Bronson Arroyo openly takes many different supplements, some of them are banned by MLB. "I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I'm out of (my) mind because I'm taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list," Arroyo says. "I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there's four more things. There's a caffeine drink I take from a company that (former teammate) Curt Schilling introduced me to in '05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven't failed any tests, so I figured I'm good." Arroyo is the first player to flout aspects of baseball's drug policy and talk candidly about seeking an edge on the field with the supplements and vitamins he takes off of it. "I do what I want to do and say what I want to say," says Arroyo, who will make $9.5 million this season as part of a contract scheduled to pay him more than $38 million from 2006 to 2011. "But society has made this such a tainted thing. The media has made it where people look at it in such a super-negative light. I've always been honest. I'm not going to stop now." Arroyo, 6-4 and 194 pounds, says he had trouble gaining weight and strength early in his career. That changed in 1998 when he discovered androstenedione, a steroid precursor that gained national prominence as McGwire, an admitted user, blasted his way to the single-season record of 70 home runs. Arroyo says he took "andro" until it was banned in 2004. "Man, I didn't think twice about it," says Arroyo, who started taking supplements at age 5, according to his father, Gus. "I took androstenedione the same way I took my multivitamins. I didn't really know if this was a genius move by Mark McGwire to cover up the real s?- he was taking, but it made me feel unbelievable. I felt like a monster."