{"id":5868,"date":"2013-01-30T09:53:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T14:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5868"},"modified":"2013-09-04T10:39:42","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T14:39:42","slug":"gonzalez-linked-with-ped-clinic-are-we-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5868","title":{"rendered":"Gonzalez linked with PED-clinic; are we worried?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gio Gonzalez may be in a bit of trouble. Photo Joy Absalon\/US Presswire via usatoday.com<\/p><\/div>\n

As announced early on January 29th, 2013<\/a>, an anti-aging clinic in Miami run by Anthony Bosch<\/strong> has been accused of being a PED factory and the Miami New Times has published an extensive report<\/a> after reviewing documents, spreadsheets and hand-written customer notes that were obtained by the newspaper from a former employee.<\/p>\n

The relevance to the Nationals? \u00a0Gio Gonzalez<\/strong> appears in the documentation multiple times, along with his father. \u00a0And while the evidence directly linking Gonzalez to specific orders for HGH, Testosterone or Anabolic steroids is non-existant (unless the code “1.c.1 with Zinc\/MIC” can be proven to mean a banned substance), generally speaking where there’s smoke, there’s fire with respect to PEDs and baseball players these days. \u00a0In James Wagner<\/strong>‘s WP article today<\/a> on the topic, he found a doctor who speculated that MIC may stand for a combination of three compounds that are used frequently in weight loss routines, and definitely NOT illegal.<\/p>\n

Even if Gonzalez is completely innocent, this report automatically besmirches his career. \u00a0Which is either a shame or will be justice. \u00a0Time will tell. \u00a0At least there doesn’t seem to be direct, provable evidence that Gonzalez (or his relations) purchased illegal products, a small light for Nats fans at the end of this particular tunnel.<\/p>\n

Of immediate importance to the team; is this going to lead to a suspension? \u00a0Doubtful, based on evidence seen so far. \u00a0But certainly this should give players pause; what is the reputation of the clinics that I use? \u00a0Tom Verducci<\/strong>‘s immediate reaction is that this is a “severe” incident<\/a> and notes that the new CBA allows suspensions even without positive tests.<\/p>\n

The bigger scalp of course belongs to Alex Rodriguez<\/strong>, who the evidence seems to show bought HGH<\/a> as recently as 2012. \u00a0 *sigh* \u00a0 He’s stated that he quit PEDs in 2003<\/a>. \u00a0The report makes him look really, really bad<\/a>. \u00a0For the slugger, at this point in his career and with the statements he’s already made on PED usage, to get caught again would be nothing short of amazing to me (he’s denied it<\/a>, of course). \u00a0The arrogance and stupidity of his getting caught again would be the absolute nail in his public relations coffin. \u00a0 At least the career HR record<\/a> that Rodriguez once seems an absolute shoe-in to capture now seems safe; he likely misses most of his season with hip surgery (his age 37 year) and he’s averaged just 110 games and 17 homers the last two seasons. \u00a0 The likelihood of his hitting 116 more home runs at this point seems nil. \u00a0I’m not going to go as far as some national writers though, who are saying they think Rodriguez’s career is over (David Schoenfield<\/strong> in particular<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Some pundits are already predicting that this will be the next Balco. \u00a0I think i’ve got PED fatigue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As announced early on January 29th, 2013, an anti-aging clinic in Miami run by Anthony Bosch has been accused of being a PED factory and the Miami New Times has published an extensive report after reviewing documents, spreadsheets and hand-written customer notes that were obtained by the newspaper from a former employee. The relevance to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[357,1477,509,385,1478,441],"class_list":["post-5868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-anthony-bosch","tag-david-schoenfield","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-james-wagner","tag-tom-verducci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5868"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7611,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868\/revisions\/7611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}