drug distributors get busted. Is that what happened here? And if so, are there more names to come?

Finally, the third point: HGH doesn’t work. It has been proven to increase lean muscle mass, but not strength. It has absolutely not been proven to improve athletic performance. So why was Schafer taking HGH? Maybe to help recover from an injury, though HGH hasn’t been proven to help athletes recover from injury. Maybe to build muscle, though HGH, as stated previously, doesn’t really help with that either. He probably just got some bad advice.

What’s next for Schafer? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a poll on their website asking readers that very question. Here’s how they’ve responded.

How will Jordan Schafer’s suspension for HGH affect his status with the Braves?

Not much, beyond the suspension.		32.61%	438
A lot. He’s really hurt himself.		41.18%	553
It’s too soon to tell.		26.21%	352

As you can see, people are split.

Here’s what Talking Chop had to say about the story:

I am sure we have all heard about Jordan Schafer’s suspension by now. I really do not have anything to say other than Tyler Flowers came back from a similar suspension and he was a very good ball player afterwards. Only time will tell how Jordan will come out of this. He has always had tools so my prediction is he will come back just fine.

Pretty lame, right? You’re a blog that’s dedicated to talking about one thing and one thing only: the Braves. And the best you can do is predict that Schafer will “come back just fine”? Weak.

Maybe Will Leitch is right. Maybe people have just stopped caring about steroids (and HGH).

What do you think? Have you stopped caring about performance enhancing drugs?

more at twiigs.com…

Here’s the response from the Blogosphere, so far:

Fire Joe Morgan: The greatest hitter and the greatest pitcher of this era of baseball were both having superpower-juice regularly injected into their bodies. And we may never know the names of all of the hundreds of other users.

Vegas Watch (from its live blog): 2:01 Apparently Cossack said “Priestley” instead of “Grimsley”. Now that is funny.

Bugs and Cranks puts together the All-Mitchell Report Team and points out A-Rod’s attempt to upstage the Mitchell Report.

But A-Hole is not alone in his attempt to steal Mitchell’s spotlight. Mrs. Theo Espstein had the nerve to go into labor last night. Attention-seeking ho.

Tired of staring at “old man Mitchell,” With Leather posts a photo of Jessica Simpson.

Curt Schilling says, “I am hoping no one I know or respect shows up as a name on this report but I am feeling like that’s wishful thinking.” Well, it’s not like Roger Clemens was Curt’s hero, or anything like that.

more to come, as the internet geeks respond…

I just finished watching Rick Ankiel go 0-4 in this afternoon’s game against the Cubs. He struck out all four times at bat — twice looking. In the Cardinals’ last four games, Ankiel has gone 1-14. The Cards are 0-4.

It’s hard to think this doesn’t have everything to do with last week’s revelation that Ankiel used HGH. When the Daily News story broke, Ankiel was on fire, with nine home runs and 29 RBI since his minor-league call-up Aug. 9.

It’s not like Ankiel would be the first guy to tank following reports of drug use. Remember how badly Rafael Palmeiro slumped after he flunked a steroids test?

Ankiel the pitcher was always held together by a very thin thread. So it shouldn’t come as any great shock that Ankiel the hitter is choking under the heat of media scrutiny.

Of course, it’s possible that Ankiel’s slump has nothing to do with his mental state. Maybe pitchers have just figured out how to approach him.

It’s also possible Ankiel will rebound and that tomorrow he’ll go back to being a slugging sensation.

But I’m not holding my breath.

And I wonder how we’ll view Ankiel years from now.

Up until the HGH revelations, the Ankiel story was painted as a Roy Hobbes-esque tale. The moral, it seemed, was “never give up.”

But I was never comfortable with that version. There’s no doubt that what Ankiel accomplished — reinventing himself as an outfielder after a failed pitching career — was noteworthy. But this wasn’t a story about overcoming adversity. Not exactly.

This was a story about a guy with a fragile psyche who gave up on one dream — pitching in the bigs — and embraced a new one — hitting in the bigs.

But he seemingly never dealt with the underlying problem. He never overcame whatever it was that suddenly and bizarrely robbed him of his ability to throw strikes.

Now it seems that Ankiel has come unraveled yet again. And I can’t help but wonder if maybe his is less of a Roy Hobbes tale and more of a “Moonlight” Graham story. Maybe Ankiel wasn’t meant to be an All-Star slugger. Maybe he was just meant to experience one month as the best hitter in the National League.

That’s probably not the ending Ankiel was hoping for. But it’s still a pretty good story.

For those of you who still doubt the power of steroids and HGH, I say behold these before and after shots of Jason Giambi. The before pic, compliments of JoeSportsFan.com, shows Giambi in his pre-performance enhanced days, when he played third base.

I don’t think I need to add anything clever here. I think the photos speak for themselves.

There is an interesting piece in Slate today (it ran in the Washington Post over the weekend) on the differences between HGH and steroids, and whether or not we should bother worrying about HGH at all.

The author, Daniel Engber, says that using HGH isn’t a very big deal, mostly because HGH hasn’t been proven to enhance performance. From Slate:

At the very least, treatment with HGH does seem to reduce body fat and increase muscle mass. Growth hormone may not lengthen your lifespan, but it can certainly improve your looks. (While HGH isn’t as bad for you as anabolic steroids, it does have some minor side effects.

That doesn’t mean very much for athletes: A chiseled physique won’t help you hit a baseball or throw a punch. So far, no one has been able to connect the increase in lean body tissue caused by HGH with enhancement of athletic performance. Unlike steroids, growth hormone hasn’t been shown to increase weight-lifting ability; in the lab, it has a greater effect on muscle definition than muscle strength. And it doesn’t seem to help much with cardiovascular fitness, either.

So why, if HGH doesn’t make you a better player, do guys risk their paychecks and reputations using it? Engber says, like not stepping on the baseline and not talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter, it boils down to superstition:

The most likely reason that athletes use HGH, though, is superstition. A ballplayer might shoot up with HGH for the same reason we take vitamin C when we have a cold: There’s no good reason to think it does anything, but we’re willing to give it a try. The fact that the major sports leagues have banned growth hormone only encourages the idea that the drug has tangible benefits. Why would they ban something unless it worked?

I don’t know if I agree with Engber’s suggestion that superstition leads players to use HGH. But I do think that players are eager to try anything that will make them faster, stronger and healthier. And I don’t think they spend a lot of time sitting around reading labels or scientific journals.

Exhibit A. J.D. Drew’s explanation for why he spends an hour before game in an oxygen chamber:

To be quite honest with you, I just know it works. I don’t know quite how it works, but it works.

Exhibit B. Gary Sheffield’s reasoning for why the cream he got from BALCO couldn’t possibly have been tainted with steroids:

I know they weren’t tainted. Tell me how rubbing something on me will make you feel any different? That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard.

Long story short, just because using HGH doesn’t seem like a smart move, doesn’t mean that there aren’t a ton of guys doing it. The question is, should we care?

When Gary “Sarge” Matthews, who is now a broadcaster with the Philadelphia Phillies, heard that his son had been busted in an HGH sting, he tried to look on the bright side.

Sarge said his son would address the media — eventually. And that at least Junior hadn’t failed any drug tests.

While Sarge’s statement was true — Matthews, Jr. hasn’t failed any tests — it reminds us that most people still don’t understand the difference between steroids and HGH. And there is a difference.

You inject steroids, which promote cell growth and result in an increase in muscle.

You ingest or apply HGH, which promotes the formation of new cells, leading to an increase in muscle and a loss of fat.

In short: steroids = bigger cells; HGH = more cells. Both = bigger guns.

But the most important difference between steroids and HGH, for the purposes of this discussion, is that players get tested for steroids. MLB currently has no way to test for HGH. That’s why it’s silly for Sarge Matthews to say that his son isn’t guilty because he hasn’t tested positive.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple. David Bell, who last played for the Brewers in 2006 and is currently unemployed, was busted for reportedly receiving shipments of Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), which is pretty similar to HGH, but not exactly the same. Here’s some info about HCG, courtesy of Philadelphia Inquirer baseball writer Jim Salisbury:

Usage for females: To treat ovarian disorders, or obesity. Also used for pregnancy tests.

Usage by athletes: Used during and after steroid cycles to maintain testosterone production. Some steroid users find that they have some of their best strength and size gains while using HCG in conjunction with the steroids. This product is not picked up on steroid tests, so some athletes use it after abruptly stopping steroid use to keep androgen levels high before drug testing.