“Twenty-to-one is off the radar screen,” Wadler said. “There is no way that sitting around for 44 hours would have resulted in elevated testosterone (or synthetic testosterone).”

So there you have it. Braun is supposed to say WHY it was off the charts (for his own defense), which he probably has no way of knowing. He is, essentially, guilty unless he proves himself innocent. With MLB apparently not interested in the fact that he never before failed a test, has no physical changes to his body, to his speed, to his strength or power, to his “numbers” before or since — what is he supposed to do? You challenge the matter on the one thing that you CAN prove, namely that there was a procedural screw up.

The arbitrator may have been weighing all of this, at least we can assume he had it in mind. In Das’ head: “We do not have a repeat offender, we don’t have any statistical evidence of a deviation in performance or physique, we have a result that is astoundingly “high” (off the radar screen) with no precedent and no explanation of how that may have come to pass, we have a leak in the supposedly confidential handling of the whole matter — in which no names are to be released until the entire process, including appeal, is complete. AND we have a deviation from the exacting process that was bargained by the union, supposedly in exchange for forfeiting the “innocent until proven guilty” principle that applies in courts.

I’m sorry, but MLB is to blame for (a) the leaked information that essentially smeared Braun before the case was decided, and (b) for accepting a test result wherein the process was breached. Ryan Braun is to blame for, I guess, getting the case thrown out on the one thing he could prove and MLB could not disprove.

God, that’s a horrible joke, but I just can’t help it.

Wow, that might be the dumbest thing I have ever seen and way to trivialize a human tragedy. So mountains of corpses, video, sworn testimony, A WORLD WAR, etc aren’t evidence of the Holocaust?

If you have never seen any of that evidence your education failed you greatly.

In fact, re-reading the article, Nightengale doesn’t even attribute that acusation to the anonymous sources. It looks to be entirely his opinion.

Sure, the article above says “if” but clearly frames it to make MLB look bad. Nevermind, just saw your next article that doesn’t seem to bother with “if.” It starts off with a declaritive statement that “Major League Baseball is laser-focused on Ryan Braun” How do you know they’re laser focused on Ryan Braun? How do you know they’re not just getting people to turn wherever they can, or where their current or previous investigations have shown there to be likely PED use? More importantly why do you think they’re focused on Ryan Braun unfairly? They probably have investigative reasons to be focused on him. Just like the original Biogenesis reports, you don’t know!

It’s funny as hell how authors can turn opinions into facts by just talking enough about something, then citing each others opinions and their own. Make the story, fight the man, tell a tale, entertain us!

If you get caught stealing office supplies at work, and are lucky enough not to get fired, you better bet someone is watching the tapes every time to are in the stock room. And no, that is not an apples and oranges comparison. It is a case of infringing on the rules and the repercussions that go along with it.

He is either an unrepentant cheater…..or such an enormous butthole that he inspires everyone around him to conspire to make him LOOK like an unrepentant cheater.

Which one is better?

I just have a feeling this won’t be going away for a long time, kind of like the Lance Armstrong thing where they tested old blood years later with new tests and found he was using undetectable (at that time) stuff.

Sadly, for Brewer fans, this saga is nowhere near being complete.

MLB comes out looking bad if this is true they are focusing on individual stars over the PROBLEM. So 2 guys are more important than the fact 90 guys are allegedly not afraid of your drug testing program?

But yeah, go for revenge. What a joke.

Braun very well could be a PED user, and he could also very well be telling the truth. There isn’t any real evidence that proves it one way or another yet so why doesn’t everybody just relax and wait until there is actual information to validate one side or the other.

None of us posting on here knows all the facts – and the fact that MLB is not disclosing Shyam Das’ written decision explaining his ruling – is extremely concerning. There is a reason MLB is not making all the facts of the appeal, and the matter itself, known.

It’s amazing to me that ESPN can get all of the information against players, but somehow cannot find a way to get the exculpatory evidence & information, like the Das opinion.

I have no idea if Braun cheated or didn’t. If he’s guilty, punish him. But the person who knew all the facts and was entrusted to make the decision on guilt vs. innocence ruled in Braun’s favor, and the fact that we still do not definitively know why is problematic.