Curaçao Neptunus duo banned for four years

Dutch baseball magazine Fastball Magazine announced today that Urving Kemp and Christian Diaz will be banned for four years after testing positive for PED use. Last summer both players were caught.

After both players were caught, they were banned temporarily. The KNBSB (Dutch Royal Baseball and Softball Federation) gave the two cases to the I.S.R. (institution for sports jurisdiction). This institution came up with the verdict of four years.
According to the chairman of the KNBSB, Bart Volkerijk, four years is the minimum in cases like this, based on doping rules (which is not quite true since two years would have been another possibility. 

Both Christian Diaz and Urving Kemp always said they have been the victicm of “dirty” supplements.

Neptunus chairman Geoffrey Kohl thinks the punishment is very harsh. He states that rules must be followed, though. But when you compare these two cases with cases in other sports, four years is rather high.

Manager Ronald Jaarsma also thinks four years is way too much in comparison with other sports. Professional cyclists can start cycling after two years. And those guys are pros. In the Netherlands, baseball is still an amateur sport. Especially when you know that Kemp and Diaz have never tested positive before, this verdict is beyond reasonableness.

As far as Ronald Jaarsma knows, only Christian Diaz will appeal. Urving Kemp seems to accept the verdict.

No need to say that this verdict is a big blow for Curaçao Neptunus. It seems the club has been anticipating after both players tested positive since the club acquired Melvin Perdue as their third outfielder. For depth in the outfield, Neptunus may use Gianison Boekhoudt as their fourth outfielder. Another possibility is to get a player from Neptunus’ farm team Tridents.