Wright will have trouble avoiding steroid talk

Written by Mike Mariano | 26 February 2010

2010 looms as an important year for Mr. Flushing, David Wright. Last season was a disaster from a team and individual standpoint.  DW hit 10 homers in the inaugural season at Citi Field and the Mets critics were all over him (some deserved, some not).  Luckily for Wright, the team was so bad that it really didn't matter if he hit 50 home runs, they still would've been terrible.  However, if all goes according plan for the Metropolitans in 2010, there's a resurgence and the team contends for the division, that indifference won't be the case again.  The pressure is on for the young cornerstone to produce, produce.. produce this season.  And then some if he's going to get the NY media monkey off his back.

So David Wright did the right thing.  He took the offseason seriously, put on some muscle and looks like Hercules.  He's the classic spring training "best shape of his life" guy and ready to roll in '10.  Hooray, Yipee, Wahoo, blah, blah, blah.  All that's great except for the fact that it's 2010 and he looks like Hercules.  Add in the fact that he only hit 10 home runs last year after four straight years of 25 plus jacks.  Put that together and what do you get?  The answer shouldn't be too surprising:

The "steroids" whispers/allegations running rampant in mid-August when Wright has 30 home runs stream rolling into September. David Wright will be "outraged, disappointed, blindsided" you name it and whomever started the "controversy" will get lambasted by every major media outlet around.  Then barring a positive test (hardly out of the question, I mean, it is 2010) everything will blow over and away.  Unless of course he only hits 10 homers again in 2011, but that's a story for another day.

Is it justified?  Is it fair?  Does Wright deserve it?  It doesn't matter.  Baseball is so far past all the moral issues of who's toes are getting stepped on and who feels mistreated.  If you want to get swoll in the offseason and add shredded muscle, you've got to develop some thick skin because somewhere along the line someone is going to come out and pose the inevitable question:  Is player X on steroids?  It's a sad, but true story of the game of baseball today.

Not only was the question posed, it was borderline screamed by Will Carroll on twitter the other day, here's the tweet in it's entirety:

So Gagne regrets ... something and Wright shows up at camp *noticeably* more muscular. In other words, nothings changed in baseball.

Wow.  We could pretend that Carroll's words are a commentary on the media's handling and creation of the steroid witch hunt, but that's not the case.  In reality, Carroll is expressing the fact that we can't trust the players anymore, no matter who they are.  Baseball players have run out of second chances.  "I didn't do it."  "I'd never disgrace the game." "I'm offended you'd ask that."  From now on, let's ignore all the verbal politicking through the media.  If a seemingly good guy like David Wright has to swallow some criticism and controversy, so be it.  Raul Ibanez had to take a few shots last year and plenty more guys will in the future.  I can't imagine that we'll stop hearing about it until the guys stop cheating or it becomes legal... so yeah, never.