Given his bizarre career path Mora is a very good guy to look at and ask, did he use the juice? He was signed by the Houston Astros and began his minor league career as a 20 year old in 1992. As you can see by his career path, he toiled for a long time in the minors. He was the quintessential light hitting infielder in the minors. His minor league season high in home runs was 8.
He made it to AAA by late 1995 and there he pretty much stalled. After SIX years as an Astro minor leaguer he was granted free agent status and signed with the Taiwan Mercury in 1998. Not exactly a guy on the fast track to All Star status.
Then the Mets came calling. He came back from Taiwan and in 1999 made his major league debut, mostly as a defensive replacement, appearing in 66 games but only logging 31 at bats. In 2000 he played pretty regularly for the Mets, replacing the offensive black hole that was Rey Ordonez. He hit a surprising 6 HR in the 79 games he played for the Mets and was shipped off mid-season to the Orioles as part of a package for Mike Bordick. He played in 128 games all over the field for the Orioles in 2001 and hit 7 HR. Also, in July 2001, his wife gave birth to quintuplets, three girls and two boys.
Let's stop and take stock of Melvin Mora at the end of 2001. He was turning 30 in February of 2002. He'd bounced around the minors for 8 years before appearing in the majors. His family had just expanded from 2 to 7 people. His yearly HR totals as a professional had gone as follows: 0, 2, 8, 3, 8, 2, 3, 8, 8, 7. He'd made $270,000 in 2001 and was going to make $350,000 in 2002. Did he look at those babies and decide to dabble in PEDs, hoping to increase his production and therefore, his pay? Yeah, I think he probably did. Light hitting journeyman infielders don't suddenly becomes stars when they turn 30.
In 2002 Mora hit 19 HR with a paltry .233 average. Seems like a guy who'd just packed on some muscle and was swinging from his heels. It got him a raise to 1.75 mil though. 2003 was an injury shortened year, he only played in 96 games, but Mora still hit 15 HR. His batting average jumped up to .317. Seems like he adjusted to the newfound strength (Obviously, this is all conjecture).
It all came together in 2004. Mora was no longer used as a utility guy, settling in at third base. He hit .340 that season, along with 27 (!) HR. He followed that up with 27 more in 2005, 16 in 2006, and 12 so far this year.
As I said, this is all conjecture. Judging by his huge jumps up in batting average, he clearly figured something out and became a much better hitter. Maybe the birth of those kids focused him on maximizing him potential. He's now made 20 mill in his career so his family is set. But did part of that newfound focus include talking to his teammate Brady Anderson (a much suspected user, given his random 50 HR season) about a way to gain some strength? We can't know for sure, but the track record is pretty damning. Again, here's the career HR totals, including after his explosion: 0, 2, 8, 3, 8, 2, 3, 8, 8, 7, 19, 15, 27, 27, 16, 12 (so far). Something seems fishy to me, how about you?
Verdict: Probably Guilty
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