Before the postseason, Braun and every other player on a playoff team had to submit to a drug test, the results of which showed heightened levels of testosterone in Braun's blood, which were determined to be synthetic. While it's not as bad as full-blown steroids or human growth hormone, testosterone is still a banned substance and qualifies for suspension. Braun is appealing the suspension and contesting the legitimacy of the results, saying to USA Today, "It's B.S.", and that he never knowingly took any illegal substance.
Many Brewers fans find it difficult to see Braun as anything more than the opening act for Fielder, but he's a legitimate batter in his own right.
I love Ryan Braun. He's Jewish, so as a fellow tribesman, I have to love Ryan Braun. But he's one of the strongest, most powerful hitters in the game, even without the use of any illegal drugs. He consistently hits over .300, has hit under 30 home runs or 100 RBIs once, and has a career OPS of .934, pretty good for someone who many fans think is "overhyped" and "nothing without Prince Fielder batting behind him". He's been an integral part of the Brewers' surprising playoff runs in 2008 and 2011, won the Rookie of the Year award in 2007, is a 3-time All-Star, won the Silver Slugger award from 2008-2011, and also, as you may know, won the MVP award this year in one of the most closest races in years. So, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, that this ugly scandal is the result of a one-time boost, and that he hasn't done this over his entire career, especially because there have never even been whispers of Braun's name in connection to steroids before now. Like I've said many times before, we as fans are so jaded because of what's happened in the last 20 years with the outrageous PED usage in the game, that we can no longer look at a player who's a solid, powerful batter without crying "STEROIDS!!" We're so quick to vilify and degrade any player who gives us even a hint of reasonable doubt, that we often can't look past the initial news and see the forest for the trees. Braun obviously had a good reason for ingesting synthetic testosterone (one would assume).
Does that make what he did any less immoral? Unfortunately, no. No matter how he, the media, or the Brewers front office try to spin it, he took an illegal substance in an attempt to boost his performance and give him a slight edge against his opponents. He also claims he did it unknowingly. Do athletes really think we're that stupid? Do they think the fans are nothing more than belching, cursing fat pigs who are so ignorant of the actual workings of the game because we'd rather just yell at a pitcher who intentionally walks a batter for giving up a base? Has that defense ever worked in an athlete's favor? To quote Braun himself from 2009 when Alex Rodriguez admitted using steroids, "The best thing he can do is come out, admit to everything and be completely honest...the situation will die a lot faster if he tells the whole truth." It seems that Braun already knows what his best course of action is, but instead, he's contesting the results, most likely because he doesn't want to lose the MVP award he won this year.
No player has ever been stripped of the MVP award. Will Braun be the first? Should he?
While there is no precedent for any awards being stripped post-scandal, there are already cries from angry Dodger fans (and maybe even some other people) that either Braun should have his MVP award from this previous season taken away, or that there should be a revote. This year's voting was already hotly contested, as Los Angeles outfielder Matt Kemp quietly put together a monstrous season, falling one home run short of joining the 40-40 club (and, after losing out on the award, boldly predicted he'd go 50-50 next season in an interview). But many fans believe that, since Kemp was on a .500 team and Ryan was on the playoff-bound Brewers, it gave Braun the advantage in the voting. Many fans believe that it doesn't matter if a player who has the best statistical season of anybody leads his teams to the postseason or not; rather, whichever player was the best should win the award. However, it's called the Most VALUABLE Player award, meaning the player was more VALUABLE to his team than any other player was to his (for further reading, I expanded on this in my post about Justin Verlander a few weeks ago, scroll down far enough and you can't miss it). Without Braun, the Brewers are just Prince Fielder and a few good pitchers, not nearly enough to make it to the NLCS. His ability to get on the base and to clear them made him an almost unstoppable offensive force. There's no denying he deserves the MVP award, even if Matt Kemp had an extremely comparable season.
But in light of this news, does Braun also deserve to have the award taken away? As I stated earlier, no player who's ever gotten in trouble after winning an award has had it stripped, or had his accomplishments officially diminished. In case you've all forgotten, Barry Bonds won 7 MVP awards, and still has every single trophy sitting in his trophy case, next to the deadened, shriveled remains of what used to be his genitals (steroid usage is no joke, kids). Sammy Sosa can still gaze into his ghoulish face in the reflection of his own MVP award. And nobody's trying to pry Jose Canseco's hardware away from him...if only because nobody wants to associate with Jose Canseco. What's done is done. It may seem foolish, or undeserved now, but it's final: Ryan Braun is your 2011 NL MVP, and he took an illegal substance. Whether or not he is stripped of the title, or there is a revote (in which case he's still completely eligible to win it again, in what would be a spectacular display of true hypocrisy in baseball), the fact still remains that he won the award first. Whatever fallout he, the Brewers or MLB suffers from this scandal, he was still voted the Most Valuable Player in the National League. And there's not a thing Dodger fans can do about it.
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