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Numbers On Steroids: Rafael Palmeiro

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you.

"I Never Took Steroids! Period!" That's what Rafael Palmeiro said a few months prior to testing positive for steroids. Yay for lying to America. Let's take a look at his career stats to see where any evident jumps are to see if we can pinpoint the start of his abuse.

Averages Say: All of a Sudden the Slugging Percentage Just Plummets. Hmm...

At Bats Per Home Run Says: And from Doubles to Home Runs They Go

Explaining It Away

Let's say for a second he didn't test positive. First let's take away his 2nd year as the numbers are a little skewed thanks to less at bats. In 3 of 4 years Palmeiro was an excellent hitter. He hit well over .300 in 3 of those years and accumulated 41, 35, 49 doubles in those same seasons while making two all star teams. He was a solid hitter that hadn't quite found his power stroke. Once he found it he kept it til his body could no longer do it at the age of 39.

The Verdict

The Verdict was in a long time ago when the test came back positive but when did he start taking the juice. The logical guess would be 1993 when all of a sudden he started a 10 year streak of 30+ Home Runs*. Seven years in the big leagues is a strong sample size to see what kind of a player you are and Palmeiro just wasn't a masher until 1993 when his game to a dramatic upswing. Is it a coincidence?

That B12 Shot Sure Did Have A Lot of Steroids In It

*Actually 9 out of the ten years, the only year he didn't he had 23 homers in 111 games in the Strike shortened year.

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