One More Thing About Peralta, Then I Promise I'll Move On!

     I hadn't planned on spending any more time on Jhonny Peralta, I swear. I said my piece about it the other day, and that was going to be it. Then I saw this, and I knew I wasn't done yet. Now, as much sports talk as I take in on a daily basis, I'd forgotten that Dan Leach is, in fact, a guy with an actual show on 97.1 The Ticket, partly because he's buried late into the night where only severe gluttons for punishment would dare to listen (myself included), and partly because he's usually paired up with either Pat "um, ah, ya know... and stuff" Caputo, who doesn't let anybody, co-host or caller, get a word in edgewise; or Dennis Fithian, whose next original thought will be his first. And with this bit of self-righteous treacle, Dan "The Man" proves he might be just more brain-dead than anyone at that station, and that's why I feel the need to give him the time-honored "Fire Joe Morgan" treatment...

     There is little argument that Peralta makes the Tigers better when he is in the lineup.

     Okay, then. Glad we could come to an agreement. I assume, then, that we're done here...

     The bigger question is, at what price?

     ...A roster spot that would probably otherwise go to a AAAA player who can't hit above the Mendoza line?

     The PED issue in baseball is one that has rocked the integrity of the game to its core and must be cleaned up NOW; not a year from now, four years from now, or as MLB has operated in the past, when it felt like it was ready… which was never.

     And that's kinda what they did in suspending Jhonny for 50 games. Punishment accepted, time served, so we can all move on, right? No? Of course not.

     It was interesting to see Jhonny shag balls in left field before the game in Chicago Wednesday night and might have given fans false hope that Peralta, who has never played left field at any point in his career, could be platooned there in the postseason. That is just not likely to happen.

     Don't tell that to the Tigers or Jim Leyland. Per the Freep's John Lowe: 

     Based on today’s developments, the Detroit Tigers are continuing to decide whether to use Matt Tuiasosopo or Jhonny Peralta as their leftfielder when they face left-handed starting pitchers in the playoffs.

     So, yeah. Clearly that's not gonna happen.

      That makes even less sense to me to take a roster spot away from someone like Tuiasosopo, who has been with the club all year and made good contributions.

     Have you even watched a single game since the All-Star break? What "good contributions" has Tuiasosopo made since then, other than a line of .185/.264/.231 and no power whatsoever, with not a single extra-base hit, save for one home run back in July? And the strikeouts. My God, the strikeouts. He's done it in nearly a third of all his plate appearances in that time. Peralta, by comparison, did so in 22% of his at-bats this year before his suspension. And this year, Tui's worth a whopping -0.3 defensive WAR, so can you really make the argument that Peralta can do worse?

     How can you explain to someone who is playing baseball the right way that if you cheat, let your team down, force a trade, you can just come ridin’ on back on a proverbial white horse, just in time to play the final three games in Miami, ironically miles away from the where all the Biogenesis issues began, then play in the postseason like nothing had happened.

     Easily. "Sorry, Matt, but we want a right-handed hitter who can actually hit."

     I understand many Tigers fans “win at all costs” mentality as this city, this franchise, the Ilitch family, these amazing fans deserve a World Series title for the first time in 29 years, but it must be done the right way.

     Exactly. Which is why every game Peralta played in this season should be forfeited. I mean, we can't have a tainted season now, can we? He then goes on to play the Melky Cabrera card again, which I really have no interest in re-hashing here.

     What about his teammates like Max Scherzer, who have been adamant about how cheating must be taken out of the game?

     Now, I can't speak for the Detroit Tigers, but most reports suggest that Peralta was well-liked by his teammates, and they're not foolish enough to believe that he's the only one among them who's taken steroids, as opposed to being the only one to get caught. Let's be honest here: if Jhonny gives them the best shot to win a World Series, he'll be welcomed back with open arms.

     What about Jose Iglesias who has become a mainstay at short since Peralta’s suspension and seems to truly be in a groove with his new team? 

     What about him? Nobody is suggesting that Iglesias be move from shortstop for any reason short of injury, so your point is as irrelevant as your radio show.

     What about all the Tigers that might not say it out loud to the media, but feel Peralta abandoned the team by not appealing his suspensions cause of his looming free agency in 2014? 

     Yeah, he should have lied further about using PED's! Way to let your team down by actually being honest, as opposed to appealing and having no shot of helping them in the playoffs! Yeah, I'm pretty sure 9 out of 10 players would rather have him in the playoffs than not at all, and the 10th is probably the guy that would lose his roster spot to Peralta anyway.

     How do you explain to a youngster that it is ok to cheat and yes, you will pay a price, but not a really big one and can come back and go from being suspended for the most important part of the season and then jump right onto a playoff run? 

     ...Really, Leach? We're playing the "won't somebody please think of the children" card? And for the record, I don't really care what you have to tell your hypothetical kids. Hey, life's not fair, and sometimes cheaters win. Welcome to the real world; deal with it.

     I do have hope that one day soon baseball, a game that many of us grew up falling in love with, can once again be pure. It is going to take some tough decisions and actions to make that happen and one of those is disciplining players that cheated and hurt their team immensely by doing so. In this case the discipline as far as the Tigers are concerned must be to keep Jhonny Peralta away from a team that he does love, that he absolutely can help, but that he truly hurt with his suspension.

     And this is probably what annoys me the most about all this sanctimonious nonsense regarding PED's: The over-romanticizing of an era that never actually was. What these delusional "purists" fail to remember is that cheating in baseball, particularly performance-enhancing drugs, has been going on since at least the 60's, if not earlier. This fairy-tale past where every baseball player was clean and nobody ever cheated is a figment of their imagination, and I find it rather disingenuous to suggest otherwise. 

     Look, as much as we'd all like to see the game cleaned up, the truth is, players will always find a way to get an edge. That's the way it's always been, and always will be. And if someone slips up and gets caught, take whatever action needs to be taken. But once they've served the punishment agreed on by the players and league, that should be the end of it. Period. None of this "we should kick him off the team because we can't support a cheater" bullshit. Don't bring him back next year, fine. But there is not a legitimate baseball reason to not bring Peralta back for the playoffs if he can be of some value to this team.