Baseball’s steroid problem has been exposed. Testing has become more stringent and an even tougher policy looms on the horizon.

But there is still so much about baseball and steroids that we don’t understand or haven’t had time to fully consider yet.

Take, for example, a point made by Oakland A’s third baseman Eric Chavez.

“Unfortunately, illegal substances have come into the game and tainted the numbers and the levels of expectations have jumped,” Chavez said. “For those of us who participate cleanly, it’s unrealistic. It’s unfair.”

Numbers are the language of baseball but those numbers have become bloated during the Steroid Era. Chavez’s question is this: Is it fair, then, to measure current players against those distorted statistics?

The A’s third baseman is off to his typical slow start. It’s been his modus operandi for the past five years. He has started slow but has still finished the season averaging 30 home runs and 97 RBI during that span.

Those numbers, coupled with his four consecutive Gold Glove Awards, put him in elite company among third baseman in baseball history.

Simply put, the man is quietly building Hall of Fame credentials.

But there has always been a perception that Chavez hasn’t done enough. His talent is so obvious — his hands so quick and that left-handed swing so sweet — that people keep waiting for that “breakthrough” season — .300 batting average, 40 home runs and 120 RBI.

“Certain standards have been set that are unrealistic,” Chavez said. “It’s not worth it to me to take it to the next level.”

Chavez could’ve taken steroids. He didn’t. It isn’t that he chose not to so much as steroids came and went without him even being aware of it.

He admits he was naïve. He didn’t even realize friend and mentor Jason Giambi was using performance-enhancing drugs when he was playing for the A’s.

“I can’t even say I was suspicious of him because I wasn’t,” he said. “It wasn’t even a thought in my mind.”

Numbers are so important to baseball because they allow us to compare players from different eras. Sometimes those comparisons are awkward.

If power hitters in this post-steroid era fail to put up the kind of numbers common during the past decade, for example, will they be considered inferior? The answer to that question could impact a generation of players who are now, like Chavez, just stepping into their primes.

Scouts begin projecting numbers on prospects from the first day they evaluate them. Media members, often parroting baseball insiders, talk about how so-and-so is capable of hitting 40 homers with 120 RBI.

But how reasonable is that now that the steroid orgy is over?

The game is cleaning itself up. As a result, we may need to lower our expectations. The boom is over. Baseball is no longer a steroid-fueled cartoon.

It’s not as if the home runs will disappear. Players have gotten bigger and stronger, bats lighter, ballparks smaller. But maybe now the pendulum will swing back to the days when 30 was a magic number for home runs.

Maybe then players such as Chavez won’t feel as if they are being held up to an unfair standard.

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