Talking Sports: October contenders reaping rewards of offseason risks

Back track to November of 2013 for a minute.

Remember when Nelson Cruz and Jhonny Peralta were considered two of the best free agent bats on the Major League Baseball market?

Do you remember how much you heard ESPN and baseball insiders tell you that being guilty (allegedly – because it still hasn’t been proven by a drug test) of using performance-enhancing drugs would frighten many potentially suitable teams away from them? There was an overlying stigma that both Cruz and Peralta’s numbers would drop considerably because they were “off the juice.”

Well, it took a while – late January or so –...