How did he end up on the Mariners all of a sudden?

=)

I feel that there may be a connection between how much a player can monetarily afford to spend on performance enhancers and the likelihood of them getting caught (aside from Palmeiro). And there seems to be a disproportionate number of Latin American players among those who failed the test. Are they getting products of a lesser quality?

As you can tell, I'm fairly convinced that there are far more players using than are getting caught.

There's an unbelievably large incentive for young players, especially Latin American players from countries far poorer than the US, to use performance-enhancing drugs. It comes down to a risk-reward sensibility, doesn't it?

The risk of getting caught is, despite the "strict guidelines" in place, still not so high, and just one month's major league service is about the equivalent of two years' salary for many of these guys in another industry. Why not do it?

Salas isn't an older marginal relief pitcher. He's a converted position player who didn't start pitching until 2004 and dominated the minor leagues last year. He has legitimate stuff with a low to mid 90s cutter being his best pitch.

http://thebaseballcube.com/players/S/Juan-Salas.shtml