MLB 2013 Season Thread: TEFLON BRAUN Episode V: The Selig Strikes Back

[Melena]

Just remember, you can only abuse your players and staff if you are Loria.

[Boyiee]

ARod is going to win the appeal if he fights it. Even with tons of evidence and a bad history, it's hard to justify a 200ish game or lifetime ban when Braun is only missing half a season. Baseball shot itself in the foot with Braun and ARod can afford to fight it. Setting an example is one thing, but when you don't have a similar punishment for the crime it's going to be hard to reach for the ban.

[archibaldcrane]

Or...they have more evidence that ARod was using more and for longer than Braun?

[Xajii]

ARod is going to win the appeal if he fights it. Even with tons of evidence and a bad history, it's hard to justify a 200ish game or lifetime ban when Braun is only missing half a season. Baseball shot itself in the foot with Braun and ARod can afford to fight it. Setting an example is one thing, but when you don't have a similar punishment for the crime it's going to be hard to reach for the ban.

lol

[Azull]

Braun took a plea bargain. That is why his sentence is so much less then even the 100 for a 2nd offense.

They didn't shoot themselves in the foot but instead set themselves up perfectly to fight ARod. The Braun plea bargain brought legitimacy to the case they have which will make it harder for others players to fight.

[Boyiee]

Or...they have more evidence that ARod was using more and for longer than Braun?

Doesn't matter, the system is set up so that a second offense is 100 games. Third being a ban. Braun lied and lied just like ARod did. There is no way he doesn't win an appeal.

lol

lol.

Braun took a plea bargain. That is why his sentence is so much less then even the 100 for a 2nd offense.

They didn't shoot themselves in the foot but instead set themselves up perfectly to fight ARod. The Braun plea bargain brought legitimacy to the case they have which will make it harder for others players to fight.

An appeals court will never justify having one man plea out to such a lesser degree while the other faces a complete ban for a second offense when the rule is in place for 100 games. In the end Arod will have a 100 game suspension, or at most an entire season. The use of the term "ban" in his case is a scare tactic. They need the buck to stop here with this group of players.

[archibaldcrane]

Doesn't matter, the system is set up so that a second offense is 100 games.

That only works if your argument is that using PEDs for year after year is a single offense. It's not too hard to argue that they are separate offenses. I don't know if they had evidence of Braun using for more than just the 2nd half of the 2011 season, whereas they supposedly have evidence of ARod using from 2010-2012.

[Boyiee]

That is true but in that case he'd probably already be banned and they wouldn't have given him an option at all. If you separate the offenses and there is no statute of limitations, then he's already well passed 3.

[Boyiee]

What saddens me the most is that without PED's he'd have still hit 500 HR's and would probably be regarded as the greatest baseball player ever, since that's what he looked like he was going to become originally.

[archibaldcrane]

What saddens me the most is that without PED's he'd have still hit 500 HR's and would probably be regarded as the greatest baseball player ever, since that's what he looked like he was going to become originally.

You...realize the biggest reason he looked like he might be the best player ever is partly because he was using steroids his entire professional career, even dating back til high school, right?

This isn't some barry bonds shit where he was an awesome, likely clean ballplayer who became a video game cartoon all-timer with roids. You have no idea what ARod looks like clean. He likely hasn't been clean in 20 years.

[archibaldcrane]

That is true but in that case he'd probably already be banned and they wouldn't have given him an option at all. If you separate the offenses and there is no statute of limitations, then he's already well passed 3.

They want the confession. They want to bend players to their will, so that not fighting them, not going to arbitration, becomes the norm.

[Melena]

Really it comes down to how many instances he lied about, and how far back it goes. He claimed before he stopped after two years in texas. If they got proof he did it multiple years, they could probably hammer that each year was a separate offense since it's worded in the CBA that any acts of cheating the testing system also count, whether he tested positive or not.

[Boyiee]

You...realize the biggest reason he looked like he might be the best player ever is partly because he was using steroids his entire professional career, even dating back til high school, right?

This isn't some barry bonds shit where he was an awesome, likely clean ballplayer who became a video game cartoon all-timer with roids. You have no idea what ARod looks like clean. He likely hasn't been clean in 20 years.

He didn't start bulking until Texas and most writers think he was clean prior to his 220mil contract that he needed ped's to live up to.

[archibaldcrane]

He didn't start bulking until Texas and most writers think he was clean prior to his 220mil contract that he needed ped's to live up to.

Well, his former HS teammates beg to differ, so...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4114292

Rodriguez put on 25 pounds of muscle between his sophomore and junior years. Former high school teammates told Roberts that A-Rod was using steroids back then and his coach knew it -- an allegation the coach, Rich Hoffman, denied.

On Patrick's radio interview, Roberts said that based on the sudden improvement in his bench press (from 100 to 310) in just six months in high school, and "in conjunction with the reporting that I did with [his high school] teammates would make it irrefutable to me, not a 'may have,' " that Rodriguez took performance-enhancing drugs in high school.

I mean, just benching 310 in HS alone is fucking absurd.

[Mertron]

isn't part of the arod thing not just that he was taking steroids but that he was also offering a lot of money to the clinic to destroy all evidence. i thought that was why he was getting a harsher punishment

[Aragon of Odin]

There's that, there's the fact he is suspected of recruiting other athletes, attempting to obstruct MLB's investigation, and all the mean while stating he hasn't used since 2001-2003. Dude should be banned for life.

[FNH]

http://deadspin.com/justin-masterson...-dur-957470099

[Mertron]

http://deadspin.com/justin-masterson...-dur-957470099

the fact that he doesn't flinch is great

[Xajii]

Ump blew a call at home to close out a wild 2-1 TB-BOS makeup game. Man this division is brutal. Looks like the Rays' to lose. Price is in god mode.

[Conrad]

witch hunts are great for baseball's popularity, for sure