Why Melky, Colon Testing Positive for PEDs Is Actually a Good Thing for MLB

They came for Melky Cabrera, and now they've gotten Bartolo Colon too.

Just a week after Cabrera, All-Star left fielder of the San Francisco Giants, was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for testosterone, Major League Baseball has now caught and suspended Colon for 50 games as well.

According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland A's veteran right-hander also tested positive for testosterone. He'll miss the final 40 games of the regular season and the first 10 games of the postseason if the A's make it that far.

Like Cabrera, the 39-year-old Colon didn't bother denying his actions.

“I apologize to the fans, to my teammates and to the Oakland A’s,” he said in a statement. “I accept responsibility for my actions and I will serve my suspension as required by the Joint Drug Program.”

In their own statement, the A's said they are "disappointed" to learn of Colon's suspension.

Real shocker there. Colon leads the A's in wins (10) and innings pitched (152.1), and his recent eight-inning outing against the Cleveland Indians lowered his ERA to 3.43 for the season. It's by no means an exaggeration to say that the A's are losing their best pitcher for the rest of the season.

No doubt baseball fans are disappointed as well. Unlike Cabrera, Colon did not win the All-Star Game MVP, nor was he contending for a batting title. He is, however, a player that even the most casual baseball fans have heard of, and the career resurgence he's enjoyed over the last two seasons is the kind of heartwarming story that the sport of baseball specializes in.

Now we know that he's a cheater. And given the circumstances, it's fair to say that Major League Baseball has a pretty major problem on its hands. The apparently widespread use of testosterone is an epidemic that must be dealt with.

But I urge you, Mr. John Q. Baseball Fan, to look on the bright side instead. The fact that Cabrera and Colon were caught and have been suspended is not a bad thing, but a good thing.

While it's true that all signs point toward Major League Baseball having a huge testosterone problem, what the league has proved over the last week is that users are going to be caught and that they are going to be punished. 

The system may have its leaks and various shortcomings, but it's apparently not a lost cause.

Keep in mind that it was just a couple months ago that MLB's drug testing system looked like a bad joke when the Ryan Braun drama was in full swing. It looked like MLB's PED policy was going to score a major victory with the suspension of a player who may have cheated his way to an MVP award, but the league was unable to seal the deal because of a simple protocol error.

Whether Braun is innocent and was innocent all along is up to you. What everyone can agree on is that Braun made the people behind MLB's drug testing system look like a bunch of bumbling amateurs. The league's supposedly foolproof system was illustrated as a sham overseen by buffoons.

Now here we are just a few short months later, and MLB has tagged and bagged two big-name cheaters. It indeed reflects well on the league that it caught Cabrera and Colon using the same substance that reportedly triggered Braun's positive test, not to mention the exact same substance that may be the new drug of choice among MLB regulars.

That's what BALCO founder Victor Conte believes anyway. He told USA Today after Cabrera's suspension came to light that as many as half of MLB's players are still cheating seven years after the league's drug testing policy went into effect and that synthetic testosterone use is "rampant."

Conte also said that the only players who get caught are "the dumb, and the dumber."

With two players being caught within a week of one another, it seems that there may be more dumb/dumber cheaters in MLB than Conte's warning indicated. That doesn't make the people running the testing out to be geniuses, but at least they're not foolish enough to be outwitted by fools.

The fact that both Cabrera and Colon were caught in the thick of pennant race season should also quell any conspiracy theory notions that MLB would dare to go out of its way to protect cheaters rather than risk bad press. The press from these suspensions is certainly bad, but MLB is choosing to do the right thing rather than what's best for business. 

The suspensions of Cabrera and Colon are not going to solve the league's problems with PEDs, or testosterone specifically, in one fell swoop. Make no mistake about that. Just because MLB has apprehended two dummies doesn't mean that there aren't players who are smart enough to get away with cheating out there.

And though the Steroid Era may be over, there are surely still plenty of players who are using PEDs as a means to put up gaudy numbers. If MLB finds a way to kill the use of testosterone, another substance will emerge as the cheaters' drug of choice. Nobody should be foolish enough to think that the cheaters are going to do down without a fight.

What we know now is that MLB is capable of fighting back, and that's a relief.

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