Tulsa Drillers pitcher among 11 minor league players suspended over steroids policy

Thursday, May 12th 2005, 11:14 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Colorado minor league pitcher Christian Parker, who is now with the Tulsa Drillers, and Chicago White Sox utilityman Jorge Toca were among 11 players given 15-game suspensions Thursday for violating baseball's minor league steroids policy.

59 players have been suspended this year for violating the minor league program. Five players have been given 10-day penalties for violating the major league program.

Parker, a former New York Yankees prospect, is 3-1 with a 1.41 ERA in seven starts this season for AA Tulsa.

The 29-year-old right-hander has played in one major league game, giving up seven runs and eight hits in three-plus innings during the Yankees' 13-4 loss to Toronto on April 6, 2001. Parker, who allowed home runs to Carlos Delgado and Jose Cruz Jr., went on the disabled list with shoulder stiffness and didn't pitch in another game until April 2003, when he was with the Yankees' A Tampa farm team.

He spent part of 2003 and 2004 in the minor league system of the Montreal Expos, who originally selected him in the fourth round of the 1996 amateur draft, then signed a minor league contract with the Rockies on Feb. 9.

Toca, 30, is hitting .273 with eight homers and 19 RBIs with AAA Charlotte. He appeared in 25 games with the New York Mets over the 1999-2001 seasons, hitting .259 with no homers and 32 RBIs in 175 at-bats while playing first base and left field.

Toca split 2004 with Cancun in the Mexican League, Montreal's AAA team at Edmonton and Detroit's Triple-A team at Toledo. He signed a minor league contract with the White Sox on Jan. 4 and spent part of spring training in Chicago's major league camp.

Also suspended were Robert Valido of the White Sox, Jonathan Herrera of Colorado, Steven Smyth of Oakland, and Briane Mazone, Oscar Montero and Guillermo Rodriguez of San Francisco. Three players who already have been released also were suspended: Tetsu Yofu of the White Sox, Marcos Mendoza of the Rockies and Joshua Cram of the Giants.

Giants general manager Brian Sabean and David Wilder, the White Sox director of player development, said they were disappointed.

``I hope that today's announcement will send a message that the use of performance enhancing drugs is unacceptable and that major league baseball is serious about removing them from our game,'' Sabean said.

Wilder said the White Sox support the drug testing program because it's ``in the best interests of the game.

``There is no place for performance-enhancing drugs in baseball,'' he said.