An elegant look at the Ryan Braun news...

Braun is Long Gone.

BREAKING: Ryan Braun suspended without pay for remainder of 2013 season for violations of Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2013

5 Bold Predictions for an Unlucky Year

For any of you that suffer from Triskaidekaphobia, it may ease your mind to catch a glimpse of what lies ahead for this year.

AL EAST

Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees

AL Central

Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals*
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Cleveland Indians

Baseball Dream Theater VI

I'm in Milwaukee at a Brewers game, but I'm not sure why.  I'm routing for the Brewers, so they must be playing the Cubs.

With two outs, Carlos Gomez hits a single, which brings up Ryan Braun.  Braun bounces a pitch back to the mound, but the pitcher doesn't get a good grip on the ball.  At the precise moment that I snap the camera on my cell phone, Braun is leaping through the air in a superman pose and the pitcher is sliding past him into foul territory.  The ball flies away toward the first base coach while Braun's descent brings him an infield single.

Then, immediately, the inning ends entirely too early thanks to my alarm clock.

Baseball Dream Theater III

We went to Game Three of the World Series, but somehow it was being played in San Francisco instead of Detroit.  Our seats were in the upper deck behind home plate, but for some reason, when I looked at the field I had an angle from center field.  

Logically, there were Giants fans everywhere, but I did manage to spot two fans wearing Rockies gear.  One was in a Troy Tulowitzki jersey. 

During batting practice, I caught with my bare hands a foul ball that had ricocheted off a stair step behind and to the right of me.  There were a couple more foul balls hit near us, but none of the other fans were able to make a clean catch like me. 

Despite being a reliefer, former Rockies farmhand Al Albuquerque started the game for Detroit, rather than Anibal Sanchez. 

5 Bold Predictions for an Election Year Season

AL EAST

Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Red Sox*
New York Yankees*
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles

AL Central

Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins

Monday Minutiæ

When dealing with a serious story like the Ryan Braun drug test, it's important to keep things in perspective and not blow things out of proportion.

 

Since the news broke that Braun won his appeal and won't be suspended for 50 games, the main contention against Braun has been that he still tested positive but escaped consequences due to a technicality.  Proponents of this contention say that the forty-four hour delay in submission doesn't alter the integrity of the testing process, and therefore Braun is dirty--which among other things means his 2011 NL MVP award is dirty. 

That knee-jerk reaction has one enormous assumption--that the forty-four hour delay had no effect whatsoever on the results of the tests.  I'm not sure that average baseball fans know enough about chemistry/toxicology to safely rely on such a critical assumption.  Personally, I do know that urine is a waste product of the body, and therefore much different than blood when it comes to toxicology tests.  One thing I don't know is the rate at which epitestosterone breaks down in a urine sample.  That seems to be an important factor in the science of steroid testing, no?

Since we are talking about scientific processes here, let's keep in mind that reproducibility is one of the main principles of the scientific method.  If the extended delay really did alter the result of Braun's test, it would be scientifically reproducible.  Right? 

Saturday Shuuto

Wendy Thurm's take.

Ryan Braun's take:

The Inner Uriah Heep

Dave Cameron at Fangraphs writes:

This is the unfortunate power of confirmation bias. As humans, we often take incomplete bits of information and force them into a predetermined world view because they reinforce our current belief system, and we’re wired to want to be right about things. So, despite the fact that we’re often handed pieces of information that should fall far short of being the basis for a strong opinion, we take that information as evidence that the thing we already believed to be true is indeed true, and we fortify our opinions to the point where our conclusions far outstrip what actual evidence we have.

In Colorado, a two hour delay in specimen collection is enough to get a Driving Under the Influence Per Se charge dismissed. Did you know that?

OSITF BREAKING NEWS

Braun is clean!

Highlights from my first pack of 2012

Eric Hosmer isn't the only PFBL favorite that I pulled.

It's that time again...Valentine's Day! My lovely wife Kristi bought me a double pack of Topps 2012. Don't worry, I returned the favor. I personally delivered flowers and chocolates to her at work. Since this was my first pack of Topps 2012, I thought I might share with you, loyal OSITF readers, some of the cool cards I pulled.  Click any card to enlarge.