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1. McCoy Wilfong for Money Posted: February 05, 2013 at 08:58 PM (#4363495)Round up the usual suspects...
I'm shocked, shocked that Ryan Braun would be involved in steroids.
Darwin Barney posted a 4.5 bWAR last year while hitting to a .650 OPS. His bWAR was higher than Josh Hamilton's (3.5), who hit to a .930 OPS. I'm sure the nation would be up in arms if Barney were found to be using PEDs.
I believe it was under "Request for PEDs denied. No drugs in the world can help those guys hit."
Yup, that will make things right for Bill Madden.
Or maybe it was a study, and he gave them the placebo.
Clearly, defensive metrics are on PEDs...
Which I've long-suspected and complained about many times.... but if this means a blessed 50 game suspension of dWAR (or - be still my heart, season long suspension!)-- then consider me a born-again anti-PEDer...
Ryan, I'm going to miss you. Apparently you're the only one with less scruples than A-Rod.
"During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Tony Bosch, used him as a consultant. More specifically, he answered questions about T/E ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples.
"There was a dispute over compensation for Bosch's work, which is why my lawyer and I are listed under 'moneys owed' and not on any other list.
"I have nothing to hide and have never had any other relationship with Bosch.
"I will fully cooperate with any inquiry into this matter."
Oh my god, he took all of them!
Your 2011 NL MVP, sir.
Thank you!
"The New Times was trying to be somewhat responsible, and we were having none of it."
5*
Cue Captain Renault...
Ryan came to Biogenesis for the waters. He was misinformed.
The only thing I think is clear is that the writers are much less strict on the seasonal awards than the Hall, perhaps because the MVP voters are all active writers who still have to go and interview the people they're [not] voting for.
and for the reading impaired note i am not saying he is clean or will never get nabbed for these types of things. just that i don't think it would happen like this
Also, of course, I might have no idea what I'm talking about. I see the logic of it taking a failed test but if it becomes dead certain someone used banned substances, I could see a lot of pressure on everyone to do something.
Players (such as Jordan Schafer - details here) have been suspended in the minors on the basis of "information received", rather than a positive test of any sort.
* A number of Dade County cops were just brought up on charges of dereliction of duty for ignoring calls for service while they drank coffee, ate lunch, and made out with women. Par for the course down here.
Plus Braun beat the earlier rap on a complete technicality having nothing to do with substance. So, no, his present denials aren't really believable.
(*) Was Bosch a witness in the Braun arbitration?
But it might make a lot of sense to create a pretext for sending $20-30K to a guy who provided PEDs to your client.
Jose Guillen was suspended at the MLB level without a positive test.
When I lived on Miami Beach, I had Indian license plates that said 'Creek' on them...about half the time when I got a parking ticket, the officer would label the plate as 'foreign'.
Well, PED usage or non-usage is not a binary position, where you are 100% innocent or 100% guilty. Players are in an environment where they start on protein shakes, add B12 pills, and work their way up the enhancement spectrum. Most players are likely in a murky grey area that is somewhere between "by golly innocent" or "barry bonds needle me in the ass with whatever you got". I imagine Braun is in the murky middle.
I'm not saying it was a bad ruling, just that the arbitrator did not find that Braun did not use PEDs.
To play devil's advocate, maybe they went to the guy for medical information because they knew he was shady, and might thus be amenable to financial persuasion in exchange for testimony to support their chosen position in the appeal. Even if he's not a doctor, he might look credible enough to work as an expert witness.
It's not a lock that the arbitrator would allow a penalty. There are plenty of procedural grounds that a player might prevail on even if MLB has a fair amount of evidence.
Since it appears that Bosch provided PEDs to Braun's college teammates, Braun almost certainly knew he was "shady." So Braun's case now is that, upon finding himself falsely accused of PED use, he immediately established a financial connection with a PED seller by hiring him as a consultant? I suppose "I'm an idiot and my lawyers are grossly incompetent" is a vaguely plausible defense, but it seems much more likely that this was hush money to Bosch (or Braun was blackmailed).
I think you misread what he wrote. He's saying the arbiter did not find that Braun DID use PEDs, not the inverse.
There's certainly a lot of gray area in general, but I don't think anyone is talking about protein shakes or B-12 here, they're talking about the synthetic testosterone that his sample came up positive for. So you either think that test was legitimate or tainted, with relatively little room for gray. I doubt that this new evidence is going to change many people's minds one way or another, because this evidence is far weaker than the positive test.
ESPECIALLY gossip. what if some dealer got paid to say that he gave a player drugs? that is all you need. the player is dead because there IS no defense.
i certainly don't want someone banned for a first offense. FAR too easy to drug someone without his knowledge - say, put testosterone gel inside someone's jock - let it dry - it will absorb thru the skin and give a positive test and there you go - you got rid of your rival or a team got rid of an overpaid or unpopular player without having to pay a cent and without having to worry about the player being able to put up any sort of defense.
this is what happens when you got witch hunting/hysteria and when you can execute people without them having any access to anything resembling a fair trial. it's kind of like how any "celebrity" can't win a libel suit in this country because you can't prove a negative PLUS "malice"
Generally speaking this is parsed as "beat it on a technicality". Seemingly (so far) generally not the case for Braun.
Yes and no. He was suspended during the 2007-2008 offseason for buying HGH from a Florida clinic, but the suspension was rescinded before it was ever served as part of MLB-union negotiations on a new policy.
And my recollection from 2010, is that he wasn't formally suspended for the postseason, but that MLB strongly suggested to the Giants that they ought not put him on the postseason roster.
Well, he won the appeal because the procedures were screwed up, doing who knows what to the validity of the test.
The elder Bosch is a doctor.
And, in the early stages, there was a rumor that one of the "problems" with the Braun test was that he showed up with a T/E ratio that was off the charts. I don't think we ever found out if that was true but, if it was, it would make sense for his lawyers to investigate that as a possible line of defense.
But I will agree that Pedro Bosch, much less Tony, is hardly an ideal expert witness.
There is no chemical process through which a sealed urine sample can magically generate synthetic testosterone. It was a win on technicality through and through.
Again, not saying that anyone did tamper, just that that is the rationale.
The sample arrived at the lab with an intact tamper proof seal, verified upon receipt. Braun got his suspension lifted because the courier followed what his company said to do over the weekend with the sample, which was inconsistent with the fine print in the MLB testing policy.
Part of the difficulty with Braun's statement is that it may legitimize the list that contains the other players. I cannot imagine that Braun's statement helps Gio Gonzalez in any way.
Aren't the substances linked to the Gio Gonzalez notebook entry non-PEDs?
If his plan was to attack the credibility of the report, than Braun's statement suggesting that he did have a relationship with the Bosch, however innocuous, seems to suggest that the original report wasn't a fabrication. This doesn't really mean that Gio was using PEDs, but I think I'm a bit more skeptical of the idea that there wasn't a relationship between Gonzalez and Bosch after Braun's statement.
Many suspicions, no convictions (yet). Should we call him the Teflon Braun? Do we have to kiss his ring?
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