Bozied Activated, Frandsen on Restricted List for Drug Policy Violation

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SOme late breaking news this afternoon out of Lehigh Valley, as Kevin Frandsen, who has been outstanding as of late, has been placed on the restricted list because of a violation of the Major League baseball drug policy. First baseman Tagg Bozied has been activated to take Frandsen’s place on the Lehigh Valley roster.

Because of his recent performance, speculation was growing that Frandsen may be called up sometime soon to help the Phils middle infield offensively, however, this certainly quashes that speculation.  As details develop we will post them here…

43 thoughts on “Bozied Activated, Frandsen on Restricted List for Drug Policy Violation”

  2. Unconfirmed rumors that Pete Orr and Michael Martinez tainted Kevin’s urine sample in an attempt to solidify their roster spots.

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  5. From Rotoworld:
    “Kevin Frandsen has been suspended 50 games for violating baseball’s drug policy.
    Frandsen tested positive for unprescribed ritalin. He inked a minor league contract with the Phillies in March and had been playing for Triple-A Lehigh Valley.”

    Ritalin? I suspect he gets the 50 games reduced some. Big loss for LV

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    1. Why? Its the same as amphetamines in their opinion and that’s likely the reason he was taking it, not to prescribe a legit medical condition.

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  6. Sounds like a AAAA player making a desperate attempt to get over the hump in his career.

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  8. Could somebody get Michael Martinez, Pete Orr, and Wilson Valdez some of what he is having please….

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  9. Anything would be better than the Orr, Martinez, Valdez offensive combo at this point. I would try laying the bottle of Ritalin at the plate and leave Fansden on the restricted list. It might at least draw a walk. With Utley and Chooch on the DL the Phils are sending a murderer’s row of 3 pitchers to the plate in the 7,8,9 hole every night.

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    1. And yet they still have best record in the league. Relax people. Offense is down everywhere.
      Utley and Chooch will back in a week and D Brown will be up in month, replacing Sardinha, Orr and Martinez most likely. Pretty nice upgrade.
      Anyone hoping that Fransden was a big improvement over Orr/Valdez/Martinez was delusional.

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      1. Agree. If anything shuffling happened it would be just hoping for a hot bat. That leaves Belliard as the next ‘not really any better’ promotion candidate.

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      2. Despite all of these “offensive struggles” the Phillies are 5th in the NL (out of 16) in runs per game. It seems that Phillies fans have been spoiled lately when it comes to offensive production.

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  12. I totally forgot about Tagg.. any particular reason why it’s taken him this long to be activated? This guy was a beast in AA – certainly better than Larish.

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  13. Sadly, Bozied’s activation only adds to the list of pharmhands who can hit a ton but only field 1st base.

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    1. True…but he had 2 rbi’s tonight in his debut…This might be the deepest in a season the Phils AAA team has been over .500

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      1. Exactly. He’s a good hitter & limited fielder. See also: Rizotti, Overbeck, Larish, Savery, etc.

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  15. lol. Look, I know doctors are tough these days prescribing stuff, but SURELY there is a real doctor out there that was willing to prescribe him some of this stuff…use your brain man. This isn’t HGH, medical steroids, or anything else, this is a highly and widely used legal drug….sigh.

    Go to the doctor, tap your toes a few times, look out the window, play baseball.

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    1. It’s an amphetamine… That’s why it’s being used. Sure it’s not HGH, or steroids and adding to the power of a player. But there’s a reason why baseball has amphetamines banned. For the better part of 30 or 40 years I think the majority of ball players used them. Schmidt talked about how he used them and in the club house they’d be in a bowl like they M&M’s and most of the guys would use them.

      It’s more for the danger to the health of the player than for any huge advantages. It might ‘wake you up’ and make you more aware if you’re exhausted, but it’s not really giving you any extra abilities that you might normally have. An Orioles prospect died about 5 or 6 years ago when they using some weight-loss drug which was also an amphetamine.

      Look what it did to Jesse on saved by the bell? ’nuff said

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  16. I’m pretty sure every ballplayer I’ve played with has ADD of somesort. MLB needs to require players to take this

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  17. Am I the only one who finds it amusing that it’s mainly the AAAA guy’s who are getting busted for substance abuse?

    I guess it could be because they are the most desperate ones trying to make it to the Majors.

    I have yet to hear of any legit Phillies prospects being busted for PED’s, although I suppose some under the radar guy’s could have been.

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    1. Fidel Hernandez at AA last year, for one.

      I would think it’s just that AAA players are older and therefore have a smaller window in which to succeed in their careers, whereas a struggling 19 year old low-A prospect has time on his side.

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    2. Think about it. The minimum salary for MLB players is a bit over $400,000. The minimum AAA salary is about a tenth of that. There’s a huge reward for reaching the majors at that level.

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    1. No, the boil down is that the nations drug laws are a joke. And MLBs drug witch hunt is even worse.

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    2. You know, there are some players in the minors who just aren’t good enough to make the majors no matter how hard they try.

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  20. I don’t know what the hit rates are across organizations, meaning # of players either suspended for drug use or in drug related incidents… But the Phils have def had a few… I wonder if this is high or low relative to peers.

    High or low, I am sure people will write it off as rogue players, but it makes you wonder about if there is something specific about how an org treats its players that encourages these negative outcomes where players try to game the system.

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    1. Yes…the there are aliens at Area 57 and the government is just hiding it. There was clearly a second (and third shooter) of JFK. David Stern had the envelope frozen so that the Knicks would get to select Patrick Ewing. Etc…

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      1. I love the prevailing attitude on this site that people can’t ask good questions. It’s really starting to turn me off altogether. People are pathetic at times and don’t want to have dialogues.

        No one is saying there are aliens at area 52. People just want to discuss a topic. Look at it: Romero, Frandsen, Gillies, Ozuna, Hernandez, Bacil, Sasaki, Solano. Don’t laugh off a good question…

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        1. Gillies wasn’t suspended at any point in his career.

          As far as the rest, I think the Phillies are about normal compared to the rest of MLB. Only Romero, Ozuna and Frandsen are of any type of real status. Last year the AAA Yankees had Amaury Sanit and Jon Weber suspended from their AAA team. We only tend to pay attention to the Phillies’ suspensions, but every team has them.

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          1. That was my point is well. Every team has players who have tried to cheat the system and have been caught. The Phillies aren’t nefariously telling their players to take these drugs or else (which was what the original post seemed to imply). Some players/people just make lousy decisions. If you look at the Mitchell report, you’ll see what I mean.

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            1. As my original comment said, I was looking at drug suspensions or drug related incidents. That is why Gillies is in that comment. He was originally charged with possession; it was later dropped.

              What my original post was asking – are the # of incidents in the Phillies org (now that we actually can see them publicly) more or less than average.

              As I also said, in my original post, you’re just writing it off as what I call “rogue players” or “every team has players that cheat the system”. But I’m wondering if there is high likelihood of being caught, then is it an environmental thing.

              Anyways, I did some more research on the subject, and there’s a nice wikipedia page on the subject:

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_suspended_for_performance-enhancing_drugs

              This is not comprehensive, and “ha ha” the sample size isn’t large enough, but there are differences across organizations. This also would not account for those players in drug related incidents that were not performance enhancing. It still looks like to me the Phillies may be on the higher side.

              Anyways, go Phils.

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  21. Am I reading correctly on fangraphs that Valle has a 1.1% BB%? He was low last year at 5.6% and 8.9% in 2009, but 1.1% is, uhh, low (1 walk in 91 PA). His BABIP this year is .379, which will normalize. His K rate is 23.6% which is high, but in line with his historical numbers. I want to get excited, but these numbers are a little worrying.

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