Do Steroids Really Affect Hitting Power In Baseball?

[LightbulbSun]

So I've been trying to find sources that discuss the actual science behind this, but of course that's very hard to find. I've been skeptical about the effects steroids has on hitting power in baseball. Maybe it affects people in other sports, but with hitting power in baseball I am skeptical. For one, I heard that steroids affects the upper body more, but hitting power in baseball comes from the lower body. People I've spoken to have retorted that it improves hand/eye coordination so hitters will be able to react faster on a pitch and drive it out. However, there are a lot of hitters in baseball with good hand/eye coordination, but can't hit for power because they don't have the lower body strength to do so.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone could give me some scientific answers on this subject. Do steroids affect hitting power in baseball?

 

[Monique]

That is a really tough question, I cannot directly find literature on that subject matter. There have been steroid scandals in baseball, maybe you should find out whether the people who were on steroids suddenly increased their performance before being caught.

 

[BryanP]

Hmm, Barry Bonds...

 

[LightbulbSun]

That is a really tough question, I cannot directly find literature on that subject matter. There have been steroid scandals in baseball, maybe you should find out whether the people who were on steroids suddenly increased their performance before being caught.

Sabermetricians (statisticians for the game of baseball) have tried doing this, but it is difficult determining when everyone took steroids. So they don't know what time periods to look at for comparisons in the performance data. There has been evidence of several ball juicings throughout the course of baseball history, including one in 1993 or 1994. That's when supposedly power numbers increased. Plus, someone did some work on the history of power hitting in baseball using a metric called power factor (total bases/hits, but I like to use home runs/hits) and essentially it's been pretty steady with its peaks and valleys, so I really haven't seen much conclusive evidence in the performance data that would give steroids any credit.

 

[LightbulbSun]

Here's the graph on power factor:

http://steroids-and-baseball.com/GRAPHICS/half-sized-splicedPF.jpg"

The guy explains why the graph is "spliced."

So that there be no accusation of fiddling the data to make it fit a theory, let's see exactly what was done here:

1. The artificial "valleys" of WW I and WW II were smoothed out by replacing the data for 1917 - 1918 and for 1942 - 1946 with an even transition between the data points for 1916 and 1919, and 1941 and 1947, respectively; that seems unexceptionable. No effort was made to compensate for any Vietnam-era effects, though they may play a major role in the decline through that period.

2. The discontinuous jumps were subtracted out as they occurred. That is, the size of difference between, for example, 1920 and 1921 was subtracted from all years from 1921 on; the gap between 1976 and 1977 was further subtracted from all years from 1977 on; and the gap from 1992 to 1994 was yet further subtracted from all years from 1994 on (1993 was then set at a value between 1992 and 1994). This does hide whatever actual zigs or zags there may have been for the three discontinuity years--that is, what annual changes there may have been not attributable to changes in the ball--but, as can be seen, such annual zig-zags are normally small.

 

[LightbulbSun]

Hmm, Barry Bonds...

Barry Bonds is an interesting case. After the home run chase in 1998 between Mcgwire and Sosa, apparently Bonds was envious of all the attention those two guys received. Well, if we look at Bonds' power factor (home runs/hits) in the following graph I charted for his whole career, there's a dramatic spike after the 1998 season. It looks really suspicious, but then again, he did peak into .300 territory in the 1994 season, and he was steadily over .200 from 1992 onwards.

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createa...ID=5388f097e64d47bcb65876c03c10bb33&file=png"

As a frame of reference on power factor, here are some of the greatest hitters career power factors:

Babe Ruth: .249
Ted Williams: .196
Hank Aaron: .200
Manny Ramirez: .221
Ken Griffey Jr.: .230

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

In billiards hitting particularly hard isn't necessarily helpful. The most important factor is control but strength in the hands and arms can aid control. I would think that this is likely, to some degree, the case for batting aswell? Perhaps enhanced upper body strength improves muscle control and allows the batter to swing harder with less concern for losing control of the bat?

 

[Moonbear]

I'm not sure where you get the information that steroids affect the upper body more? That's news to me. If you can support it with a reference, great, otherwise, I don't really have any reason to think upper body is more affected than lower body. Even if upper body is MORE influenced by steroid usage, I don't know of any reason to think the lower body isn't affected AT ALL. Afterall, runners and cyclists have reported performance benefits from steroid abuse as well, and those are primarily lower body functions.

Here are some references you might want to read further on studies conducted with steroids. The first two are in aging men (a legal use of steroids) and one on men who are weight training.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

 

[LightbulbSun]

I'm not sure where you get the information that steroids affect the upper body more? That's news to me. If you can support it with a reference, great, otherwise, I don't really have any reason to think upper body is more affected than lower body.

Here are some citations Moonbear. I'll take a look at the links you've provided me. Thanks.

The principal advantages ascribed to anabolic steroids are those associated with androgenicity, or masculine traits. Upper-body strength and muscularity are two such key traits. . . . anabolic steroids increase muscle mass and upper-body strength. http://books.google.com/books?id=pK...s=46ZHEPlLUM&sig=7Efzo9o9dp66kdYoUNCV_3NuVNQ", Charles E. Yesalis, ed.

Testosterone increases upper-body mass differentially, so performance in [upper-body] tasks like weight-lifting should improve more than lower-body tasks or tasks in which aerobic aerobic capacity rather than strength are assessed. As expected, the task in which increases have been reported most reliably are in the bench press. http://rphr.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/57/1/411" , Cynthia M. Kuhn

Steroids increase muscle mass and upper-body strength . . . . The effects of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone on muscle size and strength in normal men. N Engl J Med 1996; 335: 1-7, Bhasin S, Storer TW, Berman N, et al.

Muscle deposition promoted by testosterone tends to be greater in the upper body; this provides the greatest effects (and therefore the greatest likelihood of abuse) for sports like swimming, which rely on upper-body strength. http://books.google.com/books?id=Dt...s=_VGa7RnKCU&sig=DvK4_jOn7ypz4xEcriZA_cj8slc", Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, Wilkie Wilson (Duke University Medical Center)

Testosterone also produces characteristic body changes, Dr. Pope said, with the most marked muscle growth in the upper body and the biceps. http://books.google.com/books?id=Gz...Iu&sig=bUwO_XZgGXcRewbeEaME7KdIk2Q#PPA210,M1", Spencer A. Rathus