Spring approaches! Baseball fans, you know what that means? Mandatory drug testing. Under baseball's anti-doping rules, every player must undergo doping testing within five days of reporting to spring training.

Baseball has a reasonably good anti-doping program (ESPN has given the program a grade of B+). But the program has some weak points. The drug testing scheduled for spring training is one of these weak points, because scheduled drug testing is pretty much a waste of time.

BALCO lab founder Victor Conte puts it this way: When baseball schedules an anti-doping test in advance, this is not drug testing. This is "IQ testing." Because a baseball player would have to be careless, or dumb, or something (we're looking at you, Manny Ramirez) to fail a doping test scheduled in advance. To beat the scheduled test, all a doping player needs to do is stop doping for the week or two prior to the test.

To develop a smarter anti-doping program, baseball should take Conte's advice. Conte spent years helping top athletes beat the anti-doping tests. Now, Conte is giving advice to the testers.

Here are two rules for more effective drug testing, straight from Mr. Conte. First, doping tests should occur at random. A scheduled test deters players from doping prior to the test. Random testing deters doping all year round.

Second, tests should be timed so that they're most likely to detect doping. For example, HGH is most often used at night, before bed. So the anti-doping forces should test for HGH in the middle of the night, if they can get away with it. Otherwise, the tests should be performed first thing in the morning. Baseball is testing minor leaguers for HGH after a game is over.

Not smart.

Consider anabolic steroids. A baseball player is most likely to use anabolic steroids during the offseason, when he has both the time to complete a cycle or two of steroids use and the ability to engage in the physical training necessary to get the most from these drugs. But baseball focuses its drug testing during the regular season. During the regular season, each player is tested at least twice, once during spring training and a second time at random. Baseball can perform up to 1,200 additional random drug tests per year, but baseball's Joint Drug Agreement limits the number of offseason tests to about 125 per year. That leaves the odds of any player being tested during the offseason at only 10 percent.

Not smart.

Baseball is proud that only two major leaguers were suspended last year for failed doping tests: One suspension was for use of an anabolic steroid, and the second was for use of an "anti-estrogen" associated with anabolic steroid use. (Another 15 players tested positive for amphetamines during 2010, but per baseball's anti-doping policy, players are not suspended or publicly identified the first time they test positive for amphetamines.) Two suspensions out of 1,200 players tested might mean that baseball's anti-doping program has done what it was supposed to do, that the program has effectively discouraged players from using performance-enhancing drugs. Or it might mean that the program is not doing its job, and that the players who are determined to dope have figured out how to "duck and dodge" the doping tests.

Since we don't know what to make of the small number of players suspended under baseball's anti-doping program, my recommendation is to ignore the number and listen to Victor Conte. In 2011, baseball's collective bargaining agreement is up for renegotiation, and so is baseball's anti-doping program. This program should be revised to provide for more random drug-testing, particularly during the offseason. (There are other improvements that can be made to this program, and we'll address these improvements as the year goes on.)

Part 2: "Excuses, Excuses."

Larry Behrendt is a regular contributor to "It's About The Money" and can be followed on Twitter. IIATMS can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.