This is "potent"? Really?

Alex Rodriguez paid $12,000 a month for this?

I wasn't going to comment further on Alex Rodriguez' suspension. I did a post after the arbitrator's announcement; I wrote the Free Press editorial on  the subject, which ran in this morning's paper. I'd said what I have to say.

And then the US Anti-Doping Agency chimed in with this nonsense:

"... probably the most potent and sophisticated drug program developed for an athlete that we've ever seen ... a potent cocktail of sophisticated PEDs stacked together to deliver power, aid recovery, avoid detection and create a home run champion."

Ahem. Guys, have you looked at what Alex Rodriguez did while on the "most potent drug program we've ever seen?"

The last three seasons, in which Rodriguez was on this potent, sophisticated regimen, he hit .269 and slugged .441 while averaging just 88 games a season. They were his three worst seasons since he was a teenager.

The PEDs didn't work. I know Sunday's "60 Minutes" made it sound like Anthony Bosch was supplying miracle candy, but that report was infused with a noticeable lack of thought and skepticism throughout.

The truth is, A-Rod went into the kind of rapid decline and injury rate one should expect of even a talented athlete in his late 30s. Indeed, considering how high his production was in his prime, his decline might be even more rapid than one should expect.

Home run champion? The man hasn't slugged .500 since the summer he met Bosch.

Aid recovery? That was a nice hip surgery he had last year. It matched the one he had in 2009.

The Anti-Doping Agency has a self-serving reason to sound alarmed. Guys like Bosch are its reason for existence. But really, the foes of performance enhancers should be trumpeting the failure of this "sophisticated" approach to chemical enhancement, not talking it up.