Afternoon Baseball

Baseball Musings has a very good point about an argument cited in the book from the SF Chronicle guys -- that Bonds' rapid weight gain (muscle, almost exclusively) in his mid-30s was undoubtedly a result of steroid use. It sounds reasonable enough, right? 15 pounds in 100 days is ridiculous on a man who is already in excellent shape. But.....

It's being reported that Jason Schmidt gained 20 pounds of muscle this winter, as David Pinto points out. So what's the deal with that? The comments provide some good insight, but again, the public remains in the dark when it comes to a definitive answer.

I don't have an answer for you, just reactions, other than that the case against Bonds, unless there's a photo, video or a confession, is going to be the sum of a million pieces, not circumstantial evidence taken singularly.
For one thing, this case (and the Schmidt counter-example) shows us that if we're having so difficult of a time determining this case, imagine the work that prosecutors have to go through to get convictions on murders, or even more complicated, white-collar executive crime.