Yesterday it was announced that Seattle Mariners 2nd baseman Robinson Cano was suspended for 80 games after failing an off season drug test.
Cano tested positive for Furosemide which is a diuretic and is not considered a banned substance by Major League Baseball. Furosemide however is often used as a masking agent for performance enhancing drugs. It was determined that Cano’s use of Furosemide was as a masking agent and that’s why he was suspended.
Cano had filed an appeal, but decided to drop the appeal last week.
Cano’s suspension begins immediately even though he is currently on the disabled list with a fractured right hand. Cano had surgery on the hand yesterday and was expected to be out up to 8 weeks, but with the suspension he’ll be away from the team for a longer period of time.
Not only will Cano miss 80 games with this suspension, but he’ll forfeit his salary for those 80 games. Cano will lose just about $12 million dollars over that time. Besides the games and the money Cano will not be eligible for post season play if the Mariners get into the playoffs this season.
This is Cano’s 14th season at the major league level and appeared to be building a Hall of Fame candidacy. How will this suspension affect his Hall of Fame chances?
Cano was off to a solid start with the Mariners this season. In 39 games he was hitting .287 with 4 home runs and 23 RBI’s. Now over his career Cano has amassed 2417 hits and looks to be on track to reach that coveted 3000 hit plateau. Cano has a career batting average of .304 with 305 home runs and 1206 RBI’s. Again though will any of these numbers matter when Cano’s name finally hits the Hall of Fame ballot.
As for the Mariners, they’ll have to figure out how to replace Cano in their line up. Gordon Beckham was promoted from Triple-A to take Cano’s roster spot and is expected to share playing time at 2nd base with Andrew Romine. Of course the Mariners have Dee Gordon on their roster. Gordon has been playing centerfield for Seattle and at first the team said that Gordon wouldn’t be brought back into the infield while Cano was out. Yesterday though there where some reports that the Mariners said Gordon would see “some time” at 2nd base while Cano was out. Gordon would need some time to adjust to being a 2nd baseman again as he hasn’t taken a ground ball in the infield since he was acquired by the Mariners.
The Mariners are currently 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot; so maybe instead of shuffling their own players around they’ll look into the possibility of a trade. Mariners general manager Jerry DiPoto hasn’t been afraid to pull the trigger on deals before; so we’ll have to see if that’s the route the Mariners go.
How do you think the Mariners will do without Robinson Cano for 80 games?
The Boston Celtics took a 2-0 lead in their series with the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 107-94 win in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference finals series last night.
The Celtics may have gotten a Game 2 win, but LeBron James did everything he could to get Cleveland that win James put up a triple-double in the loss scoring 42 points handing out 12 assists and grabbing 10 rebounds. James scored 21 of the Cavaliers 27 1st quarter points. With 21 points in a quarter, James tied his career high for points in a quarter. With those 42 points on the night it was the 5th time this post season that James has score 40 or more points in a game.
James left the game with 3:50 left in the 2nd quarter after a collision with Boston’s Jayson Tatum. There was a foul called on Tatum after the collision and James hit both of the free throws before heading to the Cavaliers locker room for treatment.
After the game James was asked if he had been checked for a concussion as Tatum’s left shoulder hit James jaw and head. James mentioned he was checked for a variety of things and cleared all tests nd was allowed to return to the game.
James went 9 of 15 after the collision with Tatum, but the game really turned the Celtics way after the two players collided. Boston ended up out scoring Cleveland by 24 points after the Tatum/James collision to go on to the 107-9 win and take that 2-0 lead in the series.
The Eastern Conference finals take a couple days off as the series heads to Cleveland for games 3 and 4. Game 3 is scheduled to tip-off at Quicken Loans Arena on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
The NBA also held it’s Draft Lottery last night and a couple of teams where able to improve their draft position.
The Phoenix Suns had the best chance at getting the #1 pick in the draft and they did get the #1 overall pick last night. Now the Sacramento Kings had a 18.3% chance of moving into the Top 3 of the draft, but they managed to move up to the #2 pick. The Atlanta Hawks where already sitting at #4 and had a 42.3% chance to move into the Top 3 ad they did just that. The Hawks where able to jump up one spot and now have the 3rd pick in the draft.
Of course if teams moved up well then teams had to move down. The Memphis Grizzles and the Dallas Mavericks each dropped two spots in the draft. Memphis fell to 4 while Dallas fell to 5. The Orlando Magic and the Chicago Bulls each lost a spot in the draft order as well. The Magic fell to 6 while the Bulls fell to 7 in the draft order.
Here’s how the Draft Lottery ended up shuffling out.
#1 Phoenix Suns
#2 Sacramento Kings
#3 Atlanta Hawks
#4 Memphis Grizzlies
#5 Dallas Mavericks
#6 Orlando Magic
#7 Chicago Bulls
#8 Cleveland Cavaliers from the Brooklyn Nets
#9 New York Knicks
#10 Philadelphia 76ers from the Los Angeles Lakers
#11 Charlotte Hornets
#12 Los Angeles Clippers from the Detroit Pistons
#13 Los Angeles Clippers
#14 Denver Nuggets
That’s how it shook out; so now all of the mock drafts can start.
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