Ryan Braun wins appeal of positive test for PEDs. Gob rejoices, MM still banned

[Chrispy]

ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada & TJ Quinn report: Ryan Braun didn't argue evidence of tampering or anything about test science being wrong. Braun argued test protocol had not been followed. Collector took sample home & kept it refrigerated rather than get it to FedEx asap.

 

[ryne candy]

Wow. Can't wait to hear the explanation.

He's the White...Hebrew...MVP.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

SBerthiaumeESPN
Braun test sample collector thought FedEx/Kinkos was closed because it was late on a Saturday. MLB is livid and considering options.


/Notsureifsrs

ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada & TJ Quinn report: Ryan Braun didn't argue evidence of tampering or anything about test science being wrong. Braun argued test protocol had not been followed. Collector took sample home & kept it refrigerated rather than get it to FedEx asap.

Braun looks awful here. What a joke. He should be suspended.

 

[Chrispy]

So what he pretty much argued was that he did do something illegal but because some guy forgot to deliver the sample on time he wins the appeal.

Sounds right to me.......

 

[Bigpapa42]

Score one for the good guys!!!!!!













Just kidding... This smells like bullshit...

 

[Primetime]

Even as a huge Braun fan, if he was really guilty and it was just that simple of an error....fuck that. If this is true, even I still believe he should have been suspended. Test him until he fucks up again I guess.

 

[Goober]

Fuck Ryan Braun. What a joke.

Haters gonna hate! NL MVP coming at you for 162 games next season!

Crazy that people are jumping to conclusions because Braun won. Wait until he tells his side of the story to the media tomorrow. MLB rules are very clear, he would have been suspended either way even though the test was bull shit. Good for Braun for finding a loop hole.

Now time to sue the shit out of whoever leaked this in the first place.

 

[Goober]

I need to hear more. Unless there is proof that the test result was bogus, this is horrible news that will cripple the integrity of the testing process.

The 2-1 vote suggests that he did test positive for a banned substance, but convinced two voters that it wasn't intentional. If so, that's lame. Players should be responsible for what they put into their bodies, end of story, no bending, no exceptions, or testing can not work.

No these appeals are ALWAYS 2-1 votes. MLB always votes against the player, because they don't want anyone to question the drug testing process. MLB players union ALWAYS votes for the player. It's up to the independent arbitrator to decide.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Haters gonna hate! NL MVP coming at you for 162 games next season!

Crazy that people are jumping to conclusions because Braun won. Wait until he tells his side of the story to the media tomorrow. MLB rules are very clear, he would have been suspended either way even though the test was bull shit. Good for Braun for finding a loop hole.

Now time to sue the shit out of whoever leaked this in the first place.

moneyman territory here

Some intern left the sample in a fridge an extra day, and you are championing a loophole.

Sure hope you are trolling.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

No these appeals are ALWAYS 2-1 votes. MLB always votes against the player, because they don't want anyone to question the drug testing process. MLB players union ALWAYS votes for the player. It's up to the independent arbitrator to decide.

This I did not know.

Thanks.

 

[Goober]

There have been some hilarious tweets today:

Geoff Baker ‏ @gbakermariners

FedEx, when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight. Or in 48 hours... #Braun

Not Buster Olney ‏ @TrippingOlney

I WAS RIGHT. RT @TheRealTPlush: Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Great News for Brew Crew!!! The Hammer has been exonerated!!!

Keith Law's Thoughts ‏ @KlawThoughts

You've got to feel good for Ryan Braun. Jeff Bagwell is still dirty, though. His biceps were an inch too big.

Aaron Rodgers ‏ @AaronRodgers12
MLB and cable sports tried to sully the reputation of an innocent man. Picked the wrong guy to mess with. Truth will set u free #exonerated

Not Buster Olney ‏ @TrippingOlney

#FREEYUNI RT @bryff22: @TrippingOlney BREAKING: RYAN BRAUN'S 50-GAME SUSPENSION TRANSFERRED TO YUNIESKY BETANCOURT. NOBODY CARES.

Not Buster Olney ‏ @TrippingOlney

NOW PERHAPS THE BREWERS WON'T MISS YUNIESKY BETANCOURT QUITE AS MUCH AS THEY WOULD HAVE OTHERWISE.

keithlaw ‏ @keithlaw

I wonder how Scott Walker feels about unions today

Fredi Gonzalez ‏ @Frediot

well dammit i traded ryan braun for ryan howard in my fantasy league

 

[Goober]

Will Carroll ‏ @injuryexpert


Brauns appeal was won on the scientific argument, I am told. No specific precedent set here. I'm curious if the substance will leak.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

#EXONERATED!!11!!!1

#TRUTH!!!1!!

Some of these athletes are really embarrassing themselves on twitter today. I mean, use your brain for a second, people. Winning the appeal and being exonerated are two completely different things.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Will Carroll ‏ @injuryexpert


Brauns appeal was won on the scientific argument, I am told. No specific precedent set here. I'm curious if the substance will leak.

This is the one and only way Braun can truly be exonerated.

 

[Woy]

"Clean or dirty, he still couldn't hit me when it counted the most."

 

[Senser81]

#EXONERATED!!11!!!1

#TRUTH!!!1!!

Some of these athletes are really embarrassing themselves on twitter today. I mean, use your brain for a second, people. Winning the appeal and being exonerated are two completely different things.

O.J. Simpson @NakedGun

#EXONERATED!!11!!!1

#TRUTH!!!1!!

 

[Goober]

#EXONERATED!!11!!!1

#TRUTH!!!1!!

Some of these athletes are really embarrassing themselves on twitter today. I mean, use your brain for a second, people. Winning the appeal and being exonerated are two completely different things.

In a fair world, no one would have never heard a thing about this since Braun won. It's only fair that things are looked at in that light.

As for his teammates. I'm sure they care more about having the NL MVP playing for 162 games, then his long term image. And as Jimmy Rollins said, this isn't the first time a MLB player has won his appeal, we just don't know about it.

 

[Goober]

So you still don't believe Ryan Braun?

Sorry, I can't help you.

So you're now claiming that the process is rigged, or that baseball didn't really want Braun suspended?

Sorry, can't help you.

Go ahead and tell me that it's "corrupt," as one Twitter follower wrote after Thursday's decision was announced in Braun's favor. Go ahead and call him a "coward," as another tweeter said.

Sorry, can't help you, because in that case you're not interested in justice.

And as for the idea that one not-guilty verdict taints other positive tests, seriously? When one criminal trial ends with not-guilty, do we empty the jails because every other conviction must be wrong, too?

If baseball or any other sport is going to have a drug-testing system, there needs to be a way for a player to appeal a positive test. If there's going to be an appeal process, it needs to be fair enough that if the player makes a legitimate case that the test was flawed, he gets off.

Ryan Braun's people made that case, and an independent arbitrator agreed with them, with his vote swinging a 2-to-1 decision on a three-man panel that also included a representative from the commissioner's office and one from the players' union.

That's an independent arbitrator, independent enough that MLB quickly issued a statement saying it "vehemently disagrees" with the decision.

Braun's people made the case that the chain of custody was a problem, that the sample wasn't sent for 48 hours after Braun took the test. They made the case with the help, no doubt, from an abnormally-spiked testosterone level in the test in question, and in a clean test that Braun took after the first result came back positive.

It's a tough case to prove, and that's why when the news of Braun's failed test first surfaced in December, the strong assumption was that his appeal had little chance of success. No one had ever successfully overturned a suspension before.

But if there never was going to be a first one to succeed, why have the appeal process at all? And if you're not going to have an appeal process, well, you explain to me how that's fair.

What's unfair right now is that news of the Braun positive test got out in the first place, and that it unfairly taints his reputation. You see now why the players insisted on confidentiality, with a suspension only announced after the appeal process was complete.

In all cases before this one, the news never did get out before the appeal.

So how should we look at Ryan Braun now?

With sympathy, I'd say. A flawed test is useless as proof of anything, so unless he fails a test where there is no question about the method or the chain of custody, he's as innocent as any other player in the game today.

Does this mean that MLB is clean? No. Does it mean that MLB won't take on its biggest stars? Definitely not.

Does it mean that Ryan Braun is absolutely clean? There's absolutely no way to know that, just as there's no way to know it with certainty about any player.

But with this verdict, he gets as much the benefit of the doubt as anyone else.

So what does this mean, then?

It means that the system works.

If you can't accept an independent arbitrator ruling in Braun's favor, then what exactly would you accept?

If the answer is nothing, then I go back to the start.

Sorry, can't help you.

http://danny-knobler.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/8590096/34964084

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

In a fair world, no one would have never heard a thing about this since Braun won. It's only fair that things are looked at in that light.

While true, i'm gald it was leaked, and everybody should be glad it was leaked.

Now we can work on getting these ridiculous loopholes tied up so these cheaters stop winning lame appeals, and a guy with sky high synthetic testosterone levels has been outed.

Until somebody produces a testing error, a false positive, or something else of that ilk, i'm sorry, but Braun looks awful here and the credibility of the testing process is completely shot. And i'm a person who was in the "let it play out" Braun camp before today.

 

[Goober]

While true, i'm gald it was leaked, and everybody should be glad it was leaked.

Now we can work on getting these ridiculous loopholes tied up so these cheaters stop winning lame appeals, and a guy with sky high synthetic testosterone levels has been outed.

Until somebody produces a testing error, a false positive, or something else of that ilk, i'm sorry, but Braun looks awful here and the credibility of the testing process is completely shot. And i'm a person who was in the "let it play out" Braun camp before today.

Again we still don't know the entire story.

What we do know is there was no chain of custody on the sample, it was sitting at somebodies house for two days, where God knows what they could have done to it. The second test came back clean. And so did the multiple other tests Braun took over the 2011 season.

It's ridiculous to label Braun a cheater now. Good for Ryan Braun finding the loop hole that allows him to play. I'm sure the Braun camp will present more information arguing it was a false positive when he meets with the media, it's necessary to completely clear his image. While a false positive is important in order to clear his name, it really doesn't do him any good in the appeal process.

It's no surprise that NL Central fans are the ones crying over this. But honestly, I'd be pretty pissed if Pujols' contract was veto'd and he returned to the Cardinals. This certainly is a blow for the rest of the division.