Let's Talk About PEDs

Dee Gordon's suspension has a left a lot of people with a lot of questions.  There have been many questions about the impact PEDs have on a hitter's ability.  The traditional thought is that steroid use leads to an increased number of home runs.

What do Steroids do?
Steroids and performance enhancing drugs increase the amount of testosterone in the body.  Steroids increase muscle mass and strength.  One would think that if strength goes up home runs will too.  The more testosterone in the body the more ability a player has to put on muscle.  This means that whatever product Dee Gordon took probably did help him put on weight these past two seasons.  For a player like Dee Gordon putting on weight helped him get more hits.

Steroid Impact on Dee Gordon         

     With his new ability to put on weight, specifically muscle. He was able to hit the ball harder.  Hitting the ball harder garnered more hits for Gordon.  His GB%, FB% and LD% remained relatively the same throughout his career.  This means his BABIP should remain essentially the same.  But with Dee Gordon his hard hit percentage was on the rise.  When his Hard Hit percentage rises it helps him to get more balls past defenders because the faster a ball is the harder it is for a defender to react (to some locations and at some angles).  Launch angles provided by StatCast are showing that there is an ideal Home Run angle.  If a player takes steroids they add more exit velocity or they add more power behind each hit, but they do not change the launch angle.  If Dee Gordon is hitting at a launch angle either on the ground or very high the additions in Hard Hit Percentage are leading to more singles and doubles.  This would increase his BABIP and garner more hits for him.  Thus the increase in his batting average from .234 in 2013 to .333 in 2015. 

 
Steroids and Launch Angle

 Statcast technology was not around for Barry Bonds, but I would bet that his hits mostly came off the bat at this ideal HR launch angle.  Steroids helped him convert fly ball outs into Home Runs, or more long doubles into Home Runs.  Steroids add more oomph into hits but only those at an ideal launch angle will become Home Runs.  Take Chris Colabello for example.  He's an okay hitter.  He took PEDs and had almost no impact (slightly better).  He did not get a huge amount of HRs or hits after.  This is because his launch angle is not ideal, and not consistent.  It also is because he was hitting short fly balls caught by defenders.  It turned his short fly outs into long fly outs.