Ryan Braun Is Either Exonerated Or Lucky And Other MLBullets
by Brett Taylor on Feb 24, 2012 6:56 AM CST
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- You know the big story. Yesterday, a three-person arbitration panel (MLBPA Director Michael Weiner, MLB VP Rob Manfred, and independent arbitrator Shyam Das) voted 2-1 in favor of Ryan Braun's appeal of a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. The overturned suspension was the first in MLB history, and has been described as a decision based on a "technicality." The technicality? A courier, who was to deliver a urine sample to FedEx on a Saturday, instead took the sample home, thinking the FedEx center might be closed. He returned on Monday morning to have the sample shipped. That break in the chain of custody - the sample is supposed to be delivered as soon as possible - raised a sufficient question about the process, and Das cast the tie-breaking vote in Braun's favor.
- A number of reactions to the Braun decision, it seems to me, are fair (and you've been doing quite a bit of reacting in this Fanshot from last evening). It's fair to believe that Braun was innocent all along, and the process exonerated him. It's fair to believe that Braun indeed tested positive for a banned substance, and got lucky that a courier decided to chill on a Saturday night. It's probably not fair, however, to suspect some kind of conspiracy, no matter how convenient the decision might seem. MLB, for its part, is very upset, and "vehemently disagrees" with the Das decision. MLB Daily Dish collects a number of other reactions to the decision if you haven't had quite enough.
- Buster Olney says that the expectation within baseball is that the two additional Wild Cards will be added in time for the 2012 season. Recall, the plan is to have two Wild Cards in each league, bringing the total number of playoff teams to 10. The two Wild Card teams in each league will square off in a one-game playoff before the rest of the playoffs get underway. To me, the addition of two more Wild Cards is wonderful, both for the increased importance of winning your division, and the increased chance that your fan base will have something to cheer for deep into July/August/September. That said - and, yes, I understand the scheduling limitations - I really hate the idea of a one-game playoff. Can't we figure out a way to at least play three games? Even the best team in baseball, playing the worst team in baseball, is going to lose 30 to 35% of the time in a one-gamer.
- Players and the Players' Association are not too happy about the Miami Marlins' plan to continue paying all players with service time between zero and three years the Major League minimum salary, regardless of performance or service time. During that period in a player's career, a team has the right to "renew" his contract, and can pay him whatever salary they like. Out of conscience or courtesy (or, more likely, a desire to keep their players happy), teams do give nominal raises to players during those three years. Well, teams not named the Marlins, anyway.
- Bud Selig says an international draft is "inevitable."
- The Orioles are bringing a sports psychologist on board to help with their "mental toughness." So long as he can also help with the team's "bad roster" and "poor baseball ability," not to mention the "AL East is loaded" thing, I think they've got the right idea.
Brett Taylor is a Contributor at Bleed Cubbie Blue, and is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation.
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Eh.
To me, if he was truly exonerated, then he isn’t very lucky, given how much his name has been dragged through the mud. If he was truly exonerated, he’s not lucky, he’s just right.
Bleacher Nation - Cubs Rumors and News
by Brett Taylor on Feb 24, 2012 7:04 AM CST up reply actions
Lucky? You bet. Exonerated? Not a chance.
Still not explanation of how he gave a sample with testosterone ratios that were completely unnatural. The chain of custody on the sample was WADA compliant with not allegation of tampering. Barring more evidence, Braun’s case for actually being innocent doesn’t look very good.
And why do I find it unlikely that a guy starts using PEDs during an MVP season?
ftfy (and Buster)
…the expectation withinbaseballFOX, ESPN, and TBS is that the two additional Wild Cards…
Let’s be clear on who’s driving the process here. And it ain’t Bud…
Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."
The Orioles
have ventured to the far side of the planet from “winning”.
by ddoubleheader on Feb 24, 2012 11:39 PM CST up reply actions
Eh, I'd be willing to cut the players and the players' association a little slack if they didn't do their utmost to...
…exploit the system when it works in their favor, i.e. arbitration and free agency. To me, there’s enough “did not operate in good faith” to go around to all parties.
This is how the system works; this is what both sides signed up for. Team has player by the balls for the first three years, it’s a tug-of-war for the next three years, and then player has team by the balls. IMO, Cody Ross has it exactly right (from the article)
"I never forgot about them not giving me a raise ever as a 0-to-3 player. I didn’t think it was fair for me to make the same as a guy who comes up from minor league camp and makes the team."
Never forget. Treat them as they treat you. Take your lumps when you have to, and then “lump” back when you can. And get out of there as fast as you can.
Yes, I’m talking to you, Mike Stanton. Head north, young man. Head north…
Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."
The minimum was increased nearly 15% with the new collective bargaining agreement.
Perhaps the Marlins thought this too was a good enough raise.
That was apparently their main motivation.
It’s still probably going to come back to bite them.
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Or the team ends up in
federal possession and end up being auctioned off by the Department of Justice. “One used baseball team, scorched bare and refurnished 2 times with an unmistakable fishy odor. What are the bids?”.
by ddoubleheader on Feb 24, 2012 11:41 PM CST up reply actions
Will they throw in a cigarette boat loaded with cocaine?
The South Florida Feds have to have a few in the evidence locker. Could be the throw-in that makes the deal.
50 years from now it'll all come out the Bud Lite was behind it
Just like Jordan’s 1st retirement will be because of gambling…
Just win the next game...!
Didn't MLB disagree with the decision?
If you look at Braun’s statements carefully, he doesn’t deny he took something that affected the results. They say he didn’t “intentionally” take something. They hung their hat on a technicality and won. The truth seems to be that he took something for a medical problem without getting permission. He tested positive. The Fedex guy screwed up. And two of the three arbitrators thought there was some Fedex conspiracy to tamper with Ryan Braun’s urine test. It makes perfect sense.
Braun's drugs
He has to take something to keep his gigantic eyeballs from launching out of his face every time he sneezes.
-- Jerome Horwitz
by KO Stradivarius on Feb 24, 2012 7:57 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
Actually
In his statements today, he denied it was anything to do with a medical condition he has and also bet his life on the fact that nothing ever entered his body to produce that test result. Without going so far as to actual accuse the courier, it was pretty clear by implication that he believes something happened to the sample during the 44 hours it was unaccounted for that led to the result.
by WiscCubsFan on Feb 24, 2012 2:42 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
FedEx is the weakest link
Can’t ship samples out when their store is closed. Or UPS, or the USPS. Perhaps carrier pigeons? Or maybe carrier falcons?
The seals weren’t tampered with, Braun agreed it was his urine and the sample looked to be in order, the loophole he used was timing. What the guy did (pee stored in the fridge) is the standard procedure with doping agencies around the world when something cannot be mailed out. Problem is MLB didn’t spell that step out. The devil is in the lack of details.
by ddoubleheader on Feb 24, 2012 11:46 PM CST up reply actions
Dude drove by Mitchell Field
Was their office there closed? You have no idea if the seals were tampered with. Mishandling evidence in a way that’s known to destroy its validity isn’t a loophole.
Interesting about keeping it in a fridge, not that it was.
There were THREE tamper proof seals, the inner most one with Braun's own signature on it.
No one has claimed the seals were broken, and if they were, it would’ve been a major deal. You can’t simply remove these seals without it being completely obvious, and it’s not like the guy forged Braun’s signature to fool Braun himself.
It's amazing
after how many PED revelations, from outright denials to just claiming they randomly take whatever teammates give him to drinking PED-laced milkshakes from strangers that people still give players not only accused of PEDs but who are proven to use PEDs but something gets them off (be it statute of limitations or loopholes) the benefit of the doubt. So much for lasting damage from the Steroid Era if people are that trusting.
by ddoubleheader on Feb 27, 2012 6:34 AM CST up reply actions
to me, ok i see why his suspension was dismissed
but at the same time, if that was his strongest defense, that a guy didnt take it to FedEx on time….its sketch. maybe thats just me.
I followed the fanshot yesterday and
was unable to comment being at work. ( Weird how I can comment on some SBN sites but not BCB, anyways) I do not pretend to be Raymond Burr, however D98 you made and continue to make valid points and why people attacked you I didn’t understand.
To me it is black and white. He failed twice. The sample was not tampered with, just the delay in moving it.
He is guilty. I find it laughable when himself and people like Aaron Rodgers come out and say he is now vindicated. Bullshit.
I just put up a FanPost on this that is, admittedly, a bit incendiary.
I can’t believe how willing certain people in the media are to overlook the obvious, and how willing Braun and his team are to flat-out lie about the rationale and the import of last night’s decision.
Where does it say he failed twice?
I thought the initial information was just the opposite, that he immediately took a second test and passed it when he found out about the results of the first. If he failed the second one as well, then he wouldn’t have been cleared due to mishandling of the first sample.
That delay was because of the clown show at MLB
Some experts say that the pattern of results indicate an invalid result on the sample attributed to him as his level on the recheck was consistent with all the other tests he took and that’s not expected if he was taking what dreamers imagine he is.
I once saw Fedex delivering to the Post Office
Classic
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
Braun just became the poster child for the Scott Walker recall race up in Wisconsin
Seeing as how his union got him off (as well as the high priced lawyers).
This is pretty bad for the league, and wonder if it might tempt people to call for someone’s head, like Selig perhaps.
It’s going to be a lot like it was in the Bonds years for Giants fans, when it comes to how Braun is percieved around the league. The only difference is that Bonds never tested positive for a banned substance.
Keep the political comments out of this, please.
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Especially when they make no freaking sense.
I read the thing five times and I don’t get the comparison
For some fans, Kerry Wood is that dollap of pumpkin paste.
by Nunyabidness on Feb 24, 2012 10:35 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Right on.
Are Brewers fans supposed to be more pro-union now, because of the MLBPA helping their hero? Or what?
yeah, I don’t think this is going to have anything to do with politics whatsoever.
it was tongue in cheek
Funny part about all of that is that professional athletes are paid tons of money yet are members of unions, sort of contrary to the way a regular joe who is in a union is taken care of. Just different worlds.
Braun definitely can thank the players union for this overturning of his suspension, and that was sort of the point of the original statement.
No, he can thank the arbitrator.
The fact that MLB and the MLBPA get a vote is a joke, you know which way those votes are going.
True
But his union is the one that helped draft his out clause in this case. So like anyone who is a member of a union, is “protected” in cases like this.
Union's got little to do with it
High priced lawyers who can find every loophole and technicality to exploit has got a lot to do with it. Money can buy top lawyers, be one in a players union, be one a celebrity, be one a former football star.
Who was Braun’s lawyer, Perry Mason?
by ddoubleheader on Feb 24, 2012 11:49 PM CST up reply actions
Just to point out-
Being “high priced” has nothing to do with it. Any “good” lawyer can exploit the loopholes as well. In this case, as others have said, this part of the testing process was poorly contructed.
Chicago. Enough said.
It's NOT a break in the chain of custody.
The courier kept the sample in his possession at all times.
Everything else in your article is correct.
It is
According to Braun’s comments today, once the sample is put into the hands of FedEx it becomes anonymous. Up until that point, the courier knows whose sample it is. He says it was unaccounted for over a period of 44 or so hours during which no one knows where it was, how it was stored, or what was done to it. It is certainly plausible to argue, especially when you believe you are innocent in the first place, to think something may have happened during that time to produce the ridiculous result…remember it was three times higher than any previous test result in all the years of the program. That just doesn’t really make any sense.
by WiscCubsFan on Feb 24, 2012 2:47 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
If it were plausible to make that argument, then by all means, Braun should make that argument.
He didn’t, because it is implausible to make that argument.
It’s simply not true that “no one knows where it was”. The location of the sample is a matter of uncontested fact. It’s also a matter of uncontested fact that the sample was not tampered with.
I swear, people will literally make up anything to make them feel better.
Ryan Braun will not be suspended, because the CBA agreement requires a urine specimen to be sent via FedEx, barring “unforseen circumstances”, on the day it was collected.
Everything else you’re hearing today about “44 hours”, and “no one knows what happened to it”, is white noise.
I wonder if the courier's contract forbids him from commenting on his work for MLB
So Braun gets a free shot – throw someone who can’t reply under the bus. What a big, big man……
Braun didn't identify him
I’m not sure what “shot” he took. Stating facts is somehow contrary to your sense of justice?
MLB released his name.
Sliming someone with fantasies – what a big, big man…
I'm more upset about the new one game playoff
One game playoffs should be reserved for teams that are tied at the end of the season for the wildcard spot.
Gonna suck to be the team that has a rather large lead over the 2nd place wildcard at the end if the season and then gets kicked out of the playoffs in 1 game. Will make the regular season seem kind of pointless. My only hope is that it’s the Cardinals that that happens to first.
by wisconsinwillie on Feb 24, 2012 8:43 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
Win your division.
Then you won’t have to worry about one game. Hard to say it makes the regular season pointless with the importance of winning your division over 162 games.
Harry Caray: Marshall is going back to LA to get cocaine for his injured foot.
Steve Stone: Harry, that’s Novocaine.
by Julio Zuleta's Voodoo on Feb 24, 2012 8:51 AM CST via mobile up reply actions 1 recs
If winning the division is so important, then why have wildcards to begin with?
Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."
Laughable
The only thing this proves is that MLB’s drug-testing policy is laughable at best. If MLB truly cared about testing its players, they wouldn’t need a third-party courier to deliver results to a distant lab….they would have people on-site collecting, testing and otherwise handling all samples. To put it mildly, MLB doesn’t want it’s major stars testing positive under any circumstance as it doesn’t wish to revisit the Bonds/Clemens/McGwire/Sosa/Palmiero hearings any time soon.
Only the incredibly ignorant or incredibly careless players will test positive and have their suspensions upheld….that much is clear. Braun is dirty….just as the numerous other players who have hung their hat on the “I’ve-never-tested-positive” routine.
And one more time just for good measure…all of this nonsense continues to occur under the watch of the worst commissioner in the history of MLB…in my opinion of course.
I don't often agree with you.
If MLB truly cared about testing its players, they wouldn’t need a third-party courier to deliver results to a distant lab….they would have people on-site collecting, testing and otherwise handling all samples
But this is absolutely correct. To think that this happened because the courier didn’t think he could find a FedEx office open on a Saturday night in Milwaukee is laughable.
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Fluids
Doesn’t Fedex have a policy against shipping bodily fluids? Urine seems to be a liquid.
I would never say anything like this out loud, but one might wonder about a form of protest involving angry fans, FedEx and Bud Selig.
…Okay, now I’m thinking about this more.
Officials of the MLB: “Hello? Yeah, I need a bike messenger over here to deliver some pee.”.
And what kind of courier sits on a package for several days? Packages filled with pee. At his house… Don’t couriers expedite deliveries as a rule?
Hmmm… Selig… Brewers… I wonder which nephew of Selig’s owns the courier service.
-- Jerome Horwitz
by KO Stradivarius on Feb 24, 2012 9:26 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
And what kind of courier sits on a package for several days?
The kind that doesn’t have a way to ship it for several days?
For some fans, Kerry Wood is that dollap of pumpkin paste.
by Nunyabidness on Feb 24, 2012 10:36 AM CST up reply actions
This is false
The courier had multiple locations at which he could drop off the sample on the day/night it was put into his possession. He simply didn’t do it. Further, he didn’t go right to the FedEx center first thing Monday morning. Apparently he waited until the afternoon. The guy failed big time.
Yes
I spent 10 seconds Googling, and found this list of FedEx locations in Milwaukee, many of which are FedEx Authorized shippers, and several of which have hours on Sunday.
Who would NOT have stored the samples under controlled conditions
by ClarkFan on Feb 24, 2012 10:51 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
This is a good point.
FedEx may accept packages on Sunday, but they’re getting shipped Monday morning for Tuesday delivery, right?
Not what you asked
Also, I don’t know how they would store it. I don’t know whether it matters. Do they actually store pee cups in a refrigerated area and transport them in a separate refrigerated truck? I doubt it. I also don’t know whether they travel out from the shipping center on Sunday.
I do know that UPS delivers samples temperature-sensitive samples to my workplace, but they don’t do anything special with them. The senders are responsible for packing them in coolers with ice packs so that the samples stay in their temperature range.
What I don't understand is this
… if MLB is supposed to use these kinds of outfits to ship sensitive material like this, why wouldn’t they have scoped out places in each city where tests are done, to make sure samples could be shipped immediately?
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Does MLB need to set up
their own overnight delivery shipping company? Maybe that’s the way to restore a baseball team to Montreal (where the testing lab is). The Montreal Couriers! Have to be good at base-running, MLB having 30 ‘bases’ around the US & Canada.
by ddoubleheader on Feb 24, 2012 11:53 PM CST up reply actions
You know what?
I think that FedEx would happily store these samples on beds of crushed ice – special ice made from unicorn tears – and transport them at any time, day or night, 24/7/365, on special vehicles made of science-fictiony floating anti-gravity metals straight out of Area 51, if MLB was paying enough to suggest that they were taking this seriously.
by Limey Cub Fan Jay on Feb 24, 2012 12:08 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Probably true.
It is a little weird how loosey-goosey these policies and procedures were written. Who does a collection on Saturday night?
Again
In Braun’s statements today, he says that FedEx does store them in a refrigerated container when you drop off these samples.
I don't see this in the transcript
I see that he said they’re stored in a refrigerator in the lab, but the only thing I see about FedEx is that it would be in a “temperature-controlled” area. That could be a refrigerator, but it could also be pretty much anywhere that’s not outside. My office is “temperature-controlled,” but it is not a refrigerator.
It would be impossible to test on site
Unless MLB wants to invest several hundred thousands of dollars at each stadium to install instruments and train people to use them. It doesn’t make much financial sense to do this when you pay a lab a couple of hundered bucks to test the sample.
Very funny indeed
And here’s the fly in the ointment. MLB can afford whatever it wants, wherever it wants. It can afford to have state-of-the-art testing facilities in every major-league city and spring training location. It could easily screen and train thousands of lab technicians across the counrty. When major-league teams are paying marginally talented players millions of dollars per season, money is no object.
The giant caveat of course is that this is only the case if MLB is actually serious about cleaning up the game. The whole Braun fiasco very clearly points otherwise.
A legitimate drug testing program only makes financial sense if you believe that cleaning up the game will reap financial benefits that outweigh the liklihood that many of its star players will be sitting on the sidelines for 50 or 100 games….every season. It is pretty clear that MLB is not run by idiots, exlcuding Bud Selig of course. Financially, MLB is much, much better off with the Clemens, Bonds, Palmiero, Sosa, Braun-types playing rather than on the sidelines. That my friends is why the MLB drug testing policy is absurd on its face.
by krummy12 on Feb 24, 2012 1:55 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
This
And one more time just for good measure…all of this nonsense continues to occur under the watch of the worst commissioner in the history of MLB…in my opinion of course.
"The Cubs fans are the greatest fans in baseball. They've got to be."
- Herman Franks
by GrizzledCynicalVeteran on Feb 25, 2012 1:31 AM CST up reply actions
This stinks. I think I stepped in some yucky braun stuff.
If the Cubs still have a chance, no matter how small, it’s still Go Cubs, damn the math and pass the KoolAid. I'm a Sheeple and proud of it!
Spelling and grammar errors are included for creative and artistic reasons.
This is the problem with having a former owner as Commissioner.
At some point, a problem with his team had to come up. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy, it just looks bad.
The way I’ve read the story, it wasn’t a courier who had the sample but the guy who actually administered the test. What I don’t understand about the chain being broken is, if they trust the guy to administer the test and take it to a Fed Ex office, why can he not be trusted to keep the package for a weekend? He couldn’t tamper with it from the point of the test until dropping it off at Fed Ex but given a weekend he could go nuts?
No one is saying that the chain of custody was broken, or that any tampering occurred.
The arbitrator took a very strict interpretation of when the CBA required the sample to be shipped.
The fact that the arbitrator will overturn a suspension due to time of shipping, while fully admitting that the player’s urine contained synthetic testosterone, is mind-blowing.
It shouldn't be mind-blowing.
Isn’t to me anyway. The CBS sets forth the procedure for performing a test. The reason it has provisions about the timing of shipments, etc., is that they are considered important to assuring the integrity of the process. It doesn’t have to be the case that the test was tampered with – you set up a procedure for delivering the test and require it to be followed in all cases so that tampering COULDN’T occur very easily without the test being thrown out.
There is nothing unjust about this. The system is heavily insulated from player challenges (intent doesn’t matter; if he took something that was mislabeled it wouldn’t matter, etc.) so it’s hard to begrudge him a result like this.
by Orval Overall on Feb 24, 2012 9:35 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
I think you're misinformed.
The CBA does not require same day shipping. It requires that the test be delivered in a reasonable amount of time. Braun was able to convince the arbitrator that meant same-day shipping.
That is mind-blowing, largely because it is metaphysically impossible for the time of shipping to have affected Braun’s sample to any extent whatsoever – let alone to the massive TE ratio that was discovered.
The Rules also definitely say
That his test shouldn’t have been made public until after the appeal, and only if it was upheld. I have zero confidence that the version of the story that’s continuing to get leaked is fair and contains all material information. Maybe that’s wrong, but it seems to me not to be a coincidence that the same site that first broke the story about the positive test is the one that is now releasing all the information that makes the arbitrator seem reckless.
As for the substance of your response, it absolutely is the case that a regime that allowed samples to be held for several days makes it more likely that something COULD be tampered with. It’s perfectly reasonable to interpret open-ended language in such a way as to require the sample to be shipped sooner than the third day, so that regardless of whether THIS sample was tainted, the system as a whole is one where tampering with a sample is nearly impossible.
by Orval Overall on Feb 24, 2012 10:00 AM CST up reply actions 3 recs
No one is asserting that the sample was tampered with in any way.
I guess I don’t see your point. The CBA allows the collector to maintain custody temporarily, so long as the sample is stored properly, which it was.
I agree that it’s odd that this has all been leaked to the press throughout the process.
Analogy.
I understand you’re a lawyer, so let me give you an analogy from criminal law:
Miranda warnings exist because the Supreme Court decided that having such a warning would make it harder to coerce a suspect into make a confession. If a suspect confesses without being Mirandized, what happens? The confession is tossed out – and here’s the important part – WITHOUT REGARD to whether or not the confession was coerced. It’s a prophylactic rule designed to prevent coercion, not a remedial rule that only applies if there’s been coercion.
Similar logic can easily be applied in setting up a testing regime for MLB. If the point of the “immediate” delivery requirement is that it makes tampering more difficult and/or adds legitimacy to the testing regime because of the knowledge that tampering would have been very difficult, then it’s perfectly rational to have a remedy that says no test will be accepted unless it followed those procedures to the letter. It no more matters whether this particular test was tampered with than it would matter if a particular confession was the result of coercion; you set up clear rules and require strict adherence because that’s the best way to ensure that in all cases you’ll get a fair process.
by Orval Overall on Feb 24, 2012 11:58 AM CST up reply actions
I completely agree with the analogy. In the abstract.
However, the miranda requirement is not completely analogous. It’s required.
Here, we have an policy that sets forth the preferred procedure… and then goes on to set forth an alternative if the first procedure can’t be followed.
It would be as if the Miranda Court had said something like -
“absent unusual circumstances, a suspect should be made aware of his right to remain silent and to legal counsel prior to interrogation. However, if that doesn’t happen for whatever reason, the law enforcement officer should make the suspect aware of his right to remain silent and to counsel at the next reasonable opportunity after interrogation.”
And while the court was issuing that guideline, they expressly declined to say what the effect, if any, of failing to read the rights would be.
Considering that the World Anti-Doping Authority has no guidelines whatsoever for when a sample should be shipped, and all applicable science indicates that the shipping time is completely irrelevant, it’s probably fair to say that language was added b/c some attorney thought it looked official and nice, and tied things up neatly – unaware that every word they added was creating backdoors for violators to exploit.
Faulty analogy.
I’m not a lawyer, but interrogations happen when they happen.
In this case there are TWO events — taking the sample, and testing it. It’s what happened in between that’s at issue.
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What in the world are you talking about?
“interrogations happen when they happen” ???
If you get interrogated by a police officer PRIOR to receiving your Miranda rights, the evidence gained from that interrogation is unusable.
There are TWO events in Orval’s Miranda analogy, as well – the arrest, and the interrogation. It’s what happens in between (Miranda Rights) that is at issue.
You're wrong about this too
Police interview people all the time without mirandizing them. Try lying to an officer and then tell him that he can’t do anything because you haven’t been read your rights.
You don’t care that the arbiter hasn’t issued his report yet. Just about every post you make has either things that are false or that you have no way of knowing or both.
The chain of custody was broken. Its not even debated by anyone – well, except you.
Thanks a lot for the laugh, needed that one...
Just about every post you make has either things that are false or that you have no way of knowing or both.
That’s gold. Pure gold.
by bdlugz on Feb 26, 2012 8:49 PM CST up reply actions 3 recs
Yeah, pretty much
Braun didn’t want to accuse the guy of tampering with it. I think his point is that no one knows what happened to it during that time. In a process where the accused is 100% guilty and must prove his innocence, it is important that the process that everyone agreed to is carried out diligently. In this case, it wasn’t, and something certainly may have influenced the test result during that time.
thats a pretty good estimate
I think Fielder being gone, and the protection behind him in the lineup drops his power potential as well as hittable pitches. But the whole “clean” vs “dirty” issue probably drops his production as well.
I would say over but not over 30.
Under
Boos and distractions on the road. And guilt.
Over/under on Aramis? I say under 25, no doubt. Under 20 even. Watch a career end slowly.
-- Jerome Horwitz
by KO Stradivarius on Feb 24, 2012 9:29 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
Under
He’s not built like a guy who generates power simply by swinging at anything that looks tempting, like Pujols. He didn’t start juicing just before the playoffs. And the crowds this year are going to be (justifiably, imo) merciless letting the NL MVP have it for cheating.
"The Cubs fans are the greatest fans in baseball. They've got to be."
- Herman Franks
by GrizzledCynicalVeteran on Feb 25, 2012 1:43 AM CST up reply actions
RE: Bud Selig says an international draft is "inevitable."
I highly doubt that the results of a draft would be in any way be considered legal or binding according to European labor laws. But I’m not a lawyer, so I could be wrong.
If the Cubs still have a chance, no matter how small, it’s still Go Cubs, damn the math and pass the KoolAid. I'm a Sheeple and proud of it!
Spelling and grammar errors are included for creative and artistic reasons.
If a player is drafted then no one is forcing him to show.
Just like with the amateur draft. High School players that are selected still have the option to sign or go to college.
If Shyam Das were interpreting that phrase, MLB is legally liable if no international draft is put in place.
That said, I’m not sure how European labor laws would come into play…. wouldn’t these players be “laboring” in the US?
European
Which brings us back to Ryan Braun.
“You’re a-peein’” in this cup, but don’t worry about the results, you work for Bud.
-- Jerome Horwitz
by KO Stradivarius on Feb 24, 2012 9:33 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
It's not that "Chain of Custody" was disregarded
It’s that this guy apparently found that there was no rule for this situation.
Obviously, Fed Ex is sometimes closed so there has to be some procedure/action taken when it is closed. But since there was no rule written for that situation, at least not a clear enough rule I guess, the guy decided that taking it home was wrong. ’
But anything the tester did would have been wrong in the same way because he could not send it. It’s quite absurd.
by Ken T on Feb 24, 2012 9:21 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
Two things are bizarre here
1) That MLB would not have thought of this kind of thing ahead of time
2) That there’s no 24/7 FedEx office in a big city like Milwaukee
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Have you been here lately?
Downtown in Milwaukee closes up shop at 5 PM.
The guy could have taken it down by the airport directly to the shipping center. Just sounds like he was lazy.
Well I think the MLB did think of this ahead of the time. I believe the rule says the sample has to be dropped off as soon as possible. It’s not possible to drop something off when it’s closed. Therefore, you have to drop it off as soon as you can once it’s open. And that is what is done with every other major drug testing organization.
I am just in disagreement with what the independent arbiter decided.
I would not know about the latter as I rarely used Fed Ex and have never heard of a 24/7 location that is actually open (I do not not think it’s the kind of thing appropriately dropped into an overnight bin).
Plenty of FedEx places are open 24/7
… there are three or four such places within a couple miles of my house.
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Braun addressed this in his comments today
He said, apart from there being multiple locations that were open late enough, there was also a 24 hour location the guy could have dropped it off at.
VOTED 2-1
WHAT A FUCKING JOKE. I don’t care that he is a Brewer and not my favorite guy. But Jesus what a joke
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
by Hammer on Feb 24, 2012 10:54 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
If only I had 3 parents
I may have won some arguements
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
I'd say even
It was like that I guess because none of us kids were dicks.
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
I think it's hilarious
The idea that millions of dollars in salary and endorsements (his literal 50 games without pay, plus whatever collateral damage in future earnings), the credibility of an MVP season and a division-winning team, and the greater picture of a drug-free game is in the hands of some minimum-wage courier who couldn’t be bothered to check and see if a place was OPEN?
I have no idea if Braun deserved to get off. But baseball certainly deserves to look stupid.
Here’s the deal. Between now and the start of the season, the union and MLB jointly pick a company with outlets in all MLB cities and negotiate a deal that says, "We don’t care if you’re closed. If you get a call and the courier gives you the password, “Rumplestilskin’s Puckered Bunghole” then you meet the guy at your shop and open up."
That seems convoluted, but if you can’t trust couriers to, you know, CALL and see if a place is open, or forgo his weed and pizza party long enough to drive across town to the one that IS open, then you have to improvise.
"It's all in the game, yo"
The sample still wouldn't have been on an airplane that night, if they'd missed the pick-up time.
The sample was much safer with the courier, refrigerated, than it would have been sitting in a giant pile of boxes on the floor behind the FedEx counter until Monday morning.
A better revision – from now on, testing happens first thing in the AM on a weekday. Problem solved.
Or...
MLB and the union contracts with drug-testing agencies in each city and the courier just has to go to that facility instead of FedEx.
"It's all in the game, yo"
How many labs actually do that kind of testing? That could be the problem.
I suspect it is a more elaborate test than testing for recreational drugs.
I'll bet that there are LabCorp facilities in every MLB city.
I don’t know if this is a more elaborate test than they can handle, though. But it seems odd that it would be.
Labs can do these on a rush schedule
any time of day, any day. You just have to pay them the rush/off hours fee.
…at least that is the way it works with environmental testing facilities.
"We push bunt, we squeeze bunt, we hit and run, we steal home!" - Larry Cox on the 1989 NL East Champion Chicago Cubs
LabCorp is seemingly everywhere
Matter of fact, we have a technician ON SITE five days a week where I work. Soon as the sample is taken, Lab Corp already has it because they’re the ones that took it.
Chicago. Enough said.
I would think they could handle it
Every major city’s police and fire departments have to undergo testing.
The worry would be fan-boy lab rats deducing that the shipment that came in at 7 p.m. and marked “RUSH” was for a player for the hometown team and screwing it up.
"It's all in the game, yo"
The problem with that
You can cycle your program so that the days you’re most likely to test positive is on a weekend. You cannot give players 2 guaranteed safe days per week because it is not in your system every day.
Yes
Safer with a professional collector than sitting in a giant pile mixed in with the pizza boxes of the midnight shift stoners making copies at two in the morning.
"The Cubs fans are the greatest fans in baseball. They've got to be."
- Herman Franks
by GrizzledCynicalVeteran on Feb 25, 2012 1:51 AM CST up reply actions
What are you talking about?
Did you know that FedEx even owns some airplanes? Did you think they run a 9-5, Monday through Friday operation? You are irrational.
Screw a system that allows 2-1 votings
Screw the Marlins
Screw the players association
and shove it up your diaper Bud
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
oh and Ill be at Fitch Park tomorrow
YAY RAINBOWS AND BASEBALL
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
how's the Hammer biography coming??
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
The Marlins won the World Series in 2003.
There will be no excuses for not doing something the right way. - Dale Sveum
by santoswoodenlegs on Feb 24, 2012 11:07 AM CST up reply actions
Again...I could care less what these athletes put in their bodies...
…but, he tested positive…he failed a drug test. Add his name to “The List”. He’s NO better than any of those guys.
Sammy never tested positive
Im 100% he used. I still absolutely love just about every second of his time in a Cubs uniform.
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
Luckily he got caught cheating
so whether it was ‘roids or corked bats, you can say he’s a known cheater and should be forgotten.
but yeah - add him to the list
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Cubs win....what a lucky break!!" ---Harry
I don't care about the big league level athletes. I care about what PED use sets up well before MLB.
If using PEDs is normal in MLB, then it effectively becomes the gold standard for every kid who wants to be a MLB player. If you aren’t using, you aren’t maximizing your potential. So for every MLB-level user who hits it big, there will be hundreds of kids who messed up their bodies trying to reach that same goal.
Might as well play the game with androids and set up the rules so it’s more like Rollerball….
by ClarkFan on Feb 24, 2012 11:41 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
This decision
didn’t prove he was clean or innocent of the charges, he got off on a technicality. IMO It’s no different than in a court of law that finds a defendant not guilty, it doesn’t mean that person is innocent.
Still don’t like the buggy eyed dude and never will.
For those of you who've been quoting the CBA and/or MLB's drug testing policy...
…does it actually say “FedEx” in the documents? Seems that way based on some of the articles I’ve seen, but I find it very hard to believe someone would actually specify a company name like that in an official policy document.
Then again, this is MLB, so nothing should surprise me…
Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."
Excellent! Product placement has reached the most inane depths possible.
Sure hope MLB and the MLBPA got big bucks for that….
Lou Brown: "My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team..."
And the test results have to be analyzed on an Apple computer and transmitted to MLB headquarters via the Verizon network
And leaked via Twitter…..
by ClarkFan on Feb 24, 2012 1:32 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Page 38 of the following PDF has the actual shipping instructions
http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/pa/pdf/jda.pdf
Not only does it specify FedEx, but it even specifies the declared value for urine samples to be used for customs declarations (the testing facility is in Quebec).
Presumably it’s all to keep the process excessively standardized to avoid any perceived bias in different handling methods to be used as grounds for dismissal upon appeal. …not that it helped here, although as others have said, the courier should have found a 24 hour FedEx location, as I suspect will be the express instructions from here on out.
once again
Can anyone provide link/proof of the timeline?
It seems to me the consensus is 2 tests but yet I see nothing that says it. Why wasn’t the first one used to test then?
My opinion is they took a sample. Came back positive. To find out WHAT the sample was positive for, then courier took said sample and we have fedex gate. I don’t see any scenario where or even why a 2nd was needed. (This would support brauns claims,“it was tampered, wasn’t my piss”) I believe he’s guilty, but some of these facts don’t add up. I’d also like to know the sealing and how its done. I’d assume some tamper proof seal instead of a cup with tape over it like our employers seem to have…
by RIP Slim on Feb 24, 2012 1:00 PM CST via mobile reply actions
Samples
What happened is that Braun peed in a cup with the collector watching. Then, with Braun watching, the contents of that cup were divided into two containers, A and B, and sealed and identified, and initialed by Braun as his.
When the lab tested container A, it found the testosterone to epitestosterone ratio to be high enough (4:1, Braun’s is reported to have been more than 20:1) to ask whether there was synthetic testosterone present. That’s what sample B is used for, and when sample B was tested, the answer came back yes.
So – one pee event, split into two samples, each sample tested for a different reason.
The second test that Braun’s team had done after he was informed of the MLB-paid-for results was done a good three weeks later, which gave his system plenty of time to get his ratio down to normal and to flush the synthetic T out.
"The Cubs fans are the greatest fans in baseball. They've got to be."
- Herman Franks
by GrizzledCynicalVeteran on Feb 25, 2012 2:02 AM CST up reply actions
Braun's apparent arrogance and stupidity gave the union and MLB a golden opportunity:
Find a sure loophole and a friendly arbitrator to kick the living daylights out of a government-induced testing program that neither side wanted in the first place.
Nothing to see here, folks. It’s time to party on and watch those home runs start flying out of big league ballparks – maybe by a 10% increase over 2011 totals.
"Started hummin' a song from 1962..." – Bob Seger
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." – Faulkner
It’s time to party on and watch those home runs start flying out of big league ballparks – maybe by a 10% increase over 2011 totals.
Really now. On what do you base this claim?
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Over the next few weeks, all parties involved will assess the reactions of fans, politicians, and the general public...
…to the way baseball officials mishandled both the testing and appeal in this case. My guess is that the reaction from all quarters will be relatively mild and short-lived, especially because Braun’s reprieve follows so closely the failed Clemens prosecution and Bonds slap-on-the-wrist. Any drive to enforce the rules may be exhausted, at least temporarily.
If it becomes apparent to players, agents, and the union that MLB’s drug program is essentially unenforceable, players who think they can benefit from juicing will be more willing to take the chance.
As we know, if things do play out this way it won’t be the first time baseball has turned a blind eye to steroids when viewership and attendance need an injection of home run magic. Come to think of it, we might even get to see Soriano reprise his magical 2006 contract year.
"Started hummin' a song from 1962..." – Bob Seger
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." – Faulkner
Let's Move On
We could talk about this for a long time — and yes it’s a shame to what this does to the integrity of the game year after year — but a decision has been made; Braun gets to play.
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