Were the Ms on the Juice?

Steroids in baseball, yeah yeah, it's been hashed, rehashed, etc., etc., ad-friggin-nauseam.

Even recent reports linking Manny Ramirez, the epitome of the tenured "pure hitter" to steroids, have surfaced.

It's made me wonder: Were any of the Ms of the glory days of the early 2000s and beyond on the juice? You can't deny for a while there, players were having career years that were unmatched in prior and post years, and these teams could hit the long ball in a park that was considered a marine-air pitcher's dream.

The thought made me go back and look at some key player stats from those years. Now mind you, this is all speculative.

First off, significant Mariners already named in the Mitchell Report:

- Jose Guillen
- Ron Villone
- Ryan Franklin
- David Bell

All players that had career seasons with the Mariners and stand out when you look at their career stats.

And think about who was playing at the absolute prime of their career and had career seasons in or around 2001-04:

- Brett Boone: 2001-04, had home run totals of 37, 24, 35, and 24. The four years prior: 7, 24, 20 and 19.
- Joel Piniero: Good friend of Franklin's, 14 wins in 2002, 16 in 2003, with career strikeout highs in both years, hasn't won over 8 games in a season since.
- Mike Cameron: 25 HR, 110 RBI, 34 SB in 2001, hasn't cracked 83 RBIs or more than 25 SB in a season since.
- Adrian Beltre: .334 48 HR, 121 RBI in 2004 and the 2007 season was his best since then at .276, 26 and 99.

And let's not forget the admission from Mike Morse. In fact, I'd venture to say steroids were more prevalent in the minors because those guys are willing to do anything to get into the show when they're not under the microscope.

All MLB teams were juicing to some extent during those years. Those fans who feel the beloved Mariners were "too good of guys" to be juicing may want to think twice.