Recover faster? Yes. Stay healthy longer? I am skeptical about that. There is overwhelming evidence to the contrary in fact. Players and anyone who used steroids seem to get hurt earlier in their careers, go on the decline faster and more often because their body starts to break down. I know bonds played until he was older as did clemens but both of them have dealt with their fair share of health problems as well. i can see if you said that roids helps you play better when you are older but I really doubt that it helps you stay healthier as you age, I will try to see what i can find out about that and get back to you but all of the available facts seem to contradict that sentiment. And even if one were to assume that roids helps you stay healthy and these guys health problems came as a result of cycling off them i could certainly buy that but then, what does that have to do with arod? And further, arod was 26, 27 and 28 I believe when he was using on texas. Was he really that likely to get injured on roids or not?

Finally, arod had over 600 at bats all three seasons on the rangers. I think it is safe to say he did not need the roids to recover faster from any sort of injury during that time to gain an edge as he did not have any. I really think that the roids only helped him marginally if at all as he was the best player in the game in his prime already. he didnt become a monster on texas. He hit a few more homeruns in a right handed power hitter friendly Arlington Park.

His homerun total was probably more impacted by the park factor than the roids. The only thing I see in his numbers that really do look like they may have been caused by the roids was his 2004 season and the year after he claims he came off them. The stats reflect that notion very well as that was the worst season he had gone through since 1997 after six straight years of sustained excellence he came back down to earth a bit. He actually put up similar numbers last year though so it may have just been his difficult times adjusting to NY and the pressure as well. There is just no solid proof anywhere when looking through his numbers that steroids gave him any sort of help padding his stats.