“I think it’s a good day for baseball. It’s a sign of things getting cleaned up. I don’t know the details … but if Major League Baseball thinks people were cheating, then they need to be suspended.” — Chris Johnson, third baseman.
“From some of the conversations we have in here, talking to guys on other teams, I think it’s pretty unanimous around the league that we want to have this in the rearview mirror, move forward past it, stricter penalties. It seems like it’s what’s going to be the only way to finally be preventive enough to keep it from happening.” — Pitcher Brandon Beachy, the Braves representative for the players’ union
“The game is still not going to be clean until there’s year-round testing, blood work and everything for HGH as well. There’s still a lot of HGH going around. But more guys got caught, it’s going in the right direction.” — Dan Uggla, second baseman.
“I think the people taking the risk don’t really care about it. They’re like, ‘What’s 50 games?’ The reward is way better than the penalty of the 50-game suspension. If you give somebody one chance to mess up and then he takes that chance and messes up and next thing you know he’s done from baseball, then a lot of guys are going to think twice about it.” — Uggla, on his desire to see lifetime ban on first performance enhancing drug offense.
“We could probably strengthen the rules a little bit. Fifty games is not really that much for a guy to be taking that big a risk. For the big reward, for some guys I don’t think 50 games is too much for them. There have been guys in the past who have failed and served their 50 games and then end up going into the offseason and getting multi-year contracts and millions of dollars.” — Johnson.
“I think both sides are on it, the union from what I’ve been reading, and also the owners, Major League Baseball. It’s a good thing going forward. I don’t think fans want to come in and have doubts who’s doing this and who’s doing that. I don’t think organizations want to come in and get free agents or give contracts to people that you don’t know what you’re buying. It’s a good step in the right direction.” — Manager Fredi Gonzalez
“It’s just unfortunate that we’ve still got a lot of people cheating. Bottom line. The testing does work, but if you’re only testing for HGH in spring training, then what are they doing the rest of the year? So obviously if anybody does steroids you get (urine) tested for that, you’re going to get busted. There are still ways to get around it. … I agree (testing) needs to happen more often. There are guys who are only going to be tested once and it’s in spring training and they know it. So I think we obviously don’t want to walk through the door and have our finger pricked every day or anything to that extent but we all want a clean game, a level playing field. Guys are willing to make some sacrifices to get that.” — Beachy
“I think there are a lot of guys who’ve worked really hard to get where we’re at. It’s not easy to get where we’re at doing it the right way and you don’t like being cheated. There are some guys who have lost their job or competed against somebody who’s on that list and the other guy probably beat them out. And those guys are feeling pretty crappy today. I just don’t like the guys that are cheating. I haven’t cheated. I’ve done things the right way and gotten to where I am doing things the right way. I think that’s how a lot of guys feel.” — Johnson.
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