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Ryan Braun fails PED test. Faces 50-game suspension.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Uncle.Ruckus, Dec 10, 2011.

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  1. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Here's the thing though, even if it wasn't intentional, he still took a banned substance. Drug testing policies generally don't include an "Oops, my bad" clause. A positive test is a positive test no matter how it wound up in your system.

    If that is indeed what happened I don' see how MLB can let him off the hook That sets a precedent they don't want to set.
     
  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    What I'm thinking about is false positive or chain-of-custody problems or something wrong with the test itself. I don't see how he'd be saying "completely innocent" if he took it, unwittingly or not. MLB and the rest of the leagues have always been clear that ignorance is not an excuse.
     
  3. IllMil

    IllMil Active Member

    Interesting to see what happens here. Sucks that probably won't be for awhile.
     
  4. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Even if Braun is guilty as sin of this, why in the hell would they void his contract?

    It's 50 games. You don't void a long-term contract over a 50-game suspension.
     
  5. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Because he might not be, and in fact probably isn't, a $100 million player without pharmaceutical help.
     
  6. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    We don't know that for sure. Bonds was worth a top-level salary long before he started juicing. How long Braun might have been, if he was, is not yet known/
     
  7. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Besides, if there's one thing we've learned from the people who've been caught juicing, most of them only tried it once.
     
  8. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Yes, it does make you classless. Not out of sympathy for Braun, but because for the reasons I already explained and you sidestepped.

    And wouldn't denying also be the response of somebody who is innocent?
     
  9. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    Baseball is coming off the greatest final day of the regular season anyone can remember, an outstanding postseason and a lot of noteworthy movement this offseason, and people still want to talk about this crap. The disappointment is very 2005. Many fans have long moved on.
     
  10. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    PED testing isn't supposed to catch guys like this, it's supposed to catch guys like Barry Bonds.
     
  11. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    If he's guilty, he's just like Bonds ...
     
  12. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    That might be true. However, he did slug .572 in the minors, where I believe the testing is even more strict than the majors. Even if you want to attribute 10 to 20 percent of his performance to PEDs (which is probably way too high), he's still pretty darn valuable.

    Also, I imagine the mechanisms to cut him after a single 50-game suspension aren't pretty. I wouldn't want to take the chance on trying to cut Braun, only to 1) have to eat the contract after the process goes through arbitration or 2) be forced to keep him or trade him after trying to cut him. If he comes back and sucks really hard for a while, then sure, maybe you try to go through the process since you have nothing to lose at that point. But as the Barry Bonds in SF saga illustrates, the home crowd is almost always fine with having a juicer, as long as he's hitting.
     
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