The Pittsburgh Pirates announced that infielder Francisco Acuna has been suspended for 80 games due to PEDs. Acuna was just recently named as our Player of the Week, then he backed that up with a .915 OPS this past week. While there’s never a good time for a PED suspension, the fact that he was on a hot streak at the time makes it even worse. The 22-year-old hit .271/.361/.452 in 63 games this season, while playing solid defense, seeing most of his time at shortstop. With only 12 games left in the season for Greensboro, he won’t be able to play until mid-June next year.
+ postsJohn started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
I guess when some players are faced with not making it big they will try to improve their chances by using PEDS. Perhaps it will help him in the long run or perhaps end his pursuit of his baseball career. Sorry to hear this.
Maybe that’s why he was on a hot streak. Good luck to him.
Disappointed but no judgement here. We all have learned lessons the hard way. Hopefully he takes this lesson and is better for it going forward. See you next year.
Disappointing. Hope he learns a lesson and comes back strong next year.
I’ve possibly been deluding myself thinking that the existing testing environment has been working. I wonder how many players are being judicious with the timing of their doping and not getting caught. Presumably a significant percentage of those that do get caught knew what they were getting into and thought they could get away with it. But the casual fan only seems to have a good sense for the overall climate of cheating a generation afterward.
The testing is done randomly, so there’s really no good time to do anything. You could go six months without a test, then get it twice in one week
Oh damn he mustve gotten ringworm too
He had no idea that he was putting an illegal substance in his body. /S
Knucklehead. I always liked Acuña, particularly when he was playing winter ball against much more advanced competition, and was happy he was finally getting a chance to play every day at GBO. Have to think given he was pretty much on the fringes, he may have played his last game in the system.
Oops. So much for his breakout season.