Braun Suspended for Remainder of 2013 Season

[patrickgpe]

i feel like i should care more, but i don't. This may ruin his legacy but if he puts up numbers for the next 7-10 years and stays clean, this won't matter. This is different that McGwire, Sosa, or Bonds.

In the short term not having a suspension going into next season is huge. Hopefully this allows Melvin to go into full rebuild mode and trades whoever they can for prospects.

[DocLuna7]

I know it's a bit off topic, but has anyone heard who the Brewers are calling up to replace Braun on the roster for the rest of this season?

[JimH5]

From Twitter:

 

Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan

Word out of the Brewers clubhouse almost universal: They were glad Ryan Braun got suspended. He straight-up lied to teammates. They're mad.

[DocLuna7]

From Twitter:

 

Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan

Word out of the Brewers clubhouse almost universal: They were glad Ryan Braun got suspended. He straight-up lied to teammates. They're mad.

 

I just brought up this angle to my wife a few minutes ago. I think that this story has implications FAR greater than the games he misses the rest of this year. Starting with the fact that the Brewers implied "team leader" and most marketable player has spent two seasons lying to his teammates and perhaps the organization as well.

[patrickgpe]

I know it's a bit off topic, but has anyone heard who the Brewers are calling up to replace Braun on the roster for the rest of this season?

i'd guess Davis, but haven't heard anything

[TooLiveBrew]

Roenicke just said it'll be Khrush Davis in the postgame presser

[brewmann04]

Braun is a fraud and Liar who lied to all his teammates and sorry cant see how that will be fixed. I have a feeling that Mark will quietly have Melvin shop Braun.

[brewmann04]

I be curious to hear a player here tell what they really think about Braun and what he did to his teammates . Wonder how many people would been more upset if the crew were in a pennant race.

[chickinbrickin]

Good interview with Lucroy right now. Handled that very well.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

I am not going to hate Braun. I feel disappointed in him. I don't blame anyone who feels what they feel about this, regardless of their position. Braun lost out on being the 21st century Yount. I will always root for the Brewers and as long as Braun is on the team I will want him to succeed.

[Bombers]

Good interview with Lucroy right now. Handled that very well.

What did he say?

[sdcheezhd]

Glad to see Deadspin all over the collector issue. To the extent the collector has a reputation out of this is that he didn't do his job and because of his screw-up the test was properly thrown out. Since that is clearly true, I don't see why that reputation should change now. Those like Schilling who are talking about his reputation are concern trolling; all they care about is trashing Braun. And really, someone's going to take moral advice from Curt Schilling?

 

Maybe I am too jaded by the business I have chosen, but I think this all shows that from the beginning the best strategy for Braun was the less said the better. I would continue to give him this advice.

[Yount19]

Dang they are even going after Aaron Rodgers now... it's going to be a tough next twelve months or so for Wisconsin sports fans... http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/aaron-rodgers-put-salary-ryan-braun-being-clean-235553423.html

[SRB]

From Twitter:

 

Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan

Word out of the Brewers clubhouse almost universal: They were glad Ryan Braun got suspended. He straight-up lied to teammates. They're mad.

 

Baseball writers always seem to find anonymous players to echo the writers' own opinions, but in any event...

 

Hopefully Lucroy/Segura aren't mad, because the rest of this team is expendable whereas Braun is the franchise. So who cares.

[adambr2]

Bet the "Trade Ryan Braun" idea from 2 months ago doesn't look so crazy now, does it? I actually would look to deal him if they can since 1) His teammates will never trust him again and thus he's probably going to be a distraction and 2) distance themselves from this as much as possible. But no team will want to until he proves he can produce when clean, or at least what other teams hope is clean.

 

Some people are trying desperately to understate us. Yeah, the season is lost anyway. Yeah, we save $4 million bucks.

 

Too bad it runs much, much deeper than that. First of all, the $4M will be a drop in the bucket next to what they lose in ticket sales, jersey sales, other merchandise sales, etc. Everything Braun has done in his career is now in question, and therefore everything the team has done since that time -- the playoffs in 2008, the division title, the NLDS win, everything. The implications for Braun are many. He will never be in the Hall of Fame. His MVP, ROY, every All Star honor, all in question.

 

And let's please not try to excuse with the "half the guys out there are probably doing the same thing." You cannot seriously profess "innocent until proven guilty!" for 2 years and then try to assume guilt about half the league based on nothing. I will assume the innocent are innocent until proven otherwise, just like I did for Braun until he proved otherwise.

 

Our franchise player is now a known cheater. I could have moved on from that if he had come clean in the first place and admitted he was wrong and taken his 50 games, but he didn't. He looked us all in the eye and emotionally told us about how there was no way those drugs ever entered his body, and all this time tried to hide behind a cryptic "if you all knew the real story", which was all a lie. It is better to have no franchise player at all than a tainted one. I could have gotten over him cheating if he fessed up. Everybody makes mistakes. But he went far beyond that with lies and deception.

 

Think of all the people who he embarrassed that wholeheartedly defended him. How do you think Aaron Rodgers feels? Think he still wants to run a restaurant with him? Think of all the fans, like myself, who told anyone who would listen that there seemed to be a lot more to this story than met the eye and Braun seemed to be the victim, not the culprit.

 

In all honesty, I would look to deal him and give him a fresh start elsewhere and distance ourselves from him as much as possible. But like I said, it won't be that easy. Another implication of this. He now goes from an extremely valuable asset to a big question mark. But if possible, I would move him, put the stamp of franchise player on Jean Segura, and move on.

 

I'm not sure this will all just heal with time. Some of his teammates will probably forgive him, eventually. Others probably never will. It doesn't bode well for future clubhouse chemistry.

[SRB]

Gallardo still adamant that he doesn't think Braun took PEDs.

 

Wow, somebody capable of seeing more nuance in the situation than the anointed baseball "journalists"!

[two_three_the_count]

trying to figure out who's ass i just saw during the yo interview

[brewcrewdue80]

I think something being missed is that if Braun was truly selfish he could have easily fought this whole-heartedly into next season or beyond, and very well could have ended up with the same suspension then, or very well could have been acquitted again and saved himself millions of dollars.

 

A large part of taking the plea now is that it is in the best interests of the Brewers as a team.

 

Of course, that is being reported by the media exactly nowhere. Much better story to whine about what a monster he is, I guess.

 

Or, you are exposed the evidence showing you're guilt. But could go through the appeals dragging this out to next season and lose where that can cost up to 150 games supposedly. You lose 65games this season a year making 8.5mil. Or you lose up to 150 games on a year making 10million. It's a3.4mil loss. Vs. a 9? million loss. It was the smart thing for him to do financially, especially with his injured finger. To prolong this ordeal while playing injured only to suffer a higher cost/more game suspension upon feeling healthy again finally? Now he'll get healthy while serving the suspension and be back in time to begin next season making a bigger payday.

[brewmann04]

yes Braun lied and is looking out for #1 a true face of the franchise

[adambr2]

Gallardo still adamant that he doesn't think Braun took PEDs.

 

Wow, somebody capable of seeing more nuance in the situation than the anointed baseball "journalists"!

 

I agree that the sensationalizing media can be ridiculous sometimes, but if Yo really believes this, I don't even know what to say anymore.

[rondoman]

Report that Braun contacted MLB to work out a deal. Wow.

[hawing]

I don't know where to start putting my thoughts down, but I'm going to anyway. It probably won't be organized.

 

Since the news of the failed test broke in the 2011-2012 season, I've been hoping it wasn't true and trying to prepare myself for it being true. Yet tonight I don't feel like I prepared myself at all well for the allegations being true.

 

I don't think I posted it here, but when people asked me what I thought of the whole situation, I had the same general response: Either Ryan's a remarkable player or a remarkable liar, and we don't have enough information yet to know which. I didn't want to insist on innocence or condemn without proof. I remember thinking late in 2011, "well, dude was banged up and taking something to heal faster would be plausible in that scenario."

 

The (apparent) using is disappointing. To me, the repeated insistence that he was clean from fall 2011 to today is more disappointing. Initial shock aside, I think I'd have been less irritated overall had he just fessed up at the outset. As a Brewers fan, I felt somewhat "on trial" in the court of public opinion when the failed test news broke, and tonight I do again. I'm uneasily counting the hours until my STL fan friend (who is a solid friend in all facets of life except baseball) gets going on Facebook - as if I have anything to do with the damn case. It feels like a black mark on all of us, in a way.

 

Like a recent poster above, I wonder what kind of a hit clubhouse chemistry will take from this. (I say this not yet having seen the clubhouse reaction after Monday's game.) I wonder what kind of a hit the fanbase will take from this. Look at how Brett Favre's actions polarized the Packers' fanbase - and that is a bigger and stronger fanbase than the Brewers'.

 

I think of the Brewers employees I've gotten to know over the years. Marketing will be harder now. Ticket sales will be harder now. If attendance declines enough, it'll hurt our guest relations and usher friends. Between Brewerfan and Twitter and just being at a ton of games, I've seen how much work all these people put into making the organization a success, and I'd hate to see them take too many steps backward. Of course, the Brewers' fortunes are always driven by on-field performance and a zillion unpredictable factors. But Ryan's issue was 100% preventable.

 

I don't have a Braun jersey to burn or trade in or anything. Actually, the only Braun gear I have is a Birrai shirt I got at TJ Maxx for $9.99, and that was just because the S.O. is part Italian and I wanted to honor that with the Birrai name. But I'm still disappointed, and I hope the ripple effect is less than I fear.

[Flying Dutchman]

Here's my feeling on this whole thing. I am upset with Braun, largely because he lied. I honestly don't care that much about the PEDs, maybe I should, but I don't. I am upset because he decided to ignore the golden rule of damage control, which is the coverup is always worse than the crime. Truth be told he shouldn't have been in a position to cover anything up, but he was and he tried. It was dumb.

 

If I'm honest with myself, I'll cheer for him again. It won't be the same, and he has fallen off my list of favorite Brewers, but I'll definitely cheer for him.

 

I do feel bad for the collector as well. Not because of what Braun said (although if you look at my first point I don't think Braun should have said it), but because, like Braun, the collector should not have been in the public consciousness at all. Like it or not the guy screwed up at his job, he made a mistake which got Braun off. Call it a technicality of you like, but the guy did screw up. It sucks. I'm glad when I screw up at work only a handful of people know, and honestly that's how it should have been for this guy. Unfortunately for him, he got stuck in the middle of a national story, and his mistake became the focal point. This is yet another reason that the confidentiality needs to be in place in this whole process, but I digress.

 

I wish things had panned out differently, but if he was going to get suspended I guess this is the best scenario for it to happen.

[owbc]

HUGE win for Bud Selig bringing down Braun, especially because he used to be the franchise player of Selig's hometown team. I'm sure it hurts Bud to damage the Brewers but it was the right thing to do.

 

A huge win?

 

To show that their entire testing process is a sham and completely ineffective?

 

We all know the testing process has been limited from the start. The cheaters are probably always going to be ahead of the testing and that isn't going to change anytime soon. The story here is that the Biogenesis records suggested that prominent MLB players were cheating and MLB successfully pursued the lead and is now suspending players. Now that Braun has essentially admitted guilt, how are the other players on the list going to avoid suspensions? MLB has the upper hand now.

 

A trade isn't going to happen, Braun is going to be in the 2014 opening day lineup. As with the 2012 season, it is possible for him to put most of this behind him. But it will take years, and until then, the cloud is going to remain over him and the franchise as a whole. It's a huge, huge blow to the Brewers franchise. If Braun/Fielder are Yount/Moliter, then 2012-2013 is 1992-1993.

[vegasbrewcrew1993]

i don't blame him for accepting the plea deal. braun is rich, but not rich enough to fight the mlb. eventually those shameless jerks were going to get what they want. they have already ruined braun's reputation. might as well serve the suspension during a lost season. i'm still certain he didn't take the juice. he doesn't have the appearance of a ped user and his numbers have always been consistent. there has never been a sudden and mysterious spike in his numbers ala chris davis. davis went from a nobody to a guy that is on pace to set a legit record.