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Originally Posted by jbergey22
Bonds, ARod, McGwire, Caminiti, Canseco, Justice, Morse, Peralta, M Ramirez, M Vaughn, R White.
This is just a list off the top of my head of users who seemed to miss a lot of games. Many of these guys went from "ironman" to fragile. In my opinion it is from the nagging, none serious muscle strain type injuries. I believe Palmeiro was a DH a large amount during the end of his career.
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You're absolutely right. Almost all the guys you named had injury problems while using. However I see where four of them probably saw more playing time because of steroids. Also Raffy played 1B almost exclusively until he began his second stint in Texas in '99.
Here's what I found about those four guys I mentioned...
McGwire never played more games in a 3-year span than from 1997-99
Justice always dealt with injuries, but the 6-year stretch he played the most games were his last 6
A-Rod admitted to using from 2001-03. He played 162, 162, 161 those years - his only such streak.
Manny always had injury problems but his best three year stretch of games was 2003-05 (age 31-33) playing 154, 152, 152.
I agree 100% that steroids CAN lead to nagging injuries in some guys. But I'm seeing where guys play just as often, and some cases more often, while using. In fact Tejada, Palmeiro, and Rodriguez were able to play every game in seasons they used.
Based on what I've found, I feel safe saying that Ripken could have continued his streak on steroids and they could have actually helped prolong his streak.