Scuba,
When playing, I was tested twice a month. Pitchers were also not the guys that had any pills/substances in their lockers. Position players are more worried about bulking up. Pitchers know that certain mechanics make you throw harder. We even had a former player whose job it was to make sure we weren't taking anything illegal. Also, the fact they did random offseason drug tests scared the crap out of everyone.
From experience, I can tell you that out of about 160 dudes at minor league camp.. I'd say there were about 3 guys you had a suspicion about. Out of the Phillies organization last year, minors and majors, there was one player who tested positive for a performance enhancement.. And that player had been taking it for a legitimate medical reason.
And about throwing 9 mph faster... four years ago as a freshman in college I gained 5 mph in two weeks by tweaking one thing in my delivery. I was touching 87 as a high school senior and midway through my freshman season at college. To finish the year, I was sitting at 90, touching 92 frequently.
You're making it seem like it's virtually impossible to improve velocity at an older age. Some guys focus on other things first, then mix in velocity later.
Smolin,
Thanks for the update, performance enhancing drugs are illegal now but the time I'm talking about you were in 4th grade, so what goes on now in Professional baseball has no bearing on my commentary. I'm glad MLB baseball is trying to clean up their act, ITS ABOUT TIME!
By the way, we are not talking about college freshman gaining MPH from freshman to seniors, we are talking about grown men, MLB pitchers who have had the best pitching coaches in the world for ever, never gained anything for their 1st 9 yrs in the bigs and all of a sudden they gain 6-9 MPH at the age of 35? Its called their heads and every muscle in their bodies got bigger and stronger from steroids or HGH thus resulting in their ability to throw harder. Same pitching motion, stronger force production with stronger muscles = throwing harder!
Ypsi,
Do you live in a bubble? On 1 hand you state "Steroids were (are?) a MAJOR problem" and on the other you want me convicted of slander!
There are no records of who used and didn't use but from talking to a few friends in and around MLB and the minor leagues from 1996-until they figured out they had a problem, Most of the players(broad strokes) used steroids, HGH, and a wide array of amphetamines(legal and illegal). That is common knowledge throughout the baseball world. There are no records of it, but it happened.
35 year old washed up guys all of a sudden throwing harder than they did at 25! Guys who averaged 9 hrs for their 1st 7 years hitting 40 and 50 bombs! It doesn't happen unless they either found the fountain of youth or they USED PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS!
If you are wondering, I AM IMPLYING THAT MOST OF MLB WAS USING some form of Performing Enhancing Drugs from like 1996- 2005ish when MLB got their heads out their arses and put and end to it! Look at the records that fell, the offensive production, the reincarnation of Pitchers long lost to father time! It happened buddy!