Then again if Raul was being realistic and considered the alleged number of professional athletes who experimented with PED’s it is not shocking for any present day player to have the finger pointed at him. And again if Raul wants to point a particular finger back at the bloggers or reporters we should except that as a predictable response also.

For starters where were these accusations when he was hitting 100+ RBI’s in Seattle? He has 155 HR’s since 2002 in a park that is bigger than Citizen’s Bank Park. Not to mention he was not exactly in murderers row there either. He also had 682 RBI’s during that same period.

    2002 Mariners starters   Bret Boone, Mike Cameron, Jeff Cirillo, Carlos Guillen, an aging Edgar Martinez, Mark McLemore, an aging John Olerud, Ichiro Suziki, Dan Wilson    93 and 69 record 

2003 looked pretty much the same other than Randy Winn. 93 and 69 record again though.  2004 saw Rich Aurilla on the team. WOW wee! 63 and 99 record.

2005, 2006 Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson were added. Carl Everett, Matt Lawton came on board also.

2007 – 2008 – nothing worth noting. Although the team did try and improve pitching.

So hitting in a new homer friendly park and hitting around Utley, Howard, and Werth why would we be surprised that the numbers are impressive? Not to mention he has had a feast of Washington Nationals pitching early on. Baseball people are not shocked by the overall production. Granted no one expected the pace he was on early, but it will level out.

What about his weight? There have been erroneous reports about his weight gain. The fact is according to his college bio he was 210 pdsin 1996. He is listed now between 225 and 227 pounds depending on where you look. 17 pd weight gain in 13 years? Come on now. Are we going to suggest you need HGH or Steroids to gain 17 pds? You can put on 17 pds in an offseason with a rigorous weight lifting  schedule. If you are packing on 25 – 30 pds in an off season, well then I would be suspicious.

    This does not exempt him either from accusation, but it certainly should not raise a red flag or a cloud of suspicion. And what of the projected stats? Valid question? Or is it? Remember Chase Utley last spring? He was on a torrid pace and yet he leveled off over time didn’t he? I suspect the same with Ibanez. He may reach career highs, but he isn’t going to hit 60 homers and 160 RBI’s. It would nice if he did, but he isn’t going to.

And as for Raul what did he have to say about all this? “You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool – anything you can test,” Ibanez said. “I’ll give you back every dime I’ve ever made” if the test is positive. Ibanez was reacting to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday morning that highlighted an article posted on the blog Midwest Sports Fans.

Again I empathize with his frustration and defensive attitude. But as I pointed out earlier people are going to talk anytime anyone starts putting up monster numbers. But I do wonder about Ibanez’s comment.

If I were Ibanez or anyone under accusation I wouldn’t just talk I would act. Of course the players Union does not want action. Screw the Union! They stopped looking for the best interest of the non drug users,  along time ago. The “innocent” ones should submit to any and all tests available on Earth and publish the results for the public. This would prove their innocence as much as it can be proven and on the other hand it would put more pressure on the players who have taken PED’s.

Frankly the Union has been embarassing and pathetic when it has come to the Performance Enhancing Drugs issues. (See my article “Beyond Steroids and Ped’s”) And someone, maybe even an Ibanez has to take a stand and make a statement with action behind it.

I mean I believe he meant what he said but then again it is easy to say “I’ll give you a zillion dollars” when you know darn well you have no intention of following through on the challenge.

SO maybe Raul should just come to grips that most of us are pulling for him and some just like controversy.