MLB Bullets Presents 'Braun-A-Palooza"

I'm always scanning the internet to bring you the wide variety of baseball news. Normally, that's a lot of different stories from as many teams as I can. But today, there's only one story. Or at least it seems that way.

• Ryan Braun got suspended for the rest of the season for "violations of the Basic Agreement and its Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program," in connection with the Biogenesis scandal. I'm guessing you've already heard this.
• Now we will proceed to list everyone's reaction to this. Tom Verducci answers questions about why Braun took the deal, what the role of the union was and what this means for other accused players, including Alex Rodriguez.
• Michael Rosenberg (and everyone else, really) thinks that Braun's apology was "weak," but it's better than the silence that is coming from Rodriguez.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the suspension of Braun is a great day for baseball.
• Danny Knobler says that even when Braun finishes his 65 game suspension, his sentence will not be over. He will never escape the stain of the scandal.
• Jonah Keri agrees, and says that while the deal for Braun is a good one, he's the first big name to be caught in the prime of his career. That stain will stay will him for the rest of his life. But, he adds, it doesn't look like he'll be the last because MLB is just getting started.
• Scott Miller is not accepting Braun's apology. He also thinks he needs to apologize to everyone he's wronged, such as the sample collector from 2011, the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals and Matt Kemp.
• Buster Olney thinks that Braun is the Lance Armstrong of baseball, and he needs to go to Oprah and apologize. And then apologize to all those people Miller said plus more. (Insider article, but they appear to be in a free preview right now.)
• Craig Calcaterra thinks Braun doesn't owe you or anyone else an apology. Except maybe that sample collector, he adds. But he correctly points out that we don't know that the Diamondbacks were all clean. And the Brewers? They benefitted from Braun's actions a lot more than they were hurt.
• Jon Paul Morosi calls Braun "selfish."
• Tim Keown thinks Braun is "sad." He also thinks that the reaction is a little over the top, because it's not like he's the only one doing this. But Keown also thinks Braun brought this on himself with the way he handled the 2011 positive test.
• Joe Sheehan thinks that what Braun did was indefensible, but he's concerned about the mixed message baseball is sending. The outrage goes to 11 on Braun, but barely measures at all when a mediocre player is caught and serves his time.
• Ben Lindbergh summarizes Baseball Prospectus' reaction to the scandal, which is too complex to summarize in a one-liner like I normally do. I rarely link to BP because all the good stuff is behind a paywall, but this one is free and clear.
• Matt Kemp thinks that Braun should be stripped of his MVP award, although he adds that he doesn't want it. He also adds that "it's not for me to decide." The secretary-treasurer of the BBWAA says all awards are final.
• Turning to Alex Rodriguez, reports are that MLB is considering a lifetime ban.
• Bob Nightengale reports that people close to Rodriguez say he has no intention of cutting a deal like Braun did.
• Nelson Cruz is another name that has been connected to the Biogenesis scandal. His manager, Ron Washington, says Cruz has the full support of him and the entire Rangers organization. We'll see. Washington also praised the way Cruz has handled the situation.
• Meanwhile, in tangentially-related news, the MLBPA has named MLB veteran Tony Clark as their new deputy executive director. This puts him in line to be the new head of the union when current MLBPA head Michael Weiner, who is fighting inoperable brain cancer, steps down. Clark was active as a player representative during his 15 year major league career, mostly with the Tigers and Diamondbacks, and has worked for the MLBPA since retiring in 2009.
• A couple of reactions to the Matt Garza trade. Jay Jaffe says the Rangers gave up a lot for Garza.Even though they lost nothing that they couldn't afford to lose, he says that now the Rangers don't have those pieces to trade for a bat that they also desperately need.
• Jonah Keri thinks the trade makes the Rangers better now and the Cubs better tomorrow.
• Keri also writes a nice article for Grantland in praise of James Shields.
• The Orioles were glad when they got Scott Feldman from the Cubs, but Feldman almost ruined whatever value he might add by almost beaning Manny Machado on a throw to first base.
• Dustin Pedroia has agreed to a new 7 year contract extension, worth approximately $100 million.
• Dave Cameron of Fangraphs thinks that the Red Sox bought Pedroia for the price of Ian Kinsler.
• Chris Carpenter has had a "setback" in his recovery efforts. He's not giving up though.
• Jason Grilli was placed on the DL with a strained right forearm. All I can think of is "Bruce Sutter" and "1977." I'm reasonably confident the situations are completely analogous (for one, Sutter threw about twice as many innings as Grilli does), but I hope the Pirates don't miss him as much as they think they're going to miss him.
• Joe Blanton is in danger of losing his spot in the Angels rotation. Going 2-13 with a 5.66 ERA will do that to you. Also, blowing up at your pitching coach. Why is he only "in danger"?
• The difference with Matt Moore this season is that he's using his changeup more often and more effectively.
• The Marlins promoted Christian Yelich and Jake Marisnick to the majors. As awful as they are, there is some exciting young talent in Miami.
• The Nationals fired hitting coach Rick Eckstein.
• John Erardi and Joel Luckhaupt write a column for cincinnati.com and their editor or whoever writes the headlines apparently doesn't read it. The article itself is a sabermetric analysis on why Joey Votto's poor RBI numbers are meaningless, yet the headline is "Why Joey Votto's RBI Total Matters."
• Finally, C.C. Sabathia says "I suck."

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Although I still bet we're talking about this Biogenesis stuff.