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

Bonds juiced. Sorry, but if you don't believe that, you're in the wrong business.

 

Not saying he didn't Stitch. But you didn't answer the question. When did he test positive?

 

November 2000

 

Okay, cool, I'm classless by that standard. I'll wear the scarlet C.

Sure, an innocent person would deny, too. But another classic sign of someone who is innocent is not having massive amounts of synthetic testosterone in his urine.

As far as the actual act of using PEDs, it doesn't bother me that much. It bothers me more now that we're on the other side of the "MLB gets serious about this" line, but still not all that much. The sanctimony he showed towards Alex Rodriguez and the absurd denials ("Don't look at the positive test, look at the second one after I'd had a month to cycle down and pump myself full of masking agents!!") bother me a lot more.

 

*assuming an accurate test and no mix-up at the lab.

 

Want to get tough on PEDs? Do what the UCI (governing body of bicycle racing) does:

Install a blood passport system, where all players have to give blood 4-6 times a year, and their blood standards are openly tracked.

Install a 24/7 testing system, where all players have to provide their expected whereabouts THREE MONTHS in advance, and where the testers arrive with 15 minutes' notice. And judging by the riders' tweets those tests usually come in the form of a knock on the door at 6 a.m.

Cycling responded to its PED problem (although the results are far from perfect, due namely to the UCI not wanting to spend the money to pursue cases). The NFL and MLB should do the same.

 

But of course Rick is going to assume that. He is rooting too hard for this to be true to accept the possibility that it might not be.

Just another Cubs fan who wants to blame the team's failure on opponents cheating. Because no member of the Cubs has ever cheated, right?

 

Rick, aren't you on the record as saying that PEDs don't affect performance?

I thought that was part of the official sabermetric platform?

 

Last night I dreamed MLB scrapped bobblehead dolls and replaced them with what could best be described as PED dispensers.

 

Didn't another player in the NL Central have a wrist injury?

 

I am certainly not saying we need to start being particularly suspicious of players with wrist injuries. That just happened to be Braun's injury.

 

If that's the case, why did his agent go the "didn't knowingly use" route in his denial? That sounds like the defense is going to be, "I took something but didn't know what it was." Not "They fucked up the test."

One isn't Braun's fault. One is.