[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by drcy

If Braun's career tanks and the Brewers are on the hook for $100 million, that will work as incentive for the teams, the folks signing the contracts, to prevent players from taking PEDs.

Everyone but the ostriches in Wisconsin said he was probably on PEDs. If the Brewers were still willing to sign him to a $100 million contract, that's their own fault when he gets caught. Maybe next time the Brewers will steer clear of players they know are PED users.

Don't let anything like the facts get in the way of your stupid diatribe.

Ryan Braun signed his extension prior to the 2011 season (April of 2011). His positive urine test came in the postseason of the 2011 season (October 2011), and the story broke in December of 2011. Eight months later.

So, by what stretch of the imagination did the Brewers extend a known PED user?

As for us "ostriches" in Wisconsin, I'm relatively certain that every single Brewers fan, myself included, accepted that there was a very good possibility that Ryan Braun was indeed guilty of what he'd been accused. The difference between us and everybody else, it seems, is that we decided to wait for the facts to come out before assassinating somebody's reputation. A lot of people were ready to take what ESPN was reporting as cold-hard facts, even though their story seemingly changed by the day ("Ryan Braun is being suspended for using PED". "Ryan Braun is being suspended for using a banned substance". "Ryan Braun tested positive for a banned substance being used to treat a STD".) ESPN completely lacks in journalistic integrity, yet people were treating their word as the Bible. Never mind that the appeals process in place for baseball players was supposed to be confidential. ESPN didn't care if they ruined his reputation sans facts. They cared more about their web hits, their television ratings, and their magazine sales.