Penalties for steroid use in baseball

Congress is holding hearings this week on steroid usage in baseball and seems concerned that baseball's new policy doesn't have stiff enough penalties to deter players from using steroids. While I think most congressmen are self-promoting fools and these hearings are a sham, I will agree that professional ballplayers have different motivations than the rest of us. Threaten me with a ten thousand dollar fine and you will modify my behavior rather quickly. My guess is ten thousand dollars has less importance to Jim Thome and his 17 million dollar a year contract. Chris at A Large Regular has an innovative answer to the question of what penalty would be stiff enough to influence players. The only problem is his plan fails to account for the Royals, Devil Rays, Rockies or Pirates.