Anticipating the Mitchell Report

Howard Bryant has a lengthy and detailed (albeit anonymously sourced) story at espn.com about the soon-to-be-released Mitchell Report and the various problems and intrigues that have confounded the now-20-month-old investigation. The article describes, among other things, pressure from MLB and the investigative team on GMs, trainers, strength coaches, and clubhouse managers to speculate as to possible steroid users. It also contains information suggesting that the investigators were unprepared to ask more than surface questions and did not know enough about the day-to-day life of professional baseball to ask the kinds of questions that would draw out meaningful information. Finally, there is a sense of competing views of the purpose of the report: While Mitchell's team seems to want to name names and expose past wrongdoing, many of the team employees and executives interviewed were hoping for a more remedial, forward-looking report on how to get steroids out of the game going forward. See also the sidebar Q & A with Lester Munson.

Whatever it says, the Report will have a lot of people talking.

Update: 9 p.m. C.S.T.:

A good story from John Donovan at cnn.si discussing what people in baseball are expecting. Donovan reports that only two active players--Jason Giambi and an unnamed player--spoke with investigators. The report also relies heavily on testimony from former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski.

This story says that MLB received a draft of the report earlier Tuesday and release is expected on Thursday. It also reports that 60-80 current and former players are named, most off Radomski's testimony.

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