Runelvys Hernandez

September 6th, 2008 filed in Baseball

Runelvys Hernandez, who made four starts for the Astros this year and most recently pitched for Triple-A Round Rock, was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for an amphetamine, the Commissioner’s Office announced on Saturday. Amphetamines are considered a performance-enhancing substance and are in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The suspension of Hernandez will be effective at the start of next season.

“We strongly believe in the Commissioner’s drug-testing program, and we are disappointed in the choice that Runelvys made,” Astros general manager Ed Wade said. “Major League Baseball and the 30 clubs have taken great strides toward eliminating the use of performance-enhancing substances in baseball, and we are fully supportive of all measures to ensure a clean game.”

Hernandez was 0-3 with an 8.38 ERA for the Astros this year, allowing 18 earned runs over 19 1/3 innings. He was with the Astros two separate times, with his most recent demotion arriving on July 28, when the club activated Roy Oswalt from the disabled list.

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2 Responses to “Runelvys Hernandez”

  1. 1
    Phil Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    Seems like only the lower level players getting caught recently. Where are the big name players? Are we to believe that only minor leaguers and washed up retreads are the only Baseball players doping now?

  2. 2
    Chester_Cheater Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 12:05 am

    The Pittsburgh Post Gazette had a nice Q&A related to this topic :

    Q: Why have virtually all of the minor league suspensions for violations of baseball’s drug/steroids policy involved Hispanic players? About 25 more — all Hispanic — have occurred in the past few weeks.

    A: Yes, they have, Karen, and you are correct about the backgrounds. What you leave out, though, is that these players - almost all of them, by my recollection - were suspended in their home countries’ summer developmental leagues. And that is an important distinction because it points more to those countries’ culture of using performance-enhancing drugs and the lack of enforcement there until recently.

    Put bluntly, many players there thought they could keep getting away with cheating, only to be surprised that, as of last year, their chances of continuing to do so has diminished. Someone familiar with MLB’s enforcement on this told me last December that MLB had markedly ramped up its enforcement in this part of the world, especially the Dominican and Venezuela, and the numbers you see are the result of that. On the list of 12 released last week, which included two 17-year-old Pirates prospects in Venezuela, all were from either the Dominican or Venezuelan summer leagues.

    Again, though, I go back to the important distinction: If this were a problem with “Hispanic players,” we would be talking about such players being suspended in the North American minor leagues and maybe even in the majors. There has been very little of that. (Humberto Cota stands out.) Rather, the problem is more with the players who are still playing in those countries. I would expect more, too, as time goes on. Seldom are messes like this lessened quickly.

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