Comments on: MLB denies that it’s specifically targeting Braun, but the denial rings hollow

By: b453841l

b453841l — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:40:47 +0000

“Why do you care, why should anyone care how MLB is running its investigation if they aren’t breaking any laws?”

Great Point! The only time the public or media should question corporations’ actions, tactics, methods of interacting with their employees is when such methods clearly violate a law. If there are ethical or moral issues in play–perhaps management ignoring an explicit protocol agreed to by both sides for drug testing–that don’t violate the law, it’s nobody’s business but the employers. You are like the pesky federal government of 150 years ago trying to implement your morals on the law-abiding plantation owners’ business by turning their legal property, slaves, into people. Outrageous!

By: nbjays

nbjays — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:01:11 +0000

No, because Melky is actually an asset on the field and at bat, unlike A-Rod.

By: scoocha

scoocha — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:47:16 +0000

Maybe MLB is targeting them because they’ve both failed tests before? Target those who have already been found guilty once – makes sense to me.

By: yousuxxors

yousuxxors — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:46:17 +0000

i think this entire thing shows PEDs dont enhance performance all that well. people all over the league, from minors to majors are on them and they are not doing that good. you have to be good vefore to ve good on them. why barry bonds is still special to me. its like those assholes that think drugs make them good musicans. you gotta be talented before to be good after.

By: shaggytoodle

shaggytoodle — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:14:44 +0000

Craig – let’s wait until we have actual facts, and all those actual facts before we accuse the MLB of these types of things.

Why? People didn’t want to wait for Braun’s appeal to be heard, they just wanted to scream failed drug test.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:41:08 +0000

MLB's own Quds Force. Great. It kinda reminds me of that midlevel executive in The China Syndrome yelling at Jack Lemmon as he drove away to warn everyone of the design flaws in the reactor system, "They have their own security force! Do you understand me? Their own security force!"

By: lardin

lardin — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:37:21 +0000

Melky aint A-Rod

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:35:54 +0000

Uh-uh. Paperlions with the drone strike.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:33:36 +0000

(Note: I did send Craig the Gowachin LSAT study guide some months back. Yes, it’s complex stuff, but he’s had more than enough time.)

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:31:55 +0000

It's Brooks. He spells it oondt.

By: dparker713

dparker713 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:17:17 +0000

I’m not even sure that the MLB can grant immunity. This is a joint program that has been collectively bargained. Unless the agreement specifically grants MLB the option to withhold punishment, I see no reason why they would be able to ignore the drug policy or why the Union couldn’t turn around and set forth the accusations to those granted ‘immunity’. The league office seems to be overstepping once again.

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:10:41 +0000

My assumption is that all of the “new” activities being referred to are being carried out by MLB’s in-house investigating wing, established per the Mitchell Report, staffed by heavy hitters from the FBI and other law-enforcement types. This is how it has been done for five-plus years now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3192208

By: bleedgreen

bleedgreen — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:46:39 +0000

I think they’re more pissed at HOW he won, not that he won. He didn’t win by proving he wasn’t using. He won by saying that there was a 1 in 100000000 that his sample was tainted.

By: umrguy42

umrguy42 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:40:25 +0000

“A riot is an ungly thing… undt, I tink, that it is chust about time ve had vun.”

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:32:59 +0000

yes, confidentiality* damn it.

By: tuftsb

tuftsb — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:26:26 +0000

does Bud selig get denied HOF status due to the prevalence of steroids?

By: echech88

echech88 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:22:29 +0000

This will get really funny when Braun’s lawyers find a way to sue the league and, knowing the league’s propensity for epic failure, win.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:19:23 +0000

Actually, it is not “totally standard” in MLB’s drug testing program. It is the exact opposite of what happens in a zero tolerance regime. This is a fundamental shift. Maybe it’s a smart shift. I don’t know. But it is a change.

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:16:59 +0000

I know, that right now, we should all be shocked to hear that Ryan Braun’s name was in the Biogenesis “notes” because we should have never heard that he won his appeal of a potential suspension if MLB could adhere to the confidentially of testing.

By: vivabear

vivabear — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:55:12 +0000

Craig – let’s wait until we have actual facts, and all those actual facts before we accuse the MLB of these types of things.

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:49:38 +0000

No it wont stop players especially if MLB gives other players immunity just to get these guys. I forget what player it was who was caught last year but he recently said he was dumb for getting caught. He didn’t say he was dumb for using them. Obviously the players know something about the testing that we do not. If the players know their way around the system what would stop them? Braun and Arod getting caught wont stop the majority of them because the money involved is still worth the risk.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:43:37 +0000

Bullseye!

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:30:32 +0000

What we need is a thorough Gowachin legal analysis by a registered Legum to put all of these limping attempts at analyzing an insoluble dilemma using Earth logic to rest once and for all.

Craig? Have you taken the LSAT (Legum Strategic Aptitude Test) yet?

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:25:28 +0000

Damn if the noise from Ryan Braun’s camp doesn’t echo the noise from Lance Armstrong’s camp right up until January of this year. Y’all are persecutin’ me …. y’all are persecutin me.

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:20:29 +0000

I can’t even believe you’re giving these “stories” this kind of legitimacy. Ryan Braun and his agents are complaining to reporters. So? Why do you care, why should anyone care how MLB is running its investigation if they aren’t breaking any laws?

One baseball player that we know of has been offered immunity from MLB sanction in exchange for testimony. Wow. That happens … ummm … all the time. In all walks of life. Ideally they find someone with less culpability and flip them. Totally standard.

Are they not supposed to investigate? What exactly would you have them do? This is just preposterous. When you collectively bargain for and agree to the league drug-testing regimen, that’s what you get. They can test him and investigate him until he retires, and then they can keep investigating him. If he’s clean, he has nothing to worry about, and he should take the $150 million and shut up. Pee in a cup, and stop planting “stories” in the media. What a bunch of bullshit.

By: jm91rs

jm91rs — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:11:07 +0000

So when two of the biggest names in the sport get busted, it won’t be a sign to the rest of the league that they won’t get away with it anymore?

You don’t believe these guys are saying “well just because some minor leaguer got caught doesn’t mean it can happen to me.”?

By: thekcubrats

thekcubrats — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:00:40 +0000

Every move Selig makes and has ever made is designed to tar the union, to cast players as the enemy of the good, to weaken it in any way possible. Ever hear of any team or its mgmt being investigated for encouraging or willfully ignoring rampant PED use? You never will. Selig rose to power from his shabby little club on the promise to the owners (his fellow racketeers) to break the union. Understand that, and you understand just why the Mitchell Report was what it was, what the Barry jihad was all about, what this is all about (and obtw, what the ’94 lockout was all about, Bud’s first major initiative). Laying blame on emblematic players, not the scrubs (Grimsley anyone?), is Bud’s way of, like a termite, undermining the house of the players. And of course deflect from the public consciousness that ALL of this happened on Bud’s watch, eyes wide open and hand over his mouth.

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:38:03 +0000

The rest of the league will stop using when they don’t think they can get away with it anymore and right now players seem to feel they still can. That has nothing to do with their identity it has to do with the testing process itself.

By: Charles Gates

Charles Gates — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:36:52 +0000

It’s cute how Craig doesn’t think that MLB’s drug enforcement program wasn’t euphemistic for a PR campaign all along.

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:36:33 +0000

Baseball offering immunity brings this to mind:

“Tell me, Karl, have you ever heard the term “involuntary servitude”?
” No.”
“Unconscionable contract”?
” Uh, nope “.
” Great! “