Chances are when the Mitchell Report is finally revealed, it isn’t going to be as groundbreaking as baseball people are making it out to be. After all, we already know a number of names that are likely to appear on the report. What we know is that 11 free agents spoke to Senator Mitchell. We can speculate that Jose Guillen, Barry Bonds, Neifi Perez, Mike Cameron, Jerry Hairston Jr….

Okay, this article isn’t about speculating who did and who didn’t or who will and who won’t. Regardless of who shows up on the report, just the idea of the list is sure to affect the Fantasy Baseball season. Already, the report is being mentioned in early season rankings as in “Hopefully he won’t appear on the Mitchell list.” I’m guilty of this myself.

Steroids have been thrust into the spotlight and often fantasy owners feel they need to adjust for it. To be honest, you don’t. You could completely ignore steroids and besides for making the mistake of drafting Barry Bonds, you would be perfectly fine. However, if you’re reading a fantasy baseball article in November, you’re probably looking for something a little bit more.
There are two different types of illegal substances that we’re talking about. They are often confused, but do two very different things. Before you can make a judgment on how you want to reciprocate for steroids and HGH in your rankings, make sure you really understand what they do.

Human growth hormone (HGH) first became big news in baseball when Jason Grimsley was caught accepting a package of HGH and admitted using steroids. While HGH is banned by the MLB, there is no reliable test for it. The reason athletes use HGH is its ability to aid in the recovery of injuries and to help prevent injuries. It can strengthen bones, tendons, and ligaments. This is especially helpful for pitchers recovering from injuries. Paul Byrd recently admitted using prescribed HGH before it was banned by the MLB. HGH can be especially helpful when used with anabolic steroids. While anabolic steroids (this is what Bonds used) create larger muscles, the body often can not support them. This is where HGH comes in. Bud Selig has cited information that relates the frequency of injuries to anabolic steroids. HGH helps create stronger connective tissues to lower the rate of injuries. However, HGH is not limited to injury prevention. It also increases the number of red blood cells the body creates which makes more energy available. It supposedly also has an effect on the precision of eyesight.

If you’re looking to spot a new HGH user, unfortunately for you, the side effects are considered relatively mild. However, there are some physical giveaways that can guide you. The head, feat, and hands grow in size as well as the lips, nose, tongue, jaw, and forehead. These size increases are due to a disease called acromegaly. This disease also causes the fingers and toes to widen. Remind you of anyone in baseball?

How you use the information is really up to you. My advice is to keep it in the back of your mind, but leave it relatively alone when it comes to fantasy baseball. In case you’re interested, the following is a list of known steroid and HGH users:

Admitted Users:

Barry Bonds - Steroids
Jason Giambi - Steroids and HGH
Jeremy Giambi - Seroids
Gary Sheffield - Steroids
Jose Conseco - Steroids and HGH
Jason Grimsley - Steroids and HGH
Paul Byrd - HGH


Implicated Users:

Mark McGuire - Steroids
Ivan Rodriguez - Steroids and HGH
Miguel Tejada - Steroids
Roger Clemens - "Performance Enhancing Drugs"
Andy Pettitte - "Performance Enhancing Drugs"
Brian Roberts - Steroids
Jay Gibbons - Steroids
Gary Matthews Jr. - HGH
Jerry Hairston Jr. - HGH
Rich Ankiel - HGH
Troy Glaus - Steroids
Jose Guillen - Steroids and HGH