Steroids: Do They Actually
Help Hitters?

I've spent a decent amount of time thinking about about steroid use and hitting. However, I haven't bothered to put those thoughts down because I assumed that -- excepting Manny being Manny -- the new drug testing regimen had largely solved the problem, at least at the major league level.

Well, now Ryan Braun has seemingly gone and tested positive for steroids, making the topic relevant again. As a result, let me put forth my various thoughts concerning whether steroids actually help baseball players or not.

I do believe that steroids help hitters.

I don't think that advantage is gigantic but I do think it is significant. The way to think about this is to think about baseball players being arranged in a series of tiers.

• God-like
• Great
• Good
• Replacement Level
• AAA
• AA
• etc...

What steroids seem to do is they allow a hitter to jump a tier.

Many of the most famous, and prominent, steroid users already had very good swings and hitting mechanics. That suggests that part of the advantage was psychological; the hitters hit better because they felt like they could hit better.

However, part of the difference was also physical; the steroids gave the hitters the strength they needed to do things that ordinary people find very difficult.

Barry Bonds Coming out of
the Shaft To Shoulder Position

The picture above shows Barry Bonds at a position that every hitter should try to pass through. Notice how his hands are rotating with, and just ahead of, his back shoulder and how his back elbow is tightly pinched. That is a hard position to get to, much less hold, because you are fighting centrifugal force.

What the steroids seemed to have done is they improved Barry Bonds' upper body strength, and in particular the strength of his biceps, and improved his ability to get to, and hold, the position above. That improved the compactness, and thus the efficiency, of his swing.

To be clear, I'm not saying that the steroids directly improve a hitter's ability to generate power; bulging biceps don't increase the speed with which the hitter can rotate their hips, and steroids don't seem to have as dramatic of an impact on a hitter's core or lower body muscles. What I'm saying is that steroids made Barry Bonds more efficient, and better able to get to and hold certain critical positions, and that improved his ability to use the power that his body was able to generate.

Should You Use Steroids?

Of course not.

Steroid use is illegal. It's also being tested for and, like Manny Ramirez and Ryan Braun, you will get caught.

There's also the issue that steroids will cause your balls to wither up and shrink, and I'm not talking about baseballs.