It was announced yesterday that Donnie Sadler has been suspended fifty games for testing positive for a "drug of abuse." The drug is, of course, not named, and with a player of Sadler's fame and ability (i.e. there's little of either), there's not likely to be any follow up to get out into the public what the drug was. You have to guess it's mostly likely something like marijuana or cocaine, though. The question then becomes whether fifty games is a little bit harsh for getting caught with one of those drugs. If Sadler has a problem, then isn't getting him into treatment a healthier alternative than just sending him home? And if it something like marijuana, then fifty games seems particularly harsh.

Googling around for more information on this, I saw that Sadler was far from the first minor leaguer to get caught under the "drug of abuse" rubric. Sadler was the first I'd heard of, though, which tells you the level of publicity this program is getting. That shouldn't surprise anyone - the level of outrage about drugs in baseball doesn't seem to me to be as high as some would like to claim it is.