By Nick Prill of The Brewers Bar
The Brewers haven't even had a full-squad workout yet, but they already have one major win in the books. As reported by Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel (behind paywall), outfielder Ryan Braun's appeal of a positive drug test was successful, and he will not be suspended 50 games. The MLB panel in charge of the appeal reportedly voted 2-1 in favor of Braun, with union representative Michael Weiner and independent arbitrator Shyam Das on his side, and MLB VP Rob Manfred ruling in favor of the suspension. According to the initial reports, Braun built his case on flaws in the MLB testing process, including the fact that the chain of custody of his sample was broken for two days, leaving the sample unprotected during that time.
This whole thing has been a roller-coaster for everyone involved, from the leaking of the positive test to the constant rumors to the delay surrounding the decision, and finally from the actual ruling to the already-crazy aftermath. The past five weeks have been insanely nerve-wracking, the last three hours have been even more so, and you have to figure that more information is going to come out in the next few days. With that in mind, I think it's best to withhold our final opinions at least until Braun has gotten a chance to speak and we can be sure nothing new will come out. So, here are my initial observations:
On the field, the Brewers completely and totally dodged a bullet. From a purely statistical standpoint, being without Braun for 50 games was going to cost them at least one, maybe two wins in the standings, even if Braun is back at 100% of his usual self on game 51. That deficit is erased. Perhaps even better, the change in atmosphere and the surge in confidence among the Brewers was visible just by looking at players' tweets. These things matter too, even if we can't quantify them, and it looks as if things are looking up for the club already.
You can read the rest of the article here: Ryan Braun Found Not Guilty: Early Reactions
