Ryan Braun exonerated, no suspension… Latest: MLB drops Eliezer Alfonzo suspension; case similar to Braun's (part 1)

[Hofbraunhaus]

Will Carroll just tweeted he has an article submitted to SI explaining the Braun defense and that he will wait for that to run until giving more details.

[Funketown]

I know pretty much nothing about law, but from the looks of his cv, Shyam Das seems to have a pretty good head on his shoulders. Dragging this guy through the mud, along with Braun, is a pretty poor response from MLB. Why is it that when an NFL player's drug ring blows up the news blows over but MLB can't avoid getting egg on its face here?

 

http://www.nmb.gov/arbitrator-resumes/das-shyam_res.pdf

[brewmann04]

Espn in the words of DX Sux IT

[fondybrewfan]

Will Carroll just tweeted he has an article submitted to SI explaining the Braun defense and that he will wait for that to run until giving more details.

 

Anxiously waiting

[Madtown343]

Anyone know when carrol will have it? Or why he only has this...

[fondybrewfan]

Maybe he is the only one who knows what the heck he is talking about. Or maybe Braun's camp leaked it to him knowing he is the only who would really understand what the defense is?

 

Who knows; SI just need to publish the article. Once that happens everyone else will pick it up as well

[Madtown343]

Carrol almost has a confidence about him that he is going to be the one that changes the public opinion with his article... I sure hope so.

[reillymcshane]

Carrol almost has a confidence about him that he is going to be the one that changes the public opinion with his article... I sure hope so.

Yeah, he really does sound confident. He's saying things like "media, stop calling it a technicality when it was science" and so forth. Really smacking back at people. Good.

[homer]

Carrol almost has a confidence about him that he is going to be the one that changes the public opinion with his article... I sure hope so.

 

Yeah that's the impression I get.

 

I hope the ESPN mouth breathers read his article and go "Oh." Although I'm sure it will be written at an 8th grade reading level at least so it might be asking a lot for them to actually comprehend it.

[reillymcshane]

Rosenthal actually has a fair minded article on the Braun situation.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/ryan-braun-wins-appeal-on-50-game-suspension-how-did-mlb-case-fall-apart-022312

[Madtown343]

Rosenthal actually has a fair minded article on the Braun situation.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/ryan-braun-wins-appeal-on-50-game-suspension-how-did-mlb-case-fall-apart-022312

 

Bowtie usually does a pretty good job.

[thebruce44]

Carrol almost has a confidence about him that he is going to be the one that changes the public opinion with his article... I sure hope so.

 

Carol has always struck me as an intelligent reporter which is what we need right now. I hope he puts ESPN to shame.

[topper09er]

I'm seeing a lot of idiots saying Braun will now have a terrible year because he wont be able to juice all season (even though he passed 3 tests during the 2011 season according to him) but he had such a huge season last year it will be hard for him, or anyone, to repeat it. These people will use that as proof that he was juicing in 2011 instead of having a career year at age 27. If Matt Kemp doesn't match his 2011 numbers, which he almost certainly will not, no one will be accusing him of roiding.

 

He seems like the type to use this in his favor and have an even better year, but I would think his offseason training took a huge blow from all of this so hopefully that wont let him get off to a slow start.

[LennyBrisco]

I'm wondering if Carrol is Dan patricks source. One of the Danettes ( last name pearl ) ( is called mcmuffin or mcmurry on the show ) works for cnn / S . I

 

Also I was thinking about the sample being taken to the guys house. Did it get put into the fridge asap, or did he forget it in his car/leave it on his counter for a period of time......? Nobody will ever know.

[Madtown343]

Braun has used everything in the past as fuel and I expect the same. The guy will need to be patient though because being over aggressive to prove people wrong and potentially be pitched around more often without Prince could lead to more prolonged slumps.

[topper09er]

It also appears that everyone is getting way too worried about the whole chain of custody. Chain of custody just means being able to produce a paper trail or some other proof for the whereabouts and condition of something. It appears that there were no chain of custody issues, the sample went from the stadium to this guys house, in his fridge, and then to fedex and on to Montreal.

 

The testing procedure states that the sample should be taken to fedex and stored there even if it cant be shipped out that night, and if that is truly the only reason Braun got off I would have to agree and say he got off on a major technicality. If this guy took it home and treated the exact same way it would have been treated had it sat in the fedex fridge over the weekend then Braun looks very bad.

 

However, that seems like a pretty trivial thing for an arbiter to rule with and I expect we will hear something else that may have caused the sample to become tainted.

 

Also, no matter what happens MLB needs to start an investigation about the leak and fire someone and press charges if that is possible.

[bacon06]

So who is coming into 2012 with a bigger chip on his shoulder, Prince trying to out do Cecil in Detroit or Braun for wrongly being put through the wringer?

[splitterpfj]

Follow me for a minute...

 

This player has been tested time and again without issue, he shows no obvious statistical spike, no physical or emotional changes...then suddenly he tests for a testosterone level that's literally twice the level any player has ever tested. This, at a point in history, when several people have been caught cheating and subsequently admitted their guilt. This player is tested again, showing no issue, while also showing no sign of a masking agent, and then we learn the sample was collected on a Friday, in St Louis, during the playoffs, but not delivered to Fed Ex until the following Monday.

 

Seriously, folks, is ANYONE going to tell me there's no "reasonable doubt" in this picture?

[pebadger]

The telling fact is that MLB doesn't need to prove anything to anywhere close to a "reasonable doubt" standard and they had an opportunity to win in spite of a simple "oops" just by showing that the test result was strong enough that the arbitrator feel "reasonably comfortable" that suspending Braun was the right decision. In spite of all that they still lost.

 

The uncomfortable squealing from places like USADA, which have as much access to the facts in this case as you or I, and the totally predictable spin that the "guilty until proven innocent" crowd immediately resorted to in the wake of the decision provides strong support for my feelings about this case from the beginning.

 

It's really too bad that they have to run these things like they do. There are some very good people and some incredibly bright and fair-minded scientists who have done incredible work in the field of drug-testing who really do have the best interests of athletes and sports at heart. It's just sad that crusaders almost inevitably ruin everything they touch.

[adambr2]

Follow me for a minute...

 

This player has been tested time and again without issue, he shows no obvious statistical spike, no physical or emotional changes...then suddenly he tests for a testosterone level that's literally twice the level any player has ever tested. This, at a point in history, when several people have been caught cheating and subsequently admitted their guilt. This player is tested again, showing no issue, while also showing no sign of a masking agent, and then we learn the sample was collected on a Friday, in St Louis, during the playoffs, but not delivered to Fed Ex until the following Monday.

 

Seriously, folks, is ANYONE going to tell me there's no "reasonable doubt" in this picture?

 

Not disagreeing with your general point but where are we getting this that he was tested on a Friday in St. Louis? My understanding is that he was tested Saturday, October 1st in Milwaukee after a game with the D'Backs.

 

Believe me I'd be thrilled beyond belief if it came out of this that this was the result of tampering from a dirty St. Louis courier, but before we look at that angle I'd like to see some sort of link that the test was even there rather than a rumor we took and ran with it.

[sdcheezhd]

I've been out of pocket so thanks to all of you who posted on this excellent thread; it was a great way to get up to speed.

 

So I turn on ESPN and there's Karl Ravich with the Coors Lite Cold Hard Facts and he literally says this: "We bring in John Kruk and Tim Kurkjian, John we'll start with you, the cold hard fact, your opinion on the decision." Kurkjian's "cold hard fact" is his view of the "impact on Braun's legacy". Wow they really are morons. It looks like there's no chance any useful information will be reported anywhere on ESPN. At least Kruk didn't repeat the comments he made earlier today (quoted earlier in the thread) so it seems he's backing off at least somewhat. Kurkjian too.

 

They talk about Rodgers' tweets as being "controversial" but don't identify any controversy.

 

And a special bonus; Wilson's dunk in the Iowa game is the #7 highlight and they call him "Ryan Wilson."

[endaround]

I have a question. Isn't every single player tested during the playoffs? So did this guy take home a ton of samples? And why is MLB not paying the extra few hundred dollars to have a courier actually deliver it to the lab? (Wait I know, the whole test is for show).

 

MLB would rather tarnish its stars that allow the testing process come under scrutiny.

[adambr2]

I have a question. Isn't every single player tested during the playoffs? So did this guy take home a ton of samples? And why is MLB not paying the extra few hundred dollars to have a courier actually deliver it to the lab? (Wait I know, the whole test is for show).

 

MLB would rather tarnish its stars that allow the testing process come under scrutiny.

 

You'd think they could at least invest in a Blackberry for them?

 

It took me about 30 seconds to look up on Google that there are 3 Fed Ex locations in Milwaukee open until at least 8 pm on Saturday (one til 9 pm) in Milwaukee. The test was reportedly October 1st, the Brewer played a day game at home that day which was over by 4 pm.

 

So we are either to believe that the tester could not complete the tests and get to a FedEx location within a 20 minute driving in a 5 hour window, or the courier either was negligent in believing there were no FedEx locations open at that time or lacked a device held by most 13 year old girls.

[topper09er]

I checked too and the latest pickup for express delivery is 3:30 on a Saturday and never on a Sunday, so if you don't get your package to a fedex by 3:30 it ain't going out until Monday. The Brewers game was scheduled for 1, so this guy had to know any post game test would have to stored somehow and not shipped until Monday. Either he was totally unaware of the fedex hours, or he was unaware that he was supposed to take it to fedex instead of his house to be stored, or he was aware and was just lazy/negligent.

[valpocrewsader]

The word "technicality" really needs to be disassociated from this story. I think I first saw it in an ESPN article this evening, and then it was rampant in the article's responses and other comments I've seen elsewhere.

 

From what we know so far, it would appear that this isn't some lucky loophole like a form that required three signatures only having two or something like that, it sounds like a legitimate issue with the testing process that very well might have been the whole root of positive result in the first place. That's not a technicality.

 

If my car fails an emissions test, but only because the tester at the DMV ran my car at 6,000 RPMs instead of the required 1,000 RPMs (leading to 20 times the level of pollutants they've ever seen before), who on earth would call it a technicality that they let me pass after ackowledging their mistake?

 

It will be fantastic if more news comes out to the effect that Braun's side was able to show how a test sample could easily spike in testosterone if improperly handled for over a weekend in some courier's care. It would help a little bit with the public image, although sadly not do much for the majority who have heard nothing but the words "steroids", "suspension", and "technicality" from ESPN.