Ryan Braun Tests Positive for PED's: Synthetic Testosterone Confirmed

The major league baseball world was rocked today by the news that 2012 MVP, Ryan Braun tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.  The test was administered during the 2011 playoffs and Braun was alerted about the test about a month before the MVP award was announced.  Braun is appealing a 50 game suspension, mandatory and imposed by Major League Baseball.  Braun's agent issued a statement stating "highly unusual circumstances" will prove that Braun is, in fact, innocent.

Anyone close to baseball is hoping that Braun's image will somehow be vindicated through the appeal process.  The Hebrew Hammer is a good guy and Ryan has been one of the most underrated and consistent players in baseball over the past five seasons.  At 28 years old, Braun was seemingly on the fast track to the Hall of Fame but these allegations could leave a huge black mark on his legacy.  Innocence should always be assumed but no player has ever won an appeal in a case involving the use of performance enhancing drugs... saying that Braun is fighting an uphill battle is a vast understatement.  His testosterone levels were elevated and deemed to be "exogenous."  That is, they were from outside the body, synthetic.  In cases like this, claiming ignorance never works.  If Braun claims that he didn't know what he was taking, he will not win his appeal.  Given the immense pressure that major league baseball is under to maintain the image that it is cleaning up the game, I'm not sure that there is anything Braun can say to win this appeal but I hope that I'm wrong.