Tagged: Ryan Braun

Braun beats the charges

Brewer fans can rejoice, their golden boy Ryan Braun is still golden. (And no, I’m not trying to work in a golden boy/urine sample pun.)

I’m not even going to pretend to understand the circumstances around it, but outside arbitrators have ruled that Braun’s positive test will be overturned and he won’t open the season with a 50 game ban. Their reasoning being there was something wrong with the sample, it wasn’t tested fast enough….or something like that. 

Apparently Braun has passed several other tests, so I’m in inclined to believe he’s clean. I said all along I hope he wins his case and it turns out this was all a misunderstanding. I didn’t think he was going to win his appeal, but I was hoping he would for the sake of the game. 

Just like that, the Brewers are officially contenders again. 

Unfortunately for MLB, just as they are hoping to turn the page on another ugly failed drug test, the Oakland A’s went out and signed Manny Ramirez. All I have to say is I’m so glad he’s not Toronto’s problem. Good luck, Billy. Maybe one day they’ll make a movie about how you took a chance on a woman-beating, two-time druggie with a penchant for quitting on his teammates…but I doubt it.

Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, word out of Blue Jays’ camp is Jose Bautista has taken and passed 16 drug tests in the past two years. Yankee fans (who won a World Series because with A-Roid) will continue to point fingers at Jose, but fact is they don’t have a leg to stand on. 

 

Braun to make a speech, Darvish strikes a deal

The Jays haven’t done much this off-season, especially of late. 

So that leaves me with little to blog about. 

One thing that I feel like weighing in on (just let me climb on my soap box here) is the Ryan Braun situation. The recent development being that Braun has confirmed he will make an acceptance speech when he accepts his NL MVP Award. Don’t expect anything too exciting though as his elevated testosterone levels will no doubt be OFF the list of acceptable topics. 

I’m not going to get into the whole ‘did he’ or ‘didn’t he’ talk because I honestly have no idea. If he honestly believes he’s done nothing wrong it would be a shame that he doesn’t get to enjoy everything that goes with being MVP. My problem lays in the fact that MLB has had weeks to deal with this whole Braun situation. Couldn’t they have held his appeal and dealt with this ugliness and then decided whether or not he knowingly broke the rule?

As for if he deserves the award or not, I think IF he cheated he doesn’t deserve it. Of course this would set a standard and open a huge can of worms. 

And in somewhat Jays related news, the Texas Rangers reached a deal with Yu Darvish at the deadline today, going for 60 million, six year deal. If he lives up to the hype that will be a great bargain. There’s a good chance he won’t though but either way I’m sure his ticket sales alone will make this deal worth while. 

I have to think this deal means Prince Fielder is likely going to become a Washington National.