New York.– So far this year, there have been 37 minor leaguers disciplined for use of performance-enhancing substances. An amazing 32 are natives of the Dominican Republic or Venezuela; the rest are from the United States.

Two major leaguers have been nailed in 2008: Venezuelan Eliezer Alfonzo and Humberto Cota, from Mexico. And those percentages have been similar ever since Major League Baseball began announcing the names of those who test positive in 2005.

Sal Artiaga, the Phillies’ director of Latin-American operations, doesn’t entirely excuse the Spanish-speaking players who have been caught.

"A lot of these guys were in the (Dominican and Venezuelan) summer leagues. They want to grow fast. And a related factor is that, when they get here, they’re generally younger than the guys they’re competing with, most of whom were drafted out of college, so sometimes they look for a shortcut. But there are no shortcuts," he said.