The Director of Player Development for the San Francisco Giants was the guest on "Down On The Farm Friday with John Sickels". The first player that Mr. Sickels and Fred Stanley spoke about was rookie SS Brian Bocock. There is little to add that Bocock's hitting stats don't already say. However, Stanley did say the Giants are only looking for a Mark Belanger-esque contribution from Bocock - excellent fielding and any gravy his hitting can give. Fred Stanley did preface that by wondering what happened to the days when that was all a SS had to give.
On Baseball Prospectus Radio, Will Carroll spoke with Eric Walker of Steroids-and-Baseball.com, who stridently believes there is nothing to steroids helping players. The "twin" study control are the Canseco brothers, Ozzie and Jose. FWIW, Mr. Walker couldn't care any less about the righteousness of the PED crusaders.
Through Saturday, the AL SLG was .398, and the NL was .409. It was .423 in both leagues in 2007, which was down from .437 and .427 in 2006. Something dramatic looks to be happening in the AL, doesn't it? (Given the NL must hit the pitcher and his almost-as-weak pinch-hitter sister, I wouldn't be surrpised to see that as a systematic tamp on that league's SLG.)
AL SLG*:
2008= .398
2007= .423
2006= .437
2005= .424
2004= .433
2003= .428
2002= .424
2001= .428
2000= .443
1999= .439
1998= .432
*From Baseball Prospectus
Does Eric Walker's adamancy conflict with the Old School weakness of SS and the post-PED testing decrease in SLG?