Young Stud Caught; Suspended 50 games

Edison Volquez of the Cincinnati Reds tested positive for a male fertility drug that is banned by MLB and helps increase levels of testosterone. The 26 year old right-hander will have to wait even longer after his Tommy-John surgery recuperation. Volquez admitted to using the drug claiming that he and his wife used it in order to try and start a family.

A highly touted prospect of the Texas Rangers system, was traded to Cincinnati for young power hitter Josh Hamilton.

What does this mean for the MLB moving forward? Stars, Sluggers, Pitchers, Youngsters...when it comes to using illegal substances there really isn't a particular "steroid look". Although the more famous players to have been high publicized for their use of steroids are generally very large and strong men, there are many other players like Volquez who are failing these drug tests, often citing reasons other than to increase their baseball performance, as to why they took the drug.

Doctor with Ties to MLB Steroids Arrested

Dr. Douglas Nagel of Virginia was arrested for his ties with MLB and NHL Teams and players and his distribution of anabolic steroids. The Polk County Sherriff's Department will begin to quesiton Washington Capital hockey players on the issue, which will undoubtedly spread to MLB players as well

In recent news involving the MLB directly,Carlos Beltran has been questioned as part of the federal investigation of Dr. Anthony Galea. Galea was arrested in the winter for the use of illegal drugs. He has links to several MLB players including Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran.

These arrests could eventually be detrminental to the secrecy of the MLB and its players. During these investigations the criminals will release any and all information in order to lessen their sentence. Through this manner the steroid scandal crisis will evolve.

Back in the Forefront

In an article written by Buster Olney of ESPN.com, he describes how Major League Baseball will begin testing for HGH (human growth hormones) in its minor leagues.

This can potentially lead to HGH testing in the major leagues sooner or later. In the past, commissioner Bud Selig (photo above)has used the minor leagues as sort of a guinea pig to test out his plans that he hopes to implement on the major leagues. Selig has been very consistent with his outlook and strategy to rid the game of as many performance enhancing drugs that he is able to. He has been very visible and has not hid his opinions on the matter of this crisis the MLB is continuing to deal with.

It seems like every other month superstars of the game, both current and past are coming out admitting to using these performance enhancing drugs...we'll take a closer look at these players and the media they attracted to the sport.

Strategic Planning and Assessing Crisis Vulnerability

Our senior seminar class text, Crisis Management in the New Strategy Landscape, by William "Rick" Crandall, John A. Parnell and John E. Spillan, clearly identifies that a business should properly evaluate their organization based on their company practices. The book identifies five steps:

1. External Analysis
2. Internal Analysis
3. Strategy Formation
4. Strategy Execution
5. Strategic Control

In short, the five steps suggest that the organization assess any opportunities, strengths, weaknesses and threats they face in their organization macro-environment as well as their internal environment. From there the organization must take these and match the internal with the external. From there, put a strategy into practice and properly adjust this when necessary.

Often this type of strategic process is referred to as a SWOT analysis. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

With keeping brevity in mind, I want to take a look into how crises play an affect on the MLB and its own SWOT analysis. Crises can be a weakness and a threat. For instance, 20 years ago, there threat of the public viewing performance enhancing drugs as bad and a weakness of the MLB not having any rules against them. However today, the situation with performance enhancing drugs could be considered both. As a weakness, its internal players are the ones actually using the drugs. However, as a threat is the media and their coverage of the scandal as well as information leaking to media outlets that aren't necessarily needing to know.

Do YOU think that 20 years ago the MLB thought that steroids factored into their SWOT analysis at all?