Kuzul

Over the past several years, baseball has proven with multiple reports and documents that it still has further to go in order to rid the sport of performance enhancing drugs. 

First time offenders in baseball currently receive a 50-game suspension, second-time offenders receive a 100-game suspension, and a third-time offender is banished from baseball. 

While this may deter a handful of players, it definitely does not deter all players.  With the different masking agents and assistance of personal physicians, athletes are slipping by the current testing methods.

The risk of being caught currently does not outweigh the benefits that are reaped from performing at the Major League level.  Contracts for everyday players are in the millions, and if you are an all-star you could be looking at anywhere from 10-20 million a season.   

Melky Cabrera gets caught on a one year deal with the Giants where he was arguably the mid-season NL MVP and was looking like he was in line for a mammoth contract extension where he would have seen more than $10 million per season over the next 5 years, and still came away after his drama with a 2-year, $16 million deal from the Blue Jays. 

Last off-season, Ryan Braun had a positive test, fought the system, and avoided his 50-game suspension.  With the recent Bio-genesis reports that are being released, it appears he is deeper in the PED underground than previously thought. 

I believe MLB could handle this ongoing issue with some of baseball’s best players by trying a few different things.

Blood Testing During Season

The most recent collective bargaining agreement from the Players Union and Major League Baseball will include blood testing for human growth hormone only for spring training and offseason. 

While this helps, HGH is not going to be used during this time frame.  HGH is being used to help players recover from injuries and stay fresh during the long season.  Players during spring training are already fresh from the off season. 

Baseball is not jumping two feet into this new testing to study the effects on the players, however if you aren’t willing to be all in, do not commit yourself to the pot. Baseball will be the first of the four major U.S. sports to incorporate any blood testing into their testing program. 

Why was the Players Union so headstrong as to not allowing it during the season? Because that’s when players will be using the HGH. You do not go to the store unless you know it is open. 

Major League Baseball is taking baby steps in getting their end result which is full testing, but the owners should be pushing this harder in order to protect their investments and know what they are actually investing in.  If you knew a stock was only worth 40 bucks and it is on the market for 50 bucks, you wouldn’t buy it—just like you wouldn’t pay a 40 HR player the same as a 10 HR player.

2.)  Increase Testing

Going hand in hand with the blood testing, the athletes need to be tested more often. 

Athletes in their contract years and rising through the minor leagues especially need additional testing.  The main reason the players are cheating is for a huge pay day, and the athletes that are the closest to that money will break the rules in order to break the bank. 

Players at the AAA level in 2012 earned slightly over $2,000 a month assuming that it was not their first year in AAA and did not receive large signing bonuses. A major league minimum salary in 2012 was $480,000 per year. 

The fact is, the borderline “4A” type players and utility players look to make huge gains just by getting onto the major league roster and sticking there.  If you show promise in the upper levels of the minors they will generally give you a shot, and the longer you stick around the longer you make nearly a half million dollars per year. 

The players in the top levels of the minor league system and especially guys in the final year of their contract should receive additional testing.  Testing is not cheap, but Major League Baseball is a billion business and the way to keep fans in the stands is to protect their brand and catch players. 

The worst thing for the MLB brand is to let superstars like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens get through their careers without a positive test, and then be caught from lab documents and testimonies.

 Terminating Contacts

Through the recent years, baseball has shown that the suspensions are not a big enough deterrent to eliminate PED use.  However, what if these teams were able to completely null and void these massive contracts upon one of their players failing a drug test?   Braun in 2011 signed a $105 million, five-year contract extension that added onto a seven-year deal he signed in May 2008, which resulted in $145.5 million dollars through 2020. 

What if once his positive test was revealed, the Brewers could void his remaining contract, say “see ya,” and waive him without having to eat his “guaranteed contract?”  The owners and general Managers are signing for the “enhanced” player hitting 40 home runs player and not the actual real life player that may only hit 25 home runs.

Teams are taking the risk by signing these players, and the fact of the matter is they are getting burned.  Att the time of his extension, Braun was the face of the Brewers franchise and a media darling. 

Fast forward to today. 

Braun is regarded as one of the least-liked players in all of sports.  He went from being a marketing asset for the Brewers to an alleged cheater using PEDs and then lying about it. 

The point is, these teams will sign these great players to long term deals dump all this money on them, the player will get suspended, and while they are without pay during the suspension, they come back and make their guaranteed salary for the rest of the contract. 

Even if the blood testing and additional testing does not catch all the players in their “contract year” it would still hopefully eliminate their use from then on knowing the players could lose their huge multi-year deals.

4.) Increase Suspensions

Currently the first offense for a 50-game suspension does not seem to do justice when that is less than 1/3 of a season. The first test should result in a minimum of being suspended for the year in which you tested positive, but also be a minimum of 100 games.

If you get popped in Spring Training, well, you just missed the entire season to your positive test.  If you get popped in September, you will miss the rest of the season and into the next season totaling 100 games.

A second positive test should just result in being banned. 

These players testing positive have to realize by now the severity of the testing.  As Jose Bautista mentioned in an interview this spring, there are many different resources and outlets to these players to verify if what they are putting in their bodies is allowed or not.

The fact you can get popped at the after the all-star break like Melky Cabrera did last year, and potentially could have come back for the playoffs, is not right.  Any stats or awards that were won in a season which a player tested positive should be forfeited.

While I do believe Major League Baseball is trying to push stricter testing and clean up the sport, I believe it could be accelerated greatly.  If the Players Union is serious about protecting its players—and by players, I mean “clean” players —they should have no issues with anything in this article.  Playing baseball for a living should be an honor and a privilege, not a right.

The fact that greedy players are able to cheat to get ahead of “clean” players should be dealt with an iron fist.

I will leave you with this scenario.

Suppose two men walk into a gas station and each purchase a lottery ticket.  The first man scratches off his lottery ticket and almost won, but missed on his last two numbers.  The second man scratched his off and WON the half million dollar jackpot!  When the first man found out the second man won the jackpot, he stole his ticket, he cashed the ticket in, and he received the grand prize.  Once the first man found out what happened he finally caught up with the second man getting out of his new Ferrari, and asked, “What the hell are you doing with the winnings from my ticket? That was my dream to win the lottery,” the second man replied, “Sorry, man. It happens all the time. It is called baseball.”

The above scenario would actually be illegal and make headlines.

It’s commonplace in baseball. 

Major League Baseball and the Players Union need to do all they can do to protect their clean athletes, and stop caring about the cheaters. Baseball had the blinders on when it came to drug testing over the past 25 years, but hopefully in the next 25 years it will set new standards in protecting the blue collar athlete and lead other sports into the next era.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Milwaukee Brewers superstar left fielder Ryan Braun may not be out of harm’s way in regards to allegations of his PED use.

A report by ESPN’s T.J. Quinn and Mike Fish reveals a list acquired from Biogenesis of America clinic founder Anthony Bosch, which names several Major League Baseball players and indicates they received performance-enhancing drugs.

Included on that list is Braun.

The report cited a source close to the television show Outside the Lines, which obtained the documents in this latest inquiry:

The list with Braun’s name, which also includes New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Francisco Cervelli and Toronto’s Melky Cabrera, was a list of players who received PEDs, and that there is “no other reason to be on that paper.”

The figure next to Braun’s name signifies $1,500, the amount of money that Braun allegedly owed Bosch for purchasing PEDs.

Braun’s stellar stats were called into question just over a year ago after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone; however, Braun was the first player in MLB history to win his appeal, as reported by The New York Times’ Ken Belson and Michael S. Schmidt.

After dealing with that offseason controversy, Braun responded with a sensational 2012 campaign, swatting a National League-leading 41 home runs and driving in 112 runs, while maintaining a .319 batting average.

Quinn and Fish emphasize that this does not definitively prove that the 29-year-old did in fact take the drugs, but the link between Braun and Biogenesis is definitely getting stronger.

Bosch was also behind the positive HCG test that resulted in a 50-game suspension for Manny Ramirez during his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, as alluded to in the report.

This latest information gives more legs to the story by Tim Brown and Jeff Passan of Yahoo! last Friday, in which Braun’s name was linked to the alleged PED clinic.

Braun explained that he had nothing to hide and would fully cooperate with investigators.

It remains unclear as to why Braun consulted with Bosch in the first place, and these documents unearthed by ESPN amplify that question.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Major League Baseball has been given an excuse to pursue some unfinished business with Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, but a renewed pursuit may not lead to the result the league wants.

By now, you’ve heard that Braun has been linked to the alleged PED-supplying wellness clinic profiled by the Miami New Times last week. Tim Brown and Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports discovered Braun’s name in the clinic’s records, meaning that he’s now in the same boat as Alex Rodriguez.

The catch is that they’re not on the same ends of the boat.

Rodriguez is the central villain in the records of Anthony Bosch, the biochemist who ran the Biogenesis clinic. His name is repeatedly linked to various performance-enhancing drugs (including HGH and testosterone) purchased between 2009 and 2012, damning stuff for a guy who’s already admitted to juicing in the early 2000s.

Braun’s name, on the other hand, is not listed next to any PEDs in these new documents. One document merely shows his name in a list of players including A-Rod, Melky Cabrera and others. Another document references one of Braun’s attorneys, and another refers to a “Braun advantage” in conjunction with a player that might be Cabrera.

Not too damning in the grand scheme of things, especially not in light of how damning the evidence against Rodriguez and others is. 

It looks bad, though. Braun has been lumped in with several players who have either admitted using (A-Rod) or tested positive for PEDs (Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, Yasmany Grandal). It also doesn’t bode well for Braun that he’s a former University of Miami star linked to a clinic that has ties to UM strength and conditioning coach Jimmy Goins and various Miami athletes.

He’s guilty by association. And for now, that’s good enough for MLB. Brown and Passan say the league will investigate.

It was barely a year ago that the league had Braun busted for a positive testosterone test only to see him escape a 50-game suspension on a chain-of-custody technicality. Now here he is being named in the most high-profile PED scandal to come to light since, well, his.

According to Anthony Witrado of Sporting News, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig still isn’t over the fact that Braun was able to beat the system:

But wait, there’s more:

Revenge isn’t exactly at hand, but it may be out there somewhere. Selig has leads. Now all he needs in order to get his revenge on Braun is something that could stick.

Unfortunately for Selig, the references to Braun in the documents revealed by Yahoo! Sports aren’t good enough. Some sort of indication that he actually purchased PEDs from Bosch is needed, and the new documents provide absolutely zero indication that he did.

Indeed, there’s only one mention of money in the documents containing references to Braun, as Bosch wrote “RB 20-30K” below a line containing Braun’s name. That translates into “Ryan Braun $20-30K,” which is a huge amount of money compared to the dollar amounts listed next to the names of Rodriguez and others in the New Times documents.

Braun has a reasonable explanation for this. Via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, here’s what he said in a statement issued on Tuesday night:

During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Tony Bosch, used him as a consultant. More specifically, he answered questions about T/E ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples.

There was a dispute over compensation for Bosch’s work, which is why my lawyer and I are listed under ‘moneys owed’ and not on any other list.

I have nothing to hide and have never had any other relationship with Bosch.

I will fully cooperate with any inquiry into this matter.

It’s fishy that Bosch was the best Braun and his attorneys could do for an expert on testosterone. There’s no shortage of experts in that field. Why choose a guy running a shady wellness clinic in South Florida rather than, say, a Harvard biochemist?

MLB will surely ask Braun about that, but the reality that Braun’s alibi is a solid one is a problem. Furthermore, the fact that he’s eager to cooperate with the league’s inquiries indicates that he’s either a) totally innocent or b) totally confident that MLB won’t be able to dig up anything else.

If that’s the case, then Braun and his people clearly know the rules. MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program only allows Selig to discipline players without a positive test if he determines he has “just cause” to issue a suspension, but he’ll have to do better than these flimsy documents in order to claim that he has “just cause.”

Possession would do the trick, but the documents at hand don’t prove possession and Braun surely isn’t about to confess to possessing PEDs if he has any. A prescription would also do the trick, as it did with Manny Ramirez in 2009, but Bosch doesn’t seem to have dealt in prescriptions.

Anything less than proof of possession or a prescription isn’t going to cut it, and Selig and his underlings should realize this. Braun has already beaten them in an appeal once. If they don’t conjure up any hard evidence but go after him anyway, he’ll be able to beat them again. 

It’s possible that there are more documents that haven’t come to light yet. MLB may be hoping so, as the league has asked the New Times for the documents that the paper obtained for its report. Dozens of documents were used, but many were redacted and some flat out weren’t used in the report.

But if this is MLB’s best hope for further evidence on Braun, the league is likely to find itself out of luck. The fact that Braun’s name wasn’t in the New Times report is a clear indication that the paper couldn’t find anything in the documents solid enough to charge him with obtaining PEDs from Bosch.

If the New Times couldn’t find anything good enough for publication, why should MLB think it’s going to find anything in those documents good enough for a punishment?

It shouldn’t, hence the reason the league can’t get its hopes up too high that revenge against Braun may be possible.

If the league wants to go on a hunt for a big, bad witch, that’s fine. But it should prepare itself to end up on a wild goose chase instead.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder and former National League MVP Ryan Braun beat accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs once during his career, but he will have to do so again after his name has reportedly shown up on documents from the Biogenesis clinic.

Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown and Jeff Passan reported the following: 

Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun’s name is in records of the Miami-area clinic alleged to have distributed performance-enhancing drugs to a rash of baseball players, and Major League Baseball will investigate the link to the former MVP who tested positive for illegal synthetic testosterone during the 2011 postseason.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 9:10 p.m. ET by Ben Chodos

In response to his name being mentioned in connection with Biogenesis, Braun released the following statement, via MLB.com beat writer Adam McCalvy’s Brew Beat blog:

During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Tony Bosch, used him as a consultant. More specifically, he answered questions about T/E ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples.

There was a dispute over compensation for Bosch’s work, which is why my lawyer and I are listed under ‘moneys owed’ and not on any other list.

I have nothing to hide and have never had any other relationship with Bosch.

I will fully cooperate with any inquiry into this matter.

—End of update—

The Biogenesis clinic had been creating headlines recently for allegedly supplying New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez with steroids. As Brown and Passan note, the clinic’s director, Anthony Bosch, is at the center of the scandal in which several MLB players received banned substances.

According to the report, Bosch’s records contain the notation “RB 20-30K”, which is believed to be Braun’s initials followed by the amount of money he owed.

Braun is treading on a familiar path. During the 2011 playoffs, a urine sample he provided tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. The left fielder was subsequently suspended for 50 games, but he appealed the ruling and became the first player to have such a punishment reversed.

The recent allegations against Braun come after a Biogenesis employee leaked records to The New York Times. Brown and Passan later notes that Miami (Fla.) strength and conditioning coach Jimmy Goins was allegedly a client of the clinic and has connections to several of the players implicated in the investigation. 

The Brewers’ star is a former Hurricane, as is Detroit Tigers pitcher Cesar Carrillo, who is also linked to Bosch. Brown and Passan’s report also mentions that Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez and San Diego Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal have connections to Goins as well.

Braun salvaged his reputation with an impassioned speech following the first steroid allegations he dealt with, but doing so again will be extremely difficult. 

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Who says you have to pump iron (or, in these days, pop PEDs) to be a slugger? For goodness sake, Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer!

Power hitters come in all shapes and sizes, from a rounded Prince Fielder to a towering Adam Dunn to a perfectly proportioned Albert Pujols. 

But wait, what about the skinny guys? You know, the ones who frequently take off days from the gym just because they weren’t in the mood (we’ve all been there). 

Surprisingly, some of these players are renowned as some of the best home run hitters in the game. 

Let’s see who made the list.

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The Milwaukee Brewers failed in 2012.

There’s no need to sugarcoat it or try to make light of a dark season.

The fact is—the Brewers underachieved.

Coming off a trip to the National League Championship Series in 2011, expectations soared even higher entering this season. Those expectations were quickly put to bed.

With injuries stacking up, as well as blown saves and losses, the Brewers shipped Zack Greinke to Los Angeles for highly touted shortstop Jean Segura. Milwaukee started winning shortly after and eventually became in contention for the second wild card spot.

They came up short and finished the season with a 83-79 record, good enough for third in the N.L. Central. Without the injuries and the lack of a solid bullpen, Milwaukee’s season might have ended on a different path.

Here are my grades of the Milwaukee Brewers offense, starting pitching and bullpen in 2012.

Begin Slideshow

The pressure of Major League Baseball’s stretch run has boiled the race for the National League Most Valuable Player award down to two realistic options. With all due respect to Andrew McCutchen, Yadier Molina and—if you want to get sabermetric-happy—David Wright, Buster Posey and Ryan Braun are the only horses in this race.

On one side, you have the cherubic golden boy who seems to embody the James Earl Jones version of America’s pastime. On the other, you have the disgraced-oh-wait-no-he’s-not-on-a-technicality defending 2011 NL MVP.

The latter’s surge is laying the national baseball media bare for all to see who care to look.

Although Posey seems to have the inside track at the moment, Braun has been charging hard at the San Francisco Giants’ catcher for the last couple of months.

A hot August gave way to a scalding September, and though the Brewers have fallen out of contention in the last week, that they even resurfaced in the discussion is a tribute to the feats of their premier slugger. This is a team that was 12 games under .500 on Aug. 19 and will now finish with at least 82 wins.

Braun has been mashing, no doubt about it.

To understand the hypocrisy of the groundswell behind Ryan, you have to understand how much more valuable Buster’s been.

If you look at the raw numbers, it’s a relatively close call.

The wins above replacement (WAR) is separated by tenths of a point, but Braun has Posey smoked in the counting stats and slugging percentage, while Gerald Dempsey Posey III has Ryan licked in batting average, on-base percentage, walks and strikeout rate. So Braun’s been more productive and Posey’s been more efficient.

But consider the context.

Posey calls AT&T Park home, while Braun wears his whites at Miller Park. If counting stats were a growing boy, AT&T would be cigarette smoke, while Miller would be milk and vegetables.

Then take a gander at the WAR leaderboard again.

You’ll see Braun is joined by teammates Aramis Ramirez, Corey Hart and Norichika Aoki in the top 40. Jonathan Lucroy and Carlos Gomez actually have a better WAR than Hart and Aoki, but don’t have enough plate appearances to qualify. Either way, the Brew Crew has six position players with WAR of 3.0 or better.

For all the fuss made about the departure of Prince Fielder, Milwaukee’s cupboard isn’t exactly bare.

By comparison, San Francisco has three position players in the top 40 and one of those hasn’t played a game since mid-August.

Also consider that Posey has done his damage despite seeing the vast majority of his innings from behind the plate and after coming back from a hellacious injury, one that clearly demonstrated Buster’s import to the Giants as much of the same personnel that limped to the finish line in 2011 has been thriving in 2012.

In what has been a surprisingly strong offensive year for backstops, Posey’s been the best and he’s been no slouch on defense, either.

Finally, as good as Braun has been since the All-Star break, nobody in baseball has been hotter than the Giants’ catcher.

Posey leads all of baseball in batting average (hitting close to .400), on-base percentage, is second to Miguel Cabrera—who’s on his way to a Triple Crown—in slugging percentage and ranks in the Top Five for RBI. His inhuman play since the Midsummer Classic has propelled the Giants to a comfortable division title and the man, himself, to the cusp of an NL batting crown.

Either team suffers massively if its star disappears, but the Giants are a playoff team with Posey, whereas Milwaukee isn’t going to the postseason even with Braun. It’s obviously not the defending MVP’s fault, but that doesn’t change the value proposition: The difference in value between playoffs and no playoffs is tremendous, whereas the difference in value between X wins and Y wins is largely nominal when neither total would’ve qualified for the postseason.

Braun has a good argument on its face, but Posey’s is significantly better. Case closed.

Which brings us to the hypocrisy of the thing.

In a normal year, this MVP debate would be a typical one based on the merits of both players.

Of course, due to the aforementioned performance-enhanced scandal surrounding Braun and the game itself, this is not a normal year.

Instead, it’s been a banner one for sanctimonious hand-wringing and figurative crucifixion in the media.

When Melky Cabrera got popped for using in August, many in the press were so outraged you’d think these grown men had never been lied to before or heard of synthetic testosterone.

Meanwhile, the looming specter of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa becoming Hall of Fame eligible gave those with the holier-than-thou gene a chance to flaunt it when decrying any and each of the trio’s chances.

Part of the fiction that is the post-steroid era is the media’s overly dramatic and hard-line stance on anyone who gets caught up in the maelstrom. It’s like the press is trying to make up for all those years when only blind eyes saw the PED telltales and it doubled down on that effort in ’12.

For the record, I don’t care much about the use of performance-enhancers in professional baseball, but that’s a matter for a different day.

What does irritate me is that the same group that treats PED use like a communicable disease in most settings is going out of its way to French kiss it in this one.

Given the media’s general attitude toward those touched by the PED scandal and the nip-tuck nature of the two studs’ seasons, Braun shouldn’t be anywhere near the discussion. He should be noted and dismissed by those same voting members who find PED use so abhorrent in its other contexts.

Yeah, yeah, the Hall of Fame ballot instructs voters that character should be a consideration, while there is no such directive on the MVP ballot.

Equally compelling is the fact that Braun’s PED suspension was waived because the sample was stored too long.

Look, if you believe character matters, then it always matters, whether you’ve been explicitly told to consider it or not. It’s not like the MVP ballot demands that the voter ignore character.

As for the technical loophole Braun squeezed his MVP trophy through, does Ryan’s urine turn into testosterone and/or “prohibited substances” gradually over time? If so, is the medical community aware of this? Because I’m thinking there could be some beneficial applications of that little talent.

So why the special rules when it comes to Mr. Braun?

Who knows?

Maybe it’s because he’s the anti-Bonds: a likable otherworldly talent. Maybe it’s because the Braun-shouldn’t-win angle is too obvious and rational to ever start a firestorm. Maybe those members of the press sincerely believe the dude is innocent.

After all, somebody falls for those African prince emails, too, right?

I won’t speculate as to the why of it, but one thing is certain: All players are not created (or chemically enhanced) equally in the eyes of the national media.

The NL MVP race is proving it.

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There’s a certain stigma attached to Ryan Braun‘s name following last year’s PED controversy, however, that shouldn’t stop the writers from giving him a much deserved, second straight NL MVP Award.

Now before you jump to conclusions, I’m a Reds fan and have no bias favoring Braun. The fact of the matter is that Braun’s numbers are far and above every other player in the National League.

In 139 games, Braun is batting .312/.387/.602/.989 with 40 HR, 103 RBI, 95 runs, 30 doubles and 24 steals.

According to ESPN’s projections, Braun is expected to finish the year at .312/.387/.602 with 44 HR, 114 RBI, 105 runs 33 doubles and 26 steals. If by some miracle Braun steals six bases between now and the end of the season, he’ll be just the 11th player in in MLB history to reach the 40-30 mark.

Braun’s numbers truly speak for themselves. His 40 home runs give him a commanding lead in the National League, while his 95 runs, 103 RBI and .312 batting average are good for second, second and fifth respectively.

Braun’s 103 RBI are second only to Chase Headley’s mark of 104. Additionally, when MVP voting begins, Braun’s .312 batting average will likely be viewed as fourth best, considering the fact that suspended outfielder Melky Cabrera leads the National League.

Braun could easily lead two of the three Triple Crown categories by the time the season ends, which that won’t go unnoticed.

In addition to the basic slash line, RBI and home run totals, Braun’s .602 slugging percentage and .989 OPS are both NL bests.

Though it’s lower than the value he posted last year, Braun’s 6.5 WAR is just .02 behind the NL leader Andrew McCutchen. He and McCutchen are also tied for the NL lead in runs created at 126, giving them a sizable 19 run lead over Buster Posey’s 107.

Braun isn’t just an offensive juggernaut though, his 2.8 defensive WAR is good for second behind Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney. Although it doesn’t make a huge difference to writers, whose decisions are based largely around offensive performance, it is worth noting.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about Braun’s 2012 campaign is that he’s produced these numbers without the protection of Prince Fielder. Many people, including myself, wondered and/or doubted whether Braun could produce equally impressive numbers without Fielder.

Those doubts quickly were stifled in 2012.

There’s no doubt that Braun’s name and performance carries a stigma, but it’s hard to believe that if he was using this season, he wouldn’t get caught.

What’s really helping Braun’s case is his team’s performance down the late-season stretch. The Brewers have won 20 of their last 26 games and find themselves just 2.5 games out of the second NL Wild Card spot.

The Brewers being in the playoff hunt, puts the spotlight on Braun and his impressive season. However, he really deserves the award no matter how the Brewers finish in 2012.

Need your own proof? Take a look at Baseball-Reference’s listing of the National League batting leaders.

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Back on February 23, 2012, Ryan Braun saw his 50-game suspension for testing positive for synthetic testosterone overturned.

Suddenly, he was acquitted and able to start the 2012 season on time.

The key word there is “acquitted.” An acquittal is not proof of innocence. In fact, it’s proof of nothing more than insufficient evidence to convict, nothing more.

This is a hard fact that looms over the head of Braun this season. He’s done his proclamations of innocence on numerous occasions, yet those words are falling on deaf ears.

Braun is having himself a fine season. That much is true. The problem is due to the discourse of events occurring after the conclusion of the 2011 season, his numbers are seemingly insignificant to most baseball fans outside of Milwaukee.

Sounds a lot like when Barry Bonds was chasing the home run record, does it not?

This season, Braun is tied for 11th in the National League with 128 hits. However, 32 of those hits are an NL best in home runs. His 77 runs scored are fifth in the league while his 81 RBI are tied for second with Matt Holliday, only two behind the league leader, Carlos Beltran’s 83.

In addition to his 32 dingers, Braun has added 21 doubles and two triples for a total of 55 extra-base hits.

That said, he leads the NL in isolated power (ISO) numbers as well, with a .285 average. This is a category he leads by no small margin: .19 points, which is just about double the largest gap (.10 points) through the rest of the ISO leader list.

Surprisingly, his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) has him ranked 23rd with a .323 average, especially considering his .301 AVG has him tied for 10th with David Freese.

Additionally, Braun’s .380 OBP ranks him ninth, however, his .586 SLG is third in the NL, second if you exclude a DL-stricken Joey Votto. His .966 OPS is second to only Andrew McCutchen.

Lastly, his 5.7 WAR is third among NL stars, behind David Wright’s 6.0 and McCutchen’s 6.4 respectively.

Clearly, Braun is a top-tier player in all of baseball, let alone the National League, yet writers and fans alike look at him quite differently this season.

In the course of just a few short months, he has gone from being a fan favorite to a player fans no longer trust.

Follow @THEChrisBenvie

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With the fantasy trade deadlines coming up this week and next (I have four red-letter dates this Friday), it’s time for owners to make one last pitch for baseball’s elite categorical contributors.

AccuScore, a company that specializes in thorough game simulations, has made a few on-the-fly revisions to its seasonal projections.

These 46 hitters, based on AccuScore projections (not mine), will register at least nine home runs from this point forward (Aug. 7-Sept. 30):

Part I
1. Adam Dunn, White Sox—14
2. Ryan Braun, Brewers—13
3. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers—13
4. Curtis Granderson, Yankees—12
5. Anthony Rizzo, Cubs—12
6. Josh Hamilton, Rangers—12
7. Albert Pujols, Angels—12
8. Mark Trumbo, Angels—12
9. Jose Bautista, Blue Jays—12
10. Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays—12
11. Matt Kemp, Dodgers—11
12. Mark Teixeira, Yankees—11
13. Paul Konerko, White Sox—11
14. Josh Willingham, Twins—11
15. Corey Hart, Brewers—11
16. Prince Fielder, Tigers—11
17. Mike Trout, Angels—10
18. David Ortiz, Red Sox—10
19. Robinson Cano, Yankees—10
20. Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins—10
21. Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies—10
22. Jay Bruce, Reds—10
23. Adam LaRoche, Nationals—10

Part II
24. Trevor Plouffe, Twins—10
25. Nelson Cruz, Rangers—10
26. Adrian Beltre, Rangers—10
27. Yoenis Cespedes, Athletics—10
28. Adam Jones, Orioles—9
29. Kevin Youkilis, White Sox—9
30. Andrew McCutchen, Pirates—9
31. Mike Napoli, Rangers—9
32. Pedro Alvarez, Pirates—9
33. Dan Uggla, Braves—9
34. Mark Reynolds, Orioles—9
35. Alfonso Soriano, Cubs—9
36. Ryan Howard, Phillies—9
37. Josh Reddick, Athletics—9
38. Will Middlebrooks, Red Sox—9
39. Michael Morse, Nationals—9
40. Aramis Ramirez, Brewers—9
41. Matt Holliday, Cardinals—9
42. Carlos Quentin, Padres—9
43. Nick Swisher, Yankees—9
44. Joey Votto, Reds—9
45. Carlos Beltran, Cardinals—9
46. Brandon Moss, Athletics—9
 

Breakdown

• The prediction that immediately stands out is Anthony Rizzo (9 HR, 23 RBI, .301 BA) clubbing 12 homers from this point forward. To date, he’s averaging one homer for every 14.78 at-bats. Extrapolating that figure over another 49 games (sitting out six) with four daily at-bats (conservative estimate), that’s another 196 at-bats for the season…or 13.26 home runs. AccuScore’s right in that ballpark.
• I’ll reluctantly buy the “under” on Adam Dunn’s prediction of 14 homers from this point forward. For the season, Dunn (31 HR, 74 RBI, .205 BA) has a sterling trend of one homer for every 12.26 at-bats. But in the last 30 days, Dunn’s rate has regressed to one homer for every 15.2 at-bats.
• Noticeably absent from this list: David Wright, Evan Longoria, Chris Davis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adam Lind, Alex Rios, Ryan Zimmerman, Startling Marte, Ian Kinsler, Jason Kubel, Ike Davis, Brian McCann, Carlos Pena, Carlos Santana, Buster Posey, Shin-Soo Choo, Justin Morneau, Hunter Pence, Dayan Viciedo, Jason Heyward and Alex Gordon.
• I’ve seen approximately 12 of Paul Goldschmidt‘s 16 homers on live TV this season, via MLB Extra Innings. And that somehow led me to believe Goldy was belting bombs at a more prodigious rate than one homer per 21 at-bats (seasonal)…or one homer for every 16.1 at-bats (minus a shaky April). If he maintains that May-August pace, he’ll clear double digits.

Jay Clemons can be reached on Twitter, day or night, at @ATL_JayClemons.

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