Chicks Love The Fastball

Now that the Mitchell Report list is out, it's interesting to see how many of the implicated players are pitchers. A lot of the chatter surrounding the report's release has focused on the McGwire/Bonds/Sosa/Palmeiro types, who everyone was afraid were cheapening the record books with their power output a few years back.

But assuming the Mitchell Report encompasses a representative sample of steroid users during that period, those hitters were facing more than a few juiced-up fastballs. Full list is below, with pitchers in bold:

Chad Allen
Manny Alexander
Rick Ankiel
Mike Bell
David Bell
Gary Bennett Jr.
Marvin Bernard
Larry Bigbie
Barry Bonds
Ricky Bones
Kevin Brown
Paul Byrd
Ken Caminiti
Jose Canseco
Mark Carreon
Jason Christiansen
Howie Clark
Roger Clemens
Paxton Crawford
Jack Cust
Chris Donnels
Brendan Donnelly
Lenny Dykstra
Bobby Estalella
Matt Franco
Ryan Franklin
Eric Gagne
Jason Giambi
Jeremi Giambi
Jay Gibbons
Troy Glaus
Jason Grimsley
Jose Guillen
Jerry Hairston Jr.
Matt Herges
Phil Hiatt
Glenallen Hill
Darren Holmes
Todd Hundley
David Justice
Chuck Knoblauch
Tim Laker
Mike Lansing
Paul Lo Duca
Nook Logan
Josias Manzanillo
Gary Matthews Jr.
Cody McKay
Kent Mercker
Bart Miadich
Hal Morris
David Naulty
Denny Neagle
Jim Parque
Andy Pettitte
Adam Piatt
Todd Pratt
Stephen Randolph
Adam Riggs
Brian Roberts
John Rocker
F.P. Santangelo
Benito Santiago
Gary Sheffield
Scott Schoeneweis
David Segui
Mike Stanton
Miguel Tejada
Ismael Valdez
Mo Vaughn
Randy Velarde
Ron Villone
Fernando Vina
Rondell White
Todd Williams
Jeff Williams
Matt Williams
Steve Woodard
Kevin Young
Gregg Zaun

28 out of 82 (or 34%) are pitchers. Given that pitchers make up 11 out of 25 (or 44% of) roster spots on most teams, that's a lot closer to juicing parity than you'd think based on the media coverage. And of course of the biggest new names outted by the Mitchell Report, three (Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Eric Gagne) are pitchers.

None of this excuses the big-name sluggers who juiced. But it does point out that all numbers from the steroid era need to be adjusted for context, not jut power numbers. Maybe that will end up being the Mitchell Report's real legacy.