Do you remember the big scandal in Major League Baseball this summer? As many as a dozen players were suspended for ties with a company called Biogenesis, the implication being that the players were taking Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Back in August I wrote about how the issue will continue because it is not being considered a team AND player problem. Here is another example of what I meant. One of the players suspended for 50 games was Jhonny Peralta, and over the weekend he signed a new contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, reportedly for more than $50 million.

I understand those who claim that Peralta served his penalty and therefore ought to be able to sign any contract that the market will bear. Peralta is certainly within his rights to seek whatever contract value he desires. My point is that clearly the penalties in place are not a deterent.

PED use will continue in professional sports so long as there not a sufficient reason not to use them. The problem that I see is that being caught using PEDs is becoming too accepted by all parts of baseball. While the commissioner and MLB can put on a big show about doing something, and really, isn't the whole A-Rod thing just a big show, in reality nothing is truly being done.

If you really want to stop PEDs then teams and players both need to have consequences that matter. A player caught should lose their free agency rights for at least a year, a team who has a player caught should lose the right to sign free agents for a year.