I don't think it's steroids as much as bat speed. Read this on Usenet last year -- while he was a more effective hitter OPS-wise then than Jeff Francouer is now, by the way -- and it seems to sum it up pretty well for me:
Quote:
The obvious answer is bat speed. Andruw was always a grip it and rip hitter. He always sat fastball and flailed at breaking pitches, never
really identifying them very well. In his prime, that was plenty good
enough as he could wait longer on the fastball and at least manage to
foul off the breaking stuff on occasion. But if he's lost a tick on
the bat speed he has to guess that much earlier, start his swing that
much earlier, and thus flail and miss that much more often. Not sure
if that's what's happened or not, but it explains the phenomenon well
enough.
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As to what caused him to lose the bat speed....well, obvious candidates include the weight and injury. I've never heard this anywhere credible, but it would explain a lot of things if Andruw is actually two or three years older than what it says on his birth certificate.
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