Brewers top '06 draft pick suspended

[crkone]

Right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, the Brewers' first-round draft pick in 2006, has been suspended for 50 games for using a drug of abuse in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Jeffress, 19, will serve the first few days of the suspension this week before Class A West Virginia's season comes to an end. The suspension then will carry over to next season.

When players are suspended at both the major league and minor league levels, the particular drug being used is not revealed. Players are tested for performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids and amphetamines, as well as drugs "of abuse," such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin released this statement: "The Milwaukee Brewers support Major League Baseball's drug program and its decision to suspend Jeremy Jeffress. The organization takes these matters very seriously and we are in the process of formulating a plan in hopes that Jeremy can redeem himself. Jeremy will be provided every opportunity to get his career back on track through the Brewers' Employee Assistance Program."

Jeffress was enjoying a big season at West Virginia, going 9-5 with a 3.13 ERA in 18 starts. In 86 1/3 innings, he allowed 62 hits and 44 walks, while logging 95 strikeouts.

Jeffress was taken by the Brewers in the first round of the '06 draft out of South Boston (Va.) High School. He received a $1.55 million signing bonus.

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2007/08/30/brewers-06-top-draft-pick-suspended-for-drug-use.aspx

[livestrong4ever]

damn whats up with all the brewers minor leaguers using ****. Didn't our top catcher prospect in single A ball get caught too.

[Buck You]

Well I didn't see this thread, probably because of the title. But anyway, what a horrible way to start off a career.Don't use s**t, is it really that hard?

[Ayt]

Awesome.

[goirish2107]

sounds like the kid smoked a little pot. its not going to affect his standing with the brewers, so i could care less. it sure ain't gonna affect his fastball

[worthlessBucks]

Brewers' high school, first round pitching prospects don't seem to work out so hot. Let's hope this isn't the start of the end for Jeffress.

[GrandAdmiralDan]

sounds like the kid smoked a little pot. its not going to affect his standing with the brewers, so i could care less. it sure ain't gonna affect his fastball

Do they really hand out 50 game suspensions to someone who "smoked a little pot" ?

I'm not saying I condone smoking pot and I'm not trying to trivialize that offense. In fact, I probably see smoking pot as a more serious offense than many would.

But a 50 game suspension seems more severe than what the punishment would be from MLB for that kind of offense. That leaves me with the impression that it was something more serious than that (amphetamines? steroids?).

Then again, I don't know much about MLB's drug policy and likely there are people here who do (perhaps including goirish) and can clarify this.

[Nowak008]

If you aint cheating you aint tryin.

[Ryan5UW]

Maybe somebody should put a little something something in supplements and give them to Cappy, then call the league on his ass!

[Buck You]

Maybe somebody should put a little something something in supplements and give them to Cappy, then call the league on his ass!

Tell Burnitz to give Crappy what he was using.

[Comet]

Damn. I'm really disappointed in you Jeffress.

[trwi7]

Brewers' high school, first round pitching prospects don't seem to work out so hot. Let's hope this isn't the start of the end for Jeffress.

I'd rather have him be suspended for 50 games than Rogers who I'm not even sure has an arm anymore.

[worthlessBucks]

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I'd rather have him be suspended for 50 games than Rogers who I'm not even sure has an arm anymore.

Yeah Rogers has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur in terms of relevancy, but I was also alluding to the Mike Jones & JM Gold disasters. For a franchise that was desperate for talented pitching prospects at the time, I had so much hope invested in those 2. I could only celebrate Rafael Roque and Scott Karl on the major league level oh so much. It's all unimportant now though, Suppan for 3 more years and 30+ million will make any future pitching worries disappear.



Crackheads.

[trwi7]

Yeah Rogers has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur in terms of relevancy, but I was also alluding to the Mike Jones & JM Gold disasters.

I was going to bring up Jones and Gold but I decided to just go with the most recent case of one of our high school pitchers **** up his arm.

[goirish2107]

[quote="GrandAdmiralDan"][/quote]

well i say just smoked a little pot, as a guess, because they said a "drug of abuse" as opposed to a performance-enhancing drug. theoretically the guy could be a coke-head, but i guess i was just hoping he's a little bit of a stoner, thats no felony, not addicting, etc

[IrishRainbow]

-= original quote snipped =-


Yeah Rogers has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur in terms of relevancy, but I was also alluding to the Mike Jones & JM Gold disasters. For a franchise that was desperate for talented pitching prospects at the time, I had so much hope invested in those 2. I could only celebrate Rafael Roque and Scott Karl on the major league level oh so much. It's all unimportant now though, Suppan for 3 more years and 30+ million will make any future pitching worries disappear.



Crackheads.

And Nueggy...He had a nice looking future. I say that because I'm pretty sure that his game jerseys are fairly rare...so if you ever see one roaming Miller Park, it's me. Actually, it's me (blue) or my fiance (white).

[DanoMac]

-= original quote snipped =-



Do they really hand out 50 game suspensions to someone who "smoked a little pot" ?

I'm not saying I condone smoking pot and I'm not trying to trivialize that offense. In fact, I probably see smoking pot as a more serious offense than many would.

But a 50 game suspension seems more severe than what the punishment would be from MLB for that kind of offense. That leaves me with the impression that it was something more serious than that (amphetamines? steroids?).

Then again, I don't know much about MLB's drug policy and likely there are people here who do (perhaps including goirish) and can clarify this.

It was pot...

[Nowak008]

Hey Dmac I was wondering if u had that Mo Williams sg. I miss it.

[GrandAdmiralDan]

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It was pot...

So he got a 50 game suspension for smoking pot?
Was it a repeat offense?

I still would be surprised if he got a 50 game suspension for a first offense of pot smoking.

[goirish2107]

it would appear that in order to receive a 50 game suspension one of the following would have to occur: 2nd failure to comply with treatment program can get you 25-50, 3rd failure 50-75, first positive steroid test is a 50 gamer, and a 2nd conviction for a prohibited substance can get you 30-90 days.

since again it was termed a 'drug of abuse' we can assume that he didn't get a first positive steroid test. this info comes from this wikipedia link, so take it for what its worth. anyways, seeing as how we never heard of jeffers getting convicted of anything, you could theoretically throw out the third option as well. so this leaves me with the guess that this could be a failure to comply with treatment. however that also sounds wrong.

at any rate, the following are considered drugs of abuse by mlb: ,cocaine, lsd, marijuana, all opiates, ecstasy, ghb, pcp, and ephedra. good news for all the psylocybin lovers in the big leagues.

if anyone else checks out that link and comes up with something different, obviously feel free to correct me.