Oh, Those Drugs Of Abuse

Two more minor leaguers - the third and fourth this month - have been suspended for testing positive for a drug of abuse and performance enhancing drugs.

AAA Syracuse, a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate, has suspended reliever Matt Roney for 50 games after the positive drug of abuse test.

The 27-year-old righty was pitching well, with a 2-0 record and 0.90 ERA in five relief appearances for the Chiefs.

Roney signed with Toronto last November and was sent outright to the minors in late March. He has a 1-10 career big league record, going 1-9 in 11 starts and 34 relief appearances for the Detroit Tigers in 2003 and 0-1 in three relief appearances for the Oakland Athletics last year.

The second offender is Detroit right-hander Sendy Vazquez, penalized for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance under the minor league program. He was suspended for 50 games, starting last Friday. In four starts at Class-A Lakeland, he was 0-3 with an 8.20 ERA.


Fun Fact: Testing for drugs of abuse is not administered randomly, but on a basis of reasonable cause. The list of banned substances for drugs of abuse include marijuana, cocaine, LSD, PCP, opiates, MDMA, GHB and Ephedra.

Neither of these players seem like a big loss to me.

[Yahoo! Sports] | [SI.com]