Tampa Bay Prospect Is Suspended for 50 Games

Tampa Bay prospect Delmon Young was suspended for 50 games without pay Tuesday by the International League for throwing a bat that hit a replacement umpire in the chest on April 26.

League President Randy Mobley said he believed the suspension was the longest in the league’s 123-year history.

Young was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 draft out of Camarillo High and was chosen the 2005 minor league player of the year by Baseball America. His brother is Dmitri Young of the Detroit Tigers.

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Major league players can scrap the sport’s toughened drug rules if they don’t have a new labor contract by August, a provision drawing attention from congressmen who pushed for the strengthened policy.

If players and owners don’t agree to a new labor contract by Aug. 1, the union has until Aug. 15 to unilaterally end the new drug policy as of Dec. 19, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires.

If players terminate the new policy and the sides play 2007 without a labor contract, the 2005 drug rules would be in effect.

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San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating leaks from the secret testimony of Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others in the BALCO scandal, could be fined and jailed until they divulge their sources, or sentenced to a fixed term for contempt.

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St. Louis Cardinal right-hander Sidney Ponson was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained muscle in his right elbow.... The New York Yankees put outfielder Gary Sheffield on the 15-day disabled list because of a sprained left wrist.... Milwaukee Brewer pitcher Ben Sheets will be put on the 15-day disabled list because of tendinitis in his right shoulder.