coolhandluke121

But he listed it first among his reasons why it's important that a sample be delivered immediately to preserve confidentiality, and then goes on to immediately say there are things they learned about Laurenzi that made them very concerned. He's not dumb. He knew what he was implying.

Regardless of that, this very public interview is more than damning enough: "When FedEx received the samples, it then creates a chain of custody at the FedEx location where he eventually brought my sample to," Braun said in the statement. "It would have been stored in a temperature-controlled environment, and FedEx is used to handling clinical packaging. But most importantly, you then would become a number and no longer a name. So when we provide our samples, there is a number and no longer a name associated with the sample. That way there can't be any bias -- whether it's with FedEx, while it's traveling, at the lab in Montreal, in any way -- based on somebody's race, religion, ethnicity, what team they play for, whatever the case may be. As players, the confidentiality of this process is extremely important. It's always been extremely important, because the only way for the process to succeed is for the confidentiality and the chain of custody to work. "Why he didn't bring it in, I don't know. On the day that he did finally bring it in, FedEx opened at 7:30. Why didn't he bring it in until 1:30? I can't answer that question. Why was there zero documentation? What could have possibly happened to it during that 44-hour period? There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way that the entire thing worked that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened." It should not be remotely hard to understand why people hate Ryan Braun. If you don't, fine, but don't expect others not to.

Was that ever substantiated? I could swear it was said by him in a published interview. I might have even seen him say it. I guess I'm not 100% sure, but I think the exact quote was something like "why he would leave the sample sit so long, I don't know - maybe it's because he's a Cub fan, maybe he's an anti-semite, whatever - but it does appear pretty suspicious". ETA: Could also be it was in a report of what people say he told them, as opposed to Braun saying it publicly himself. In any case, I vaguely remember a quote like that being attributed to Braun. There were lots of reports on that from mainstream sources: https://www.si.com/si-wire/2013/08/19/ryan-braun-discredit-urine-collector More ETA: So he brought up race and religion, and then made the statement that I paraphrased above. The implication that Laurenzi was an anti-semite was not as direct as I made it out to be, at least in the sense that race and religion was in the previous paragraph of Braun's statement. Pathetic.

So what? People can dislike all the cheaters. They don't "need to get over it". They have a right to like and dislike whomever they want, and that's a damn good reason to dislike them.

Absolutely fantastic post. It misses the point completely. Several of those things aren't even remotely comparable, but more importantly, if the only reason someone even knew I existed was because of their interest in activities related to those behaviors, and those behaviors completely take a dump on a fundamental premise of said activities, how much of a moron would I have to be to expect anything but scorn from them? It's kind of a ridiculous question, because whom you like and dislike as an athlete is strictly a matter of personal preference, and get this - a lot of people have this crazy personal preference for honest people who don't cheat.

But not everybody else would have cheated in the first place, and people are totally justified in despising anyone who does. I'm glad some people still have a moral compass that's not made of Jell-o. Cheaters deserve all the scorn they get and then some.

Implying that the collector was anti-semitic was beyond pathetic. Braun is a walking piece of poop and I would have done cartwheels if he had been traded to LAD when they had a chance. The whole thing was disgraceful. Never forgive anyone who's that good at lying because they are pure slime.

A large sample size actually shows that Sogard, Perez, and Villar are all better players, and that's before you even consider the likely possibility that Phillips is completely washed up. The fact that they've all been more valuable players than Phillips over the last two years and are still in their primes is a little more than "nah, let's just roll with what we've got". You have to focus on Phillips's good stretches and their bad ones in order to declare Phillips an upgrade. He's probably not even a wash.

Phillips's defense is definitely not a plus. Range matters a lot for middle infielders. Perez and Sogard are much better defenders than him at this point. Villar arguably is as well. There's more to the game than OPS+. Perez, Sogard, and Villar have all produced more WAR in fewer pa's than Phillips over the last 2 years. Perez and Sogard have had far fewer pa's, and Villar has produced far more WAR. Phillips will soon be 37, and will surely fall of a cliff soon. You could argue he already started to last year. Villar and Perez are just entering their physical prime, and Sogard is coming off a career year after having a good knee for the first time in years. There's no way I want Phillips over any of those guys to be honest. There's a reason he's looking for a job. I'm open to some hope of improvement at 2B (who wouldn't be?), but Phillips isn't the answer to anything.

I think it's far from a safe assumption that Phillips or Escobar would be an upgrade. I'm okay with what they have under the circumstances and for what they're paying. You can't expect them to have a good player at every position in what is still basically the 3rd year of a rebuild. I would give it a little time. If they have the worst 2B production in baseball come June, they should be able to find another Walker type of trade. Having Hiura on the way is good enough for me.

I don't always give sports commentators a lot of credit, but I don't think anyone with a reputation for some credibility and that many followers could be dumb enough to think it's funny to start April Fools jokes early. The whole point is to do it on 4/1.

Coitus interruptus.

I've never known anyone to play an April Fools joke on 3/31. I have no idea who the main piece would be, but I'd be giddy if it was Ruiz (catcher, LAD's #3 depending on whom you ask), let alone Verdugo or Buehler. Personally I'd be fine with a good depth haul of several prospects who have a chance to be solid.

They may have wanted to explore several other avenues to clear more p.t. in RF and 1B before they decided on this. Braun lives in L.A. and I'm not real concerned about him blocking a trade, assuming LAD wants him as their primary LF.

I doubt they'd bother to talk about it if they haven't at least gotten some indication that he's open-minded about it. He has already publicly said LAD is the one team he'd like to be traded to, though that was before the Brewers became surprise playoff contenders. I wouldn't doubt that the move to 1B would make him more likely to accept it as well. It makes perfect sense for both teams. LAD gets under the tax threshold (crucial for them) and gets a big upgrade in LF. Milwaukee gets prospects and is positioned even better to be possibly the dominant team in the NL in about 3 years. I love it.

Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it here. Just wanted to call attention to it for people who aren't checking other threads right now. Here's the Braun thread: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=36389&view=unread#unread

Twitter is saying Braun for Kemp could happen any minute. Um. Yeah. Don't know if the sources are reliable, but whoa.

I'd be fine with it. It's been real Braunie. ETA: Holy you know what. Obviously. More ETA: LOL at some of the comments in Duarte's twitter. LAD fans think Kemp and Braun are roughly equal. Yikes.

Why would moving him to #3 affect how he's doing though? That seems superstitious. He's a very good hitter who's in great physical condition and he's seeing the ball well. What would it have to do with his spot in the order? Baseball has a way of causing people to see spurious connections where there are none, just like finding patterns in random events like gambling. I think the poster above who mentioned mixing up lefties and righties hit the nail on the head. This will allow them to use Aguilar or Braun to PH for Thames when the Padres go to their pen for an LHP. That throws a wrench in their ability to get the match-up they want. Thames's OBP and numbers with RISP are more than enough to justify leading him off in the interest of alternating LHB's and RHB's later in the game.

I don't think Thames at lead-off is all that bad. He gets on base but is notoriously poor with runners already on base. I have no problem with givings starters a day off. It's a long season. They're going full speed for the first time since last year. It takes time to get into game shape. How many times do you see a guy hurt a hamstring or something like that in week 1? More importantly, you need your back-ups to get game reps. They'll all be needed this year and I'm all for getting them some work. Sogard in particular should definitely be getting occasional starts against RHP's until Arcia shows some ability to do anything besides hit a ground ball (if he's lucky) nearly every single time, or until Sogard proves that his success last year was a total fluke.

Yeah, Braun is so much better when he's well-rested. I think he's just susceptible to inflammation and swelling and stuff like that. There is such a thing as being more prone to that sort of thing. I think that's why he took testosterone supplements. They help you recover. (Side note: I don't like Braun much, but it bothers me when people bring up steroids; just get your facts straight!) Anyway, he has seemed to be very good after a little time off or when his only work is one PH appearance. He goes on a lot of hot streaks after time on the DL. I'd like to see more stats on that, but I've been watching him for years and it's always been a regular thing. Another thing he does really well is respond to being hated by fans. I think he kind of feeds off of that. It's as if he knows his body will only allow him to be great part of the time and he picks his spots for stuff like that.

Sub-.550 OPS in his last two MLB seasons. I doubt it's him. Hill and Lawrie are better guesses, but I hope it's Reynolds. He's perfect Braun insurance for when they inevitably have to DFA Aguilar, and he could take Perez's 3B innings as well. Good RHB complement to Shaw. I could even see him making the big club if they DFA Villar, who could have a very short leash at this point. Perez/Sogard at 2B would be adequate, with Dubon and Franklin available in case of injury.

Pffft, Villar already knows you have to get on base. Why else do you think he swings so much?

The Bucks are allowed to pay Jabari that much because he's their free agent. The Bucks could only pay Jordan about $8m. Sign-and-trades are also a lot more restrictive in the current CBA. Teams were abusing the ability to over-pay their own free agents just to effectively go over the cap to get someone else. I'm not entirely sure how it works now to be honest, but trading Jabari for Jordan could be difficult or impossible at this point, and that's before you even consider whether LAC would want to do it. The time to do it was during the season before Jabari came back looking awful and when LAC looked like they might be better off rebuilding.

I'd be okay with it if the Yankees take on his entire salary and the Brewers use that money elsewhere, but it still wouldn't help them keep Aguilar. It would just mean Choi is on the roster all year. As long as Choi has options, I'd rather they just keep both him and Thames unless the return is intriguing - but I very much doubt that the Yankees would give up anything of value in a 1B market where guys like Mark Reynolds and Adam Lind can't even find a job.