It was reported today that bitter writers who shouldn’t have elected him over Matt Kemp in the first place were wrong to say he was a cheat who should have to give his MVP award back, that the fans who freaked out thinking the game was still rampantly dirty could calm down, and that Cardinals fans could begin freaking out in their place when Ryan Braun became the first player in Baseball history to successfully appeal a drug suspension that would have otherwise cost him 50 games and taken St. Louis’s biggest division competitors out of the Central running.

This report, of course, comes after the ESPN report from December whose headline read, “Ryan Braun Tests Positive For PED.”  But as we learned today, that wasn’t the case at all; just an unfounded slap to Braun’s reputation that he may not recover from for the rest of his career.  Lost in the coverage of what would have otherwise been a massive controversy is how the test that Braun “failed” was conducted and how low-brow it was for ESPN and others to run with a narrative for three months based on incomplete facts.

THE TEST

In effect, players undergo two tests when they pee in that cup–supervised.  The first part of the test is to see how much testosterone the guy has in him; and if his levels check out, he’s good to go.  But this is only phase one of testing, the part that ESPN reported that he failed.  But they and almost every other media failed to tell us that there is a part two to the testing.  (Props to Will Carroll of SI who didn’t miss this part.)

If a player has unusually-high testosterone levels, his pee is then taken to phase two of drug testing which follows the rules of the World Ant-Doping Agency.  That’s the stage where performance-enhancing drugs are tested for and where reputations go to die at the feet of MLB’s scythe of very severe punishment: 50-game suspensions for first-timers like Braun almost was (darnit), 100 for second-timers like Manny Ramirez ideally would have been, and a lifetime suspension for anyone stupid enough to fail in this system three times.  But Braun made it through the second stage cleanly, which is what he and his representatives told a panel of judges and the reason why he was let free.  His high testosterone level could have been natural or fermented before going to phase two or was the result of a product on Baseball’s “blessed list,” which contains stuff that’s good for you but doesn’t enhance performance.

NOT SO FAST?

Alright, happy ending for everyone who doesn’t pull for the Cards or Reds (we’ll get there in a minute); and we all see that a Barry Bonds‘ neck-sized problem is not about to crush the game we thought was mostly clean.  Except said game doesn’t think so.  MLB had this to say about the overturn in a statement: “As a part of our drug testing program, the Commissioner’s Office and the Players Association agreed to a neutral third party review for instances that are under dispute.  While we have always respected that process, Major League Baseball vehemently disagrees with the decision rendered today by arbitrator Shyam Das.”

What’s that about?  Did this independent arbiter just make a huge mistake?  My guess would be no, unless you consider Braun’s other yes vote came from a guy from the Players’ Union who wouldn’t be doing his job if he voted against a player.  But it’s also possible that the arbiter with whom MLB ”vehemently disagrees” with screwed the pooch too.  (An enlightenment I would not be happy to hear about later in the season.)  Maybe ESPN can find that one out, though I won’t hold my breath.

ESPN THE ONES THAT FAILED

That organization is totally to blame for any suspicion held against Braun the rest of his career regarding PEDs; reporting a failed phase one test without ever saying there was a phase two, which I think Braun passed to the ire of the overly-strict set-up Baseball has.  I’m usually not one for demanding written apologies, but this was false reporting by an overrated news agency, and Braun should get a full “I’m sorry” from either ESPN or Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn, who broke the story, or all of the above.

BREWERS KEEP THEIR EQUALIZER

Of course, the first reaction to this news is predictable if you’re a Cards fan.  The Brewers are on par with your team on almost every level, and looking at each side-by-side unobjectively, it’s very hard to tell who’s better.  Both lost their star first baseman to free agency, but both tried to compensate with Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Beltran.  Adam Wainwright joins the Cardinals this year, putting St. Louis’ rotation on par with Milwaukee’s.  John Mozeliak fixed up the bullpen nicely in 2011, making it just as good as if not better than that of the division foes; and while pitching leans more to the Brewers’ side, the Cards have an equal measure of advantage on the hitting side.

Almost perfectly even.  Which is why the return of Braun hurts.  Without him, the Brewers would have lost the best player on their team for a third of the season, giving the Cards a huge head start in the division race.  But that’s not happening now, and both teams will have to go at it fair and square for 162 with all hands on deck on Opening Day.  Throw in the Reds, whose resurgence from last year is impossible to predict, and you’re looking at a very tight NL Central in the last year of eight-team playoffs.

So while I’m pretty sure justice was served in the Braun case (although I could be wrong and MLB could be right to be outraged), I don’t have to be happy about a baseball mass murderer being let loose on the National League to the benefit of the most serious threat to the reigning champions’ division hopes, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Should be a good one…

First of all, if Number 14 on the all-time homers list is really that out of shape, it’s no big deal: his contract is a minor league one, so if he doesn’t impress in spring training, the A’s can change their minds and don’t have to pay him at all; making all of this hubbub much adieu about nothing.  And even if they do decide to stick with him, the dinky contract is worth $500,000, which is only $20 thousand more than the Major League minimum.  (I’m not sure if that includes the 50-game suspension during which Ramirez can’t receive pay or not.  But if it doesn’t, we’re talking about a deal that doesn’t even reach $350 thousand.  Either way, you’re talking close to free in baseball terms.)

Not to mention that Manny presents the club with at least a faint glimmer of offense that they badly need.  Even at then-40 years old, he could still be one of the best hitters on a team that was the tenth-worst offense in the Majors last year before losing David DeJesus, Hideki Matsui and Conor Jackson.  Any hitting from anywhere, even from teh Braided One, is more than welcome, especially on the cheap.

Billy Beane‘s A’s can’t lose.  This deal sounded worse because it closely followed the highly-questionable Yoenis Cespedes signing, but there’s really no downside.  The best-case scenario has him hitting close to 20 homeruns and hitting cleanup behind Kurt Suzuki; while the worst has him cut after a month of sub-.200 hitting at the Major League level and costing the team mere pocket change.  In both cases, entertainment might still come to a fan base who are looking at a long 2012 season.

He also hired an extremely malleable manager in Mike Matheny to replace the commandeering LaRussa, who was always highly involved in the process of choosing his players.  Matheny has no managing experience, which means his style is undetermined, and since he’s yet to gain any kind of significant positional clout in the organization, he may function, at least for the time being, as a figurehead manager that will run the team that Mozeliak built the way Mozeliak wants him to–a strategy employed several times by other teams.

Chairman Bill DeWitt said, “I guess you could say there’s a little bit of a reversal.  Tony was an extremely experienced, accomplished manager when Mo was promoted to general manager.  Now you’ve got a GM who has been here five years and a first-year manager.  Naturally, there’s a dynamic in a relationship that will develop over time.”

“In fairness, I think there was public perception and there was reality,” the Cards’ GM said.  ”There’s no doubt Tony’s career warranted him to have a lot of say in how we made decisions.  But we’re not changing the process.  Matheny and his staff will have input in how we move forward and how we make roster decisions.”

Maybe so, but not nearly as much as LaRussa had; especially not in his first season and maybe not even his second of a two-year contract.

Pujols was the face of the franchise, but he left after his side and Mozeliak’s couldn’t come to terms; and recent developments hint that another fan favorite, Yadier Molina, will find the same fate.

“I just never look at an organization as any one person.  How people identify with the Cardinals is up to them.  I look at my responsibility as to put the right pieces in place and hope that allows us to be successful.  In terms of being higher up on the decision tree today than five years ago, I don’t think that’s changed very much.”

Makes you think about if any stars will ever be retained under Mozeliak’s watch.

“I think a lot of people are trying to make a big deal about whether this club is more my club or not.  I never looked at this as mine or ‘I.’  I’ve looked at is as ‘we,’ and that’s how we’ll move forward.”

“A lot of people”?  I’ve read but one column–which is now months old–on the power shift to Mozeliak, and haven’t heard or read much if any conversation regarding it among fans.  No, he knows this is his team now.  That’s not something you want to come out and say, but it’s very apparent at this point.  No offense intended to the new manager, but why else would Mozeliak have chosen the clean slate Matheny as LaRussa’s replacement?

“I really don’t think it’s going to be all that different.  We’ve got a group of smart people upstairs and we’ve let Mike know whatever he and his staff want from that group, feel free to tap into it.  We did that with Tony, too.  Not that much has changed.  If you’re asking whether we’re going to force-feed it more, the answer is ‘No.’  I believe in the process that was created over the last five years, and that’s what we’re going to live and die by.”

Yes, he believes in the process that was created over the last five years by him, and he will in fact live and die by it.  This is his ship now, and most of the responsibility for success or failure in the coming years will be placed on him.

Maybe that’s not the best comparison to make.  Albert and the Cardinals were over $60 million apart–a colossal gap we won’t see with this fan favorite.  No, if both parties are really interested in making something work, they can make it work.  But I’m not exactly convinced that they do.

Word was that Yadi didn’t like how negotiations were handled by the Cardinals with Pujols, a good friend of his; which may have been why he missed or even skipped Warm-up altogether.  With that context in mind, his desire to stay with the team long-term is called into question when he says, ”I’m open to staying here.  I love the city.  I love the fans.  I love the ballpark.  But it’s out of my hands.  Whatever they like to do is how it is.  They let Albert go.  It’s business for the team, too.  It’s out of my hands.”

That sounds a tad too ominous to a fan base that just lost the best player in team history.  It doesn’t help when he says things like this today, either:

“We stopped talking about [an extension].  For now, I think.  For now, we’ve stopped talking.  For now, I don’t want to talk about it.  Hopefully, when the season starts [something will be done]…

“I don’t know about [a hometown discount].  I don’t know about that.  Like I say–I always say this–I like the town.  I like the city.  At the same time, I have to think about my family… like they worry about their team.  This is business.  If I get good money, I’ll take it.  If not, I go away.”

Bounjour et c’est la vie, Yadi.  I appreciate the talent that John Mozeliak has in putting a team together for both short and long term, but I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth; especially when he tells me not to read too much into the rumors of Molina’s discontent.

He did say today, however, that the team’s  ”desire would be to find a way to sign him.”  That part I believe, though I think it is certainly more out of necessity than desire.  The 2013 free agent catchers class has some decent names, but many of whom will be re-upping with their current teams.  And the farm system is devoid of any serious candidates for a starting catcher to take Molina’s place.

You’ll also notice that Yadi’s trying to keep his hands clean.  ”It’s out of my hands,”We stopped talking about it.  For now, I think,”I have to think about my family.”  He doesn’t want to become to the St. Louis fans what his friend has become.

Peripheral stuff aside, an extension needs to get done.  If not, the Cardinals send a message to their fans that says they will continue to let their beloved stars go.  Being smart with your money and avoiding crippling contracts is important, but a Molina contract would hardly be crippling.  There are some guys you just have to pay–within reason–and Mozeliak & Co. can look really good if they recover from a seemingly Pujols-esque scenario and sign a fan favorite.

After visiting the University of Missouri yesterday, I’ve been contemplating how I could possibly cover the Cardinals daily while also keeping up with school and working to pay for that school.  And the answer is that I can’t.

With the insane costs of going to a school whose prolific journalism degree could make me as a writer out of college, I will feel much more obligated to do well in school than I should have in the past.  So, something had to give in regards to the real world and this site, and the real world wins; at least a little bit.

Like when we switched to one story one post version a couple months ago, the new way EM will be presented is only a change in style, not content.  On the site, I will be writing better-written columns that I hope will be more influential on how Cardinal Nation views their team and the game they play.  The opinion stuff will be here, while the news will be on the Twitter account that has been used for little more than linking to posts here anyway.  The old stuff, by the way, can be found here.

I hope this is alright with you guys; and I hope you will continue to support this site and understand I had to make sacrifices in lieu of my upcoming lack of free time.  Please, please set the tone for visitors with your thoughts on the pieces I write here.  I love interacting with other fans, and the very point of this site is to get readers’ thoughts on what I write.  EM hasn’t done that since September, and I’m hoping we can reverse that trend.

Thank you so much for sticking it out with me this far, and I hope to hear from you guys throughout the upcoming season.  It’s looking like it will be a good one!

God bless,

–EM