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MLB Off-Season 2011: Only a few more weeks until the radio talks about baseball again

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Doytch

Member
The only explanation for X is that it's gotta be A or B! After I've finished eliminating a universe of other possibilities C-> infinity because of some weird prerequisites I pulled out of my ass!
 

TheNatural

My Member!
Unfortunately in America we still care about (unless Barry calls you a terrorist) due process. As such, if the evidence is mishandled that evidence should be deemed inadmissible. From the start once MLB realized the samples were fouled, they should have demanded a retest. They sat unattended and unaccounted for for days. Anyone who thinks that is ok is a crazy person. None of us can know what happened in the interim. Thankfully, we live in a country where pure conjecture isn't enough to ruin someones life...generally.

Even if you are prepared to hang a guy on assumptions, the MLB (up until yesterday) was not, which is why they put into place the strict protocols and chain of command structure. Obviously if the sample was handled improperly the results of said sample should no longer be deemed relevant.

As for Conti, who gives a shit? If I ask a random courier what happened and he tells me that his fellow courier was probably stoned out of his mind (as couriers are wont to be) and accidentally drank the samples then replaced them with horse piss, do we automatically give his opinion credence? Hell, the courier probably isn't even a felon!

Do you know what the difference between what was acceptable handling procedure was for the drug testing contract, and what wasn't though? I'll point out the exact difference. The "technicality" talked about is the fact the collector did not send the sample out via Fed Ex as soon as possible. A 1:00 playoff game on October 1st and he was tested afterwards past 4:00.

Apparently as was explained as I heard it, there are situations where there is a Saturday night game and afterwards there is random testing. That could be at 10 or 11 at night, and if there are no 24 hour places, they wait until Monday regardless. I'm not 100% sure if that's true as they explained it, but if this were the case, we're talking about a difference of six hours being the technicality.

And about the seals: FedEx package that arrived in the Montreal laboratory was sealed three times with tamper-proof seals: one on the box, one on a plastic bag inside the box and again on the vial that contained the urine.

One thing I will give Braun is if it wasn't his urine for some reason, he offered a DNA test on it and MLB declined the DNA test for whatever reason, and this is supposedly what pushed the arbitrator to side with Braun. Why MLB did not want a DNA test I have no idea, you would think it would be a given.

I'm not saying all this to be a dick because he plays for the Brewers, but I really am sick of PEDs in sports and if he really did not do it and they proved he didn't do it, I would gladly accept that and not have to hear about this shit anymore. I just find it hard to believe that the sample collector fucked with the thrice sealed sample or the lab fucked up myself, but I would rather that be the case than a top player once again testing positive for roids.
 

yacobod

Banned
I'm not saying all this to be a dick because he plays for the Brewers, but I really am sick of PEDs in sports and if he really did not do it and they proved he didn't do it, I would gladly accept that and not have to hear about this shit anymore. I just find it hard to believe that the sample collector fucked with the thrice sealed sample or the lab fucked up myself, but I would rather that be the case than a top player once again testing positive for roids.

Simple solution. Just legalize it and give everyone the same opportunity and level the playing field. Let's quit being fucking naive and think that these guy's aren't cheating. The users are always 2 steps ahead of the testing.

people need to grow up and forget about the "sanctity" of the game.
 

eznark

Banned
Simple solution. Just legalize it and give everyone the same opportunity and level the playing field. Let's quit being fucking naive and think that these guy's aren't cheating. The users are always 2 steps ahead of the testing.

people need to grow up and forget about the "sanctity" of the game.

Agreed.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
Simple solution. Just legalize it and give everyone the same opportunity and level the playing field. Let's quit being fucking naive and think that these guy's aren't cheating. The users are always 2 steps ahead of the testing.

people need to grow up and forget about the "sanctity" of the game.

That's not a simple solution. How is that a simple solution? It's not an even playing field.

The reason why this shit is banned is because it's not good for you. You have to make a conscious decision to put your health at risk to be "even" with the other guys. It's ridiculous. If everything is legal, basically you're saying "well I can either value my health and play at a disadvantage, or say fuck my health, take something that's probably not good for me long term as a trade off with me being even with the other guys now."
 
Here's a good link that Will Carroll posted on Twitter. Something about rhyming history and whatnot.

The former 800m Commonwealth gold-medallist, Diane Modahl, has been found guilty of taking a performance enhancing drug and banned from competing for four years.

The five-strong British Athletic Federation (BAF) panel in London delivered the verdict after a two-day disciplinary hearing and upheld a positive drugs test made after a race in Portugal on 18 June.

It dismissed claims the high level of testosterone in her urine - 42 times greater than normal - was caused by mishandling in the Portuguese laboratory.

Diane Modahl was cleared of drug taking a year later after an independent appeals panel accepted evidence bacterial activity could have increased testosterone levels while the sample was not refrigerated.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
Here's a good link that Will Carroll posted on Twitter. Something about rhyming history and whatnot.

If they want to improve this shit, they need to start doing 2 or 3 different independent tests on one sample. Pee in a cup for one collector, pee in a cup that goes to another collector, they both go to different labs and are tested. Sure, maybe someone might have to drain some water and it would be twice the manpower, but at least it's not leaving your fate in the hands of one person or lab.
 

eznark

Banned
If they want to improve this shit, they need to start doing 2 or 3 different independent tests on one sample. Pee in a cup for one collector, pee in a cup that goes to another collector, they both go to different labs and are tested. Sure, maybe someone might have to drain some water and it would be twice the manpower, but at least it's not leaving your fate in the hands of one person or lab.

MLB should just demand that athletes are sequestered and monitored 24 hours from the minute they sign their first contract until a decade after they retire, gotta be sure!
 

yacobod

Banned
That's not a simple solution. How is that a simple solution? It's not an even playing field.

The reason why this shit is banned is because it's not good for you. You have to make a conscious decision to put your health at risk to be "even" with the other guys. It's ridiculous. If everything is legal, basically you're saying "well I can either value my health and play at a disadvantage, or say fuck my health, take something that's probably not good for me long term as a trade off with me being even with the other guys now."

eating too much red meat isn't good for you. supplementing creatine isn't healthy. fuck you could throw a blanket statement around the entire supplement industry and say most of the crap isn't healthy because there hasn't been enough extensive testing on any of the product.

the other issue is that one could make the argument that playing a professional sport isn't healthy. the more we learn about brain injuries, you'd have to be crazy to want to play pro football. a lot of the athletes walk away broken husks at the end of their careers.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
MLB should just demand that athletes are sequestered and monitored 24 hours from the minute they sign their first contract until a decade after they retire, gotta be sure!

I don't see why it has to be all or nothing here. You can do reasonable work of testing people and not just say "oh it's too hard, let everythnig be legal" or test blood every single day for the rest of someone's life. Just because the police can't catch every murderer doesn't mean they should stop trying.

Only Braun knows if he doped or not, or took somethiing he didn't ask questions about and thought it was flaxseed or something. After years of fucking pricks like Floyd Landis constantly denying and denying over and over again like you called his momma a whore or something, then just up and coming clean, I can't believe anyone or anything anymore.
 

eznark

Banned
I don't see why it has to be all or nothing here. You can do reasonable work of testing people and not just say "oh it's too hard, let everythnig be legal" or test blood every single day for the rest of someone's life. Just because the police can't catch every murderer doesn't mean they should stop trying.

Only Braun knows if he doped or not, or took somethiing he didn't ask questions about and thought it was flaxseed or something. After years of fucking pricks like Floyd Landis constantly denying and denying over and over again like you called his momma a whore or something, then just up and coming clean, I can't believe anyone or anything anymore.

Thankfully you don't have to, that's why the league pays arbitrators. No test is going to be perfect. If you want to test, you have to allow for players challenging the process if they test positive.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
eating too much red meat isn't good for you. supplementing creatine isn't healthy. fuck you could throw a blanket statement around the entire supplement industry and say most of the crap isn't healthy because there hasn't been enough extensive testing on any of the product.

the other issue is that one could make the argument that playing a professional sport isn't healthy. the more we learn about brain injuries, you'd have to be crazy to want to play pro football. a lot of the athletes walk away broken husks at the end of their careers.

Eating red meat = taking roids? More all or nothing thinking. Hey I can play this game. Fuck it, why stop at roids, how about we actively allow violence in the sport with no punishment as well. Someone wants to take a hockey stick to your jugular to get an advantage? Hey go with it. It's worth a power play to put someone into the grave. Drop the helmets in baseball and start throwing at people's heads to get them out.

Lets go all out with this then. I mean, no one can ever be 100% safe playing a sport and not everything you take is 100% safe no matter what it is, so they're ALL the same.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
Thankfully you don't have to, that's why the league pays arbitrators. No test is going to be perfect. If you want to test, you have to allow for players challenging the process if they test positive.

What the arbitrator does or doesn't say, especially with procedural things, doesn't prove someone did not test positive. If anyone who's ever been suspended, like Manny, had the same situation he could have gotten off as well.
 

eznark

Banned
What the arbitrator does or doesn't say, especially with procedural things, doesn't prove someone did not test positive. If anyone who's ever been suspended, like Manny, had the same situation he could have gotten off as well.

If his samples were unreliable he should have been exonerated. I don't understand the hang up. You guys sure love to trust authority to be infallible. It's frightening.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
If his samples were unreliable he should have been exonerated. I don't understand the hang up. You guys sure love to trust authority to be infallible. It's frightening.

I'm not saying what should or shouldn't have been done. There is a difference though between being exonerated because a procedure was faulty that very likely did not change the results, or being exonerated because the results themselves were wrong.

Do you really think there's a 0% chance he really tested positive?
 

eznark

Banned
I'm not saying what should or shouldn't have been done. There is a difference though between being exonerated because a procedure was faulty that very likely did not change the results, or being exonerated because the results themselves were wrong.

Do you really think there's a 0% chance he really tested positive?

There is a better than 0% chance he is innocent. That's what matters to me.

You're willing to make assumptions that the impartial arbitrator was not. No matter what came out you have have been butt hurt. Look at your post from a few hours ago. You don't give a shit about what happened you just want a "douch" to get karmic retribution. That's a you problem and clearly you'll be unwilling to ever give an opposing player the benefit of the doubt.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
You're willing to make assumptions that the impartial arbitrator was not. No matter what came out you have have been butt hurt. Look at your post from a few hours ago. You don't give a shit about what happened you just want a "douch" to get karmic retribution. That's a you problem and clearly you'll be unwilling to ever give an opposing player the benefit of the doubt.

Because I don't believe the sample was fucked with. Either you believe someone tampered with the three seals and fucked with his sample, the lab fucked up the test, or the time lapsed had somethnig to do with testosterone appearing.

I mean, these are the three options here to which the test was wrong. What is your hypothesis that actually happened then that the test was wrong?
 
In other sky-is-blue, Grady Sizemore is already injured again and will start the season on the DL. He strained his back during offseason workouts and there is no timetable for his return.
 

eznark

Banned
Because I don't believe the sample was fucked with. Either you believe someone tampered with the three seals and fucked with his sample, the lab fucked up the test, or the time lapsed had somethnig to do with testosterone appearing.

I mean, these are the three options here to which the test was wrong. What is your hypothesis that actually happened then that the test was wrong?


Considering we don't know where the sample was for hours, there are almost infinite possibilities. However;
As with the British sprinter, I believe that the sample was improperly stored and bacteria affected the sample. I don't know it to be the case but based on what we have heard, that is plausible enough that Braun was rightly exonerated.
 
Because I don't believe the sample was fucked with. Either you believe someone tampered with the three seals and fucked with his sample, the lab fucked up the test, or the time lapsed had somethnig to do with testosterone appearing.

I mean, these are the three options here to which the test was wrong. What is your hypothesis that actually happened then that the test was wrong?

No one knows, the end, period, full stop. Everyone is going based on their gut and how much they hate/like the Brewers.

We don't have enough information. We don't know how weird it is to have a testosterone spike in the sample, we don't know how high the levels were and we wouldn't even know what that meant even if we did. We don't know how difficult it is to contaminate a sample. Someone said it's triple-sealed? That's nice, if that's the case. It sounds difficult. Who knows. It was left in the refrigerator for too long. Maybe that does something, maybe it doesn't. We don't know where and how something could go wrong during the testing procedure. We don't even know what the test procedure is. We are not lab technicians and we are not endocrinologists. It's impossible to form a useful hypothesis about anything.

We'll never know until someone confesses something on one end or the other.
 

Malo

Banned
Clubhouse Confidential's Top 5 GMs:

1. Andrew Friedman
2. Jon Daniels
3. Walt Jocketty
4. Brian Cashman
5. John Mozeliak

Solid overall list.
 

tc farks

Member
No one knows, the end, period, full stop. Everyone is going based on their gut and how much they hate/like the Brewers.

We don't have enough information. We don't know how weird it is to have a testosterone spike in the sample, we don't know how high the levels were and we wouldn't even know what that meant even if we did. We don't know how difficult it is to contaminate a sample. Someone said it's triple-sealed? That's nice, if that's the case. It sounds difficult. Who knows. It was left in the refrigerator for too long. Maybe that does something, maybe it doesn't. We don't know where and how something could go wrong during the testing procedure. We don't even know what the test procedure is. We are not lab technicians and we are not endocrinologists. It's impossible to form a useful hypothesis about anything.

We'll never know until someone confesses something on one end or the other.

FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT.

We don't know exactly what happened, nor are we experts in the field of endocrinology, so let's not discuss obvious possibilities because those who actually know what happened will never fucking tell.

Also, I know. For a fact. That synthetic testosterone doesn't come up from nowhere. Stop blaming the fridge.
 

tc farks

Member
Has anyone came up with a plausible theory as to why Joe Schmo the lab tech or Mr. I deliver piss would have reason to contaminate the sample? The testing procedure wasn't questioned, nor was any possible suspicious activity ever brought up by Braun's defense.

I hope Braun struggles out the gate. Will be fun.
 

h3ro

Member
Just saw the highlights of the Braun conference. All I could think about was HOW GLORIOUS HIS HAIR WAS.

What a mop on that guy.
 
Such a weak ass defense. He's innocent as much as Floyd was, or OJ on a more serious case. He squeaked by on a technicality and not due to any possible defense that would determine his innocence. He might play but he's still guilty in my eyes.

Oh and Ez just admit you'd sing a different tune if he wasn't playing on your favorite team. Since in all other related scandals of players Ive never seen you try this kind of defense. Ie Big Ben
 

Malo

Banned
if he had 200 million dollars ? probably 1
image.php
 

JambiBum

Member
The arbitrator is going to release a written statement within the next week on why he overturned the decision. Hopefully it will shed some more light on the whole situation.
 
Anyone else think Braun came off like a sanctimonious prick during the conference? He said a whole bunch high horse shit but, never actually addressed one possible reason of how he could test positive without roiding.

Just a bunch of "hah haha I told you ... sanctity of the game ..." all while skating on a technicality.
 

CygnusXS

will gain confidence one day
Serious question: how is having the only evidence against you be ruled tainted and inadmissible a technicality? That's due process.
 

clemenx

Banned
Why are people calling the protocol as a "technicality" to minimize it? It's fucking stated in the rules. That's the explanation. The goddamn sample wasn't handled properly and whatever result came out of it isn't valid. I don't see why he should explain the testosterone.

I see it so simple, really.
 

Parch

Member
The self-righteous crap is annoying. It would have been better if he just said he's happy with the result and leave it at that.

Continuing to pound the podium and screaming "I was always innocent!" makes Braun look like a real twit. Sorry dude, but you are now labelled as one of the players with a questionable career. Welcome to the club. You're in good company.
 
The self-righteous crap is annoying. It would have been better if he just said he's happy with the result and leave it at that.

Continuing to pound the podium and screaming "I was always innocent!" makes Braun look like a real twit. Sorry dude, but you are now labelled as one of the players with a questionable career. Welcome to the club. You're in good company.

If you had to deal with the likely nuclear ton of shit Braun's had to deal with the last two months, you'd be all up in everyone's face too. Some of the shit that went around about him was ridiculous, such as the herpes rumors and shit like that.
 

hemtae

Member
Why are people calling the protocol as a "technicality" to minimize it? It's fucking stated in the rules. That's the explanation. The goddamn sample wasn't handled properly and whatever result came out of it isn't valid. I don't see why he should explain the testosterone.

I see it so simple, really.

More importantly, why are people abandoning the herpes explanation? I liked that theory.
 
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