Every year, ESPN conducts an anonymous MLB player poll that always has some interesting tidbits of information.
This year, 143 players were polled with questions like:
-Is the MLB ready for an openly gay player?
-Should Arod be banned from the Union?
And always a crowd favorite:
-Who is the most overrated player in baseball?
The answers weren’t just one-word responses, either.
Here are a couple good ones:
Which team is most overhyped?
NL outfielder: “The Yankees are the center of attention every year, so it’s fun to watch them when they’re going to be as bad as they will be this year. They’re just so old that there’s no way that lineup stays together. And even if they all stay healthy, it’s hard to see where guys aren’t tailing off.”
Would you be in favor of an MLB salary cap?
Yes: 6 percent; No: 94 percent
NL infielder: “Absolutely not. The owners make so much money as it is. They wouldn’t be paying guys what they do if they couldn’t make that back.”
AL pitcher: “No way. That’s a horrible question. If that’s really a question, I am ending the interview right now.”
In your best estimate, what percentage of MLB players are still taking PEDs?
AL All-Star: “It’s close to zero. The awareness has gotten better each year. Players realize they’re not going to get away with it. The system has worked, and the players who were on the fence aren’t doing it.”
AL outfielder: “Twenty percent. Higher for sure than the number of ones that got caught. Those guys only got caught last year because an employee leaked all the records, otherwise they would have gotten away with it. Look at Ryan Braun. He was on one of the most complex doping regimens there is, so just take that and you know there have to be more.”
AL slugger: “I think the number is probably about 10 percent, but that’s not counting Adderall as a PED. If you included guys who are using Adderall, wow, that number would be through the roof.”
Many more questions were answered that will be revealed in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine but until then, we have this nice infographic to give us a rundown of some of the questions asked.
