he took a banned substance. If MLB bans a substance and still allows him to keep the MVP award its saying that it doesnt matter what you do to get the award, we’ll reward it.

and to answer your question about retroactively: when were PEDs Banned in the MLB rules?

to do since there are no rules in place for the BBWAA to strip him of the award. If Braun loses his appeal, then the only way would be if he voluntarily gives up the award and I don’t see him doing that.

Yes, if Braun loses his appeal and has to serve a 50-day suspension due to testing positive for a banned substance during the season for which he won the MVP.

If there isn’t a price for cheating, why should players stop?

If found guilty, yes.

If innocent, no.

Kemp was the friggin’ better player anyway, I told you that from the minute the season ended.

What if we find out later that Matt Kemp used?

Third place was Prince Fielder. Is it not possible that whatever positive benefit Braun got, his at-bats helped Fielder? I don’t even know who fourth place was.

Now, something that CAN be done is the Brewers should have the right (or be required by MLB, if they don’t want to make those waves with Braun) to demand return of any bonus Braun received for winning the MVP.

Now, whether this extends to Kemp having the right to claim any bonus (and that might be something MLBPA argues) is up for debate. Some guys have clauses that say if they finish as low as FIFTH in the MVP vote, the get a few bucks. Does removing Braun move those guys up?

All slippery slope stuff, but if you’re looking for real penalties, that would be one way to do it.

At some point, the MLB has to take a stand. Going back to Bonds, Sosa, and such shouldn’t happen. But the MLB should make Braun an example, if it’s proven he’s guilty.

Will he be – no

Does anyone else think that the team (the Brewers in this case) should be held accountable for this in some way?

As if baseball is the only arena where people cheat?

Brian Cushing cheated, won the ROY, and they revoted. And he won it again. I’m fairly certain somebody’s going to respond with “yeahbutthatstheNFLthisisMLB”; and to that I say, the MLB policy on drugs is by far the worst, maybe they should follow somebody that knows what the hell they are doing.

Dan

In addition to the good point Worf made above, the real punishment is the 50 game suspension.

The award is from the BBWAA, not MLB. If BBWAA wants to revoke the award that is for them as an organization to determine. The only thing MLB can really do is punish a player after the incident. Now that those punishments are steep, and (hopefully) testing is legitimate, I think we will see fewer of these incidents.

Furthermore, Braun hasn’t been found guilty. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up not guilty. This case doesn’t seem cut and dry. I’m sure it will be an interesting and tumultuous appeal process.

but he should for being a cocky SOB and lying about it.

“I’d hit 60-70 HRs if I took steriods.”

You should’ve come clean just how you mentioned A-Rod should have. Hypocrite.

What we have are two positive tests – the initial testosterone levels test, and the sythentic testosterone test – from one urine sample in the post-season. Braun could have been doing steroids all during the 2011 season, or there could be a myriad of other possibilities for why he failed these tests. It doesn’t matter; he’s still responsible for the failed tests unless he can prove an error in the process. If he can’t prove the error, he serves the 50 game suspension and moves on.

But in no way does the information that we have right now indicate that Braun was taking steroids during the 2011 season. We have we have are two positive tests from one urine sample in the post-season. We don’t have Barry Bonds treatment calendar al BALCO.

As much as I wanted Koyie Hill to win the MVP, I still can’t see stripping Braun of it.

If the BBWAA can’t revoke the honor, should a player who is proven to have tested positive for a PED in the past be eligible for season awards in future years? Or maybe just prior winners.

Everyone seems to consider MVP awards, placement in final voting, gold gloves and silver sluggers so much when contemplating a player for the HOF, how should this be handled?

I heard on MLBN yesterday that of the 14 appeal cases regarding PED, 0 won. It was also said though that there has been 1 case (never made public) that was overturned. I have no idea how to substantiate this since it was kept in house. It almost seems improbable to me given the access and ease of media. Then again, pre-Twitter era…

If that’s the case, and this was leaked “out of school”, we may see something brand new (to us) in the coming days. Begging the question, how many other times could this have happened, without any of us aware?

They haven’t pulled HR records for Sosa, McGwire and Bonds away, why this.

…and the BBWAA do NOT strip him of his MVP, then that should open the H of F doors to the likes of Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Palmierro, Clemens, Manny, etc…right? If not, then there’s something seriously wrong going on.

question is premature. It can not be answered until it is found to be true or false.

the fact that his reputation will forever be tarnished is worth enough to me. The whole stripping people of things is too much of a slippery slope IMO. So what he has an MVP trophy, everybody will know he doesn’t deserve it and his respect from a fan’s standpoint will be all but gone.

We don’t even know what kind of “illegal substance” he got busted for, we don’t even know the whole MLB list of forbidden substances. I mean the way I look at it, there’s a fine line between supplements that don’t make much of a difference in regards to performance (most protein based supplements barely make any difference, your better off with a glass of milk after a workout), and the likes of anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. If Braun got busted taking HGH or anabolics, then maybe we do need to look into this, but if it was something small, diet pills, protein based supplements, etc., I don’t think it’s enough to make much of a difference or enough to strip someone of their award.

If he loses his appeal, that will just ensure that there’s a healthy asterisk married to his MVP. This is still the PED/Steroid era, and unless they erase Barry Bonds’ and Roger Clemens’ names from the record books, all of their awards will remain. They will be marred, of course, but they will remain.