Update: The Kansas City Star reports the Royals signed Guillen as a 'late blooming power hitter'...they mean 'late to discover PEDs'. Guillen's MLB Slugging Ave was from .350 to .400 prior to 2003. In 2002 and thereafter records show he ordered PEDs from a Florida Internet pharmacy. In 2003, Guilllen's SLG went to .569. BINGO!
Guillen is something of a late bloomer. He reached the big leagues at age 20 in 1997 with the Pirates but didn’t hit more than 14 homers in a season until getting 31 in 2003 while splitting the season with Cincinnati and Oakland.
Starting with 2003, he has played at least 136 games in four of five seasons. The exception was 2006, when surgery on his right elbow limited him to 69 games at Washington.
Guillen has averaged .294 with 26 homers and 91 RBIs in his last four healthy seasons.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kansas City Royals, one of the biggest losers in professional sports, appear ignorantly set on signing juicer and philosopher Jose Guillen to their roster. ESPN reports here:
Outfielder Jose Guillen and the Kansas City Royals have reached a preliminary agreement for a three year, $36 million deal, a relative of the ballplayer told ESPNdeportes.com.
The agreement will be complete when Guillen passes a physical exam, scheduled for Tuesday. Guillen, 31, hit .290 with 23 home runs and 99 RBIs in 153 games with the Seattle Mariners last season. He had an opportunity to become a free agent when the Mariners declined an option of $9 million for 2008
Guillen's signing answers several questions:
- Will use of HGH and 'roids affect GMs signing patterns: apparently not
- Does juicing, then keeping a poker face while deceiving the public matter to the MLB: no
- Does the MLB really want to end the PED/steroid era: obviously not
- Is there any questions why the Royals remain a horrible team: no, it's self-evident
- Will the 7000 fans packing Royals Kaufman stadium each game enthusiastically cheer for a juicer like Guillen: if someone wakes them up between naps and bathroom breaks
The Royals -- once a great team -- struggled the last few years with horrible personnel decisions, inept management, and apparently their own PED problems. Doesn't sound like it is getting any better. Do they remember the bad old days when about half the team used cocaine? (the joke was that the foul lines kept disappearing in Kansas City because the team snorted them)
Guillen needs the 36 million; all the HGH and anabolic steroids cost some scratch:
Guillen just completed his 11th season in the majors. Records show he ordered more than $19,000 worth of drugs - three kinds of human growth hormone, two types of testosterone and the steroids stanozolol and nandrolone - from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center between May 2002 and June 2005, the Chronicle said.
You have to shake your head at an organization that hired 'trainer' Chris Mihlfeld and played juicers like Paul Byrd and Jason Grimsley, signing another juicer to a 36 million multi-year contract.
Here is what Guillen said last spring:
In February, he was quoted by ESPN The Magazine as saying he had been approached about using steroids earlier in his career but had declined.
"That is something I never considered in my life," Guillen is quoted as saying. "You're ruining your whole career. You're ruining your reputation. This really is hurting baseball right now, the image of the game."
If the journalists reports bear truth, Jose Guillen wrong. It is drug cheats like Jose Guillen who are ruining the image of the game.
But hey, everything is up to date in Kansas City. (sorry for the rant; we are Royals fans)
(more after the jump)
Here is what Guillen said to ESPN:
Last week, Guillen was questioned by the commissioner's office about his appearance on a list of baseball players who bought human growth hormone and steroids from a clinic in Florida, which is under federal investigation.
According to records from the Rejuvenation Center of Palm Beach, Guillen spent more than $19,000 for hormones and steroids between May 2002 and June 2005. "We told the commissioner's office my version of this whole affair, which in some ways has been handled with some errors in the media," Guillen told ESPNdeportes.com last weekend.
You obviously are NOT Royals fans if you believe the Royals have not been improving since the signing of GM Dayton Moore. With young emerging stars Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Brian Bannister, and Joakim Soria along with a rotation that includes Gil Meche (Whos record doesn't serve him justice, look beyond that), Bannister, a blossoming Greinke, and scores of pitching prospects it is ignorant to say the Royals have not finally turned the corner. With Dayton Moore in control and his ability to spend more of David Glass' money than Allard Baird had you can expect to see the Royals in the playoffs in the near future. As for the steroids issue, last I checked, almost EVERY TEAM has had someone accused of juicing. You just have to accept the fact that it is there and you can't believe every rumor out there when pursuing free agents and trades, otherwise you would get no where. The image of the game is not being ruined either, attendance is setting record highs all over the ML and Selig has recorded a net growth way above and beyond what anyone expected.
Posted by: Ben | 12/04/2007 at 16:41
(and you realize that we are cynical for hyperbole, OK? that's part of the deal)
Turned the corner? You mean we made a run at the magic 70 win mark Yes, that was a huge improvement from 62 to 69 last year. I see nothing but blue sky and maybe 74 wins next year, possibly a 4th place finish.
Realistically, it saddens me that the Royals are irrelevant to baseball, and have been that way since 1987, when Dick Howser got sick. Compare the decades: 75-85, 85-95, and 95-05...it's ridiculous how Royals slid into the bottom. Listen to the announcers in New York and Boston: they think we are country bumpkins, ripe for picking up superstars.
How did the Royals do at the end of last year: the team basically mailed it all in. Was that the foundation for future success?
What bothered me about the Guillen acquisition was stated above: the man was a drug cheat, then lied about it to ESPN. Is that the way to build your baseball team? Look at his record...He was a Punch and Judy hitter until he got on the juice in 2003. Surprise!...Guillen picked up some power. This is a player so many Royals fans drooling over? A drug cheat? Where is the moral compass? Where is the Kauffman way? You are not going to build a winner recycling someone's old corrupt juicer.
The attendance of events does not AT ALL represent a mandate nor an endorsement of juicing. Millions of fans attend WWE events. Does that make that juiced 'entertainment' now a legitimate sport? Poor argument.
We would say this: Ewing Kauffman was a moral man. He would not be in favor of paying a drug cheat 36 million, for his 26 home runs...why don't we bring in Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, and Raffy Paleiro while we are at it? Maybe Chris Mihlfeld could serve up some morning juice for them all?
Build a team the right way. Build the team with good young players, then try to re-sign them when they succeed. Develop leadership that doesn't allow a team to quit. Do not build the team with jaded veteran drug-cheats who take short-cuts, then deceive everyone about their fraudulent power numbers.
We need sports fraud laws in this country, because apparently certain teams don't consider drug-cheating to be serious.
If you don't believe us about the rot from the corruption, look how smoothly the professional cycling circuit it going right now, since it spun out of control with drug use...
Posted by: GRG | 12/04/2007 at 19:17
In June, July, and August the Royals played over .500 baseball. In September we had a lot of call-ups and since we weren't in the playoff race we played a lot of players without any experience since their growth and getting idea of their capability to play at the highest level is more important than winning meaningless games. You figure April and May that there are some growing pains that we experienced with our young players. It took Gordon a while to catch on but in June he hit over well over .300, although he did not keep this pace up he played much better than the earlier months. Billy Butler didn't get called up until later in the season. Shealy did not plan out like was hoped. Look at the improvement of the young players and remember that rebuilding takes time. I know that has been the case in KC for years now but ever since Glass opened up his wallet for Moore which he never did for Baird you can't tell me that the Royals don't have a solid core of young players. I predict around 80 wins for the Royals this year. Placing I could not really say, the Tigers are going to be WS contenders this year (although the Angels and Red Sox are stacked), the Indians will be just as good if not better, the Twins will be worse after sending Hunter and Santana off (it is going happen soon), while the White Sox will more than likely still be terrible.
I think the Royals slide into the cellar has more to do with the death of Kauffman than Howser. We had winning records in 6 of the 9 seasons before the 1995 year. The results of the strike and poor ownership have hurt us more than anything.
Just because the Royals have signed one player who is rumored, the jury is still out, does not mean they are building their whole foundation on steroids. I do believe that steroids are more than rampant in professional sports, but because of this there is also a lot of accusations flying everywhere at everyone. Again, if you believe every rumor out there then you are just sitting on your hands because almost everyone has had the finger pointed at them.
The WWE is not, never was, and never will be a sport. It is a show that should never be put on air.
There are a lot of ignorant announcers out there, New York and Boston think they are the only two teams that exist in baseball. Too many announcers are way too biased, then again that is probably why they were hired.
Let me clarify myself on the "image" of the game. The public apparently does not believe that the game is "ugly" because they are showing up in record numbers and paying record amounts to the "ugly" game. Maybe in only your eye the game is tarnished, but obviously not the publics because they still show up. Personally I think NFL players are more rampant steroid users than MLB players. The NFL is better at hiding it while the MLB's most captivating record's leader (HR), Barry Bonds, is obviously on the juice. Shawne Merriman was caught and that has all but been forgotten already.
As for cycling, well...I just do not care. I can ride a bike (maybe not for hours upon hours) but I can not throw a ball 90+ MPH or hit one 400+ feet.
Posted by: Ben | 12/04/2007 at 23:21
Well said.
Several things led to the Royals problems:
1. The collapse of Avner Fogelman's financial empire (co-owner with Kauffman)
2. The cocaine busts
3. The departure of John Shuerholtz to Atlanta
4. Change of ownership to Glass
5. Aging of George Brett
After that we get fuzzy...we moved away..
We are surprised at how many people tolerate doping. Cheating is now a fact of life, and accepted as a way to get ahead. That does not lead to good results...
Posted by: GRG | 12/05/2007 at 00:31
Thanks for sharing!I was searching for this information but there are very limited resources.
Posted by: cheap christian louboutin | 06/15/2012 at 11:33