Victor Conte said it should be viewed as nothing more than a PR move by MLB.
Don Catlin is a scientist who has worked to develop a urine test for human growth hormone for years. He says the new HGH blood testing in the minors can only detect HGH for up to 12 hours after injection, sometimes for less than 6. In the years the test has been used internationally, only one player has tested positive.
“The fact that it’s been around for a few thousand tests and only one positive suggests that either there’s much less growth hormone being used than we thought, which is doubtful, or the period of detectability is really pretty short—a few hours. It’s probably the latter,” said Catlin.
Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president of labor relations, said baseball was taking whatever steps it could. “We are using the best available technology for the detection of HGH.”
Gary Wadler, who leads the World Anti-Doping Agency committee that determines the banned-substances list, said any test is better than none.
“It’s not the kind of drug you take once and now you get tested weeks later, it’s gone,” he said. “Sure, it will be gone. But that’s not how you use it. You use it, you basically take it every day. So the detection window becomes less important in something you take on a regular basis.”
In the end, whether the tests works or not, the MLB hopes it at least serves as a deterent to players thinking about using PEDs.
