Ryan Braun suspended for remainder of season | MLB.com: News: Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun has been suspended without pay for the remainder of 2013 and came clean Monday about violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Braun’s penalty called too light | Seattle Mariners | The News Tribune : SEATTLE — The expansive spiral of deceit that has chased Major League Baseball for more than a decade received a new chapter Monday.

Quotes: Ryan Braun suspended by MLB - Wire MLB - The Sacramento Bee: Former National League MVP Ryan Braun was suspended Monday without pay for the rest of the season and the postseason for violating league policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Some of the reaction from around baseball (including Terry Francona).

Rangers acquire coveted right-hander Matt Garza | MLB.com: News: The Rangers on Monday night officially acquired right-hander Matt Garza from the Cubs for third baseman Mike Olt as well as pitchers Justin Grimm and C.J. Edwards. To complete the deal, either one or two players to be named will be sent to the Cubs, who will have their choice of trade candidates.

Anthony Castrovince: Texas Rangers take bold, necessary step with Matt Garza deal | MLB.com: News: Dealing for Matt Garza was a chance the Rangers needed to take in a thin starting-pitching market if they're going to swing the American League West back in their favor.

McAllister set to return from DL on Tuesday | indians.com: News: Cleveland is set to activate right-hander Zach McAllister from the disabled list to start against the Mariners on Tuesday, concluding the starter's seven-week comeback from a sprained right middle finger.

Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera removed from game during fifth inning due to sore left hip flexor muscle | MLive.com: Cabrera has played in all but one game this season. He sat out one start in Toronto shortly after the back issue developed.

In desperate need of power, Yankees close to deal for Soriano - NYPOST.com: ARLINGTON — In dire need of a bat with thump and an indication the Yankees may believe that Alex Rodriguez isn’t going to play this season, the toothless Bombers are close to acquiring Alfonso Soriano from the Cubs.

Upsetting The No-No Mythos | The Rotation: Erik Bedard pulled himself from a game in which he was no-hitting the Mariners.

Trade Candidate: Michael Young | NBC 10 Philadelphia: Speculating on the Indians being among teams that might take Michael Young off the Phillies' hands.

Eric Wedge Hospitalized: Seattle manager Eric Wedge was hospitalized Monday after experiencing dizziness during batting practice at Safeco Field. Bench coach Robbie Thompson managed the team in Wedge's place.

Ryan Braun might be a lot of things. He's almost certainly a "liar" (and a fraud), as Steven Goldman said here yesterday. He could be all sorts of other awful things.

What he's certainly not, though, is any more guilty this morning than he was the morning before that of the violation with which he was charged more than a year and a half ago.

Braun tested positive in October of 2011; the arbitration panel ruled in January of 2012 that there were significant questions as to whether that sample had been handled in accordance with the procedures laid out in the agreement between the league and the players; certainly, nothing we could possibly learn that didn't have to do with the handling of that specific sample could have anything to do with his culpability in that particular matter. Seems pretty straightforward, really.

Seems that way. It's not, though, apparently:

The sample collector that Braun bashed and tore apart should get the rest of Braun's entire contract.

— Mark Mulder (@markmulder20) July 22, 2013

Hopefully, Ryan Braun has reached out to collector Dino Laurenzi, Jr. and offered his apology for how he cast doubt re Laurenzi's integrity.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 22, 2013

(Buster put this in a column, too.)

I sure hope the liar Ryan Braun apologizes to Dino Laurenzi, who collected his sample last year. Guy's life was thrown upside down.

— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) July 22, 2013

Ryan Braun owes this man an apology: http://t.co/HUKzx0I1va

— David Grann (@DavidGrann) July 22, 2013

Hey Ryan, maybe mix in an apology to the guy you got fired for your last positive PED test. Just a thought.

— Eric T0upal (@BrawnyTom) July 22, 2013

Do you think anyone on earth had a better day today than Dino Laurenzi?

— Trevor Crowe (@tcrowe4) July 22, 2013

What this sort of "analysis" does is take a complex legal problem and turn it into a sporting contest -- one on one (Braun vs. Laurenzi), right and wrong, black and white. It presumes that one of two conditions is true (that in sports terms, it's either a win or a loss): either Braun is innocent of all wrongdoing and Laurenzi set him up somehow -- doctored the sample, whatever -- or he's guilty and Lorenzi"wins," is entirely vindicated, becomes the good guy, and so on. In that view, Braun's acceptance of this suspension gives us plenty of reason to believe that he also legitimately failed the test in 2011, and thus, Laurenzi must have been the good guy, the winner.

In sports, which exist to pit one man or woman or horse or team against another, that sort of attitude generally works; in law, not so much.

Ryan Braun: Liar

The first of the Biogenesis dominoes falls, and the player who most loudly trumpeted his innocence is the first to go.

The laws of evidence and criminal procedure have developed the way they have because if we're going to find a person guilty of something that will deprive her of her liberty, we want to be damn sure that we're getting all the facts right. What this means is that, to protect the integrity of the overall system, there are certain specific procedures that must be followed in every case, with an eye toward ensuring that the evidence against the accused remains trustworthy and is collected and preserved in such a way that it protects the accused's basic rights. If those requirements aren't followed and the mistreated evidence is necessary to establish the person's guilt, that's where the inquiry stops; we don't care whether we think the accused is guilty or innocent, we don't even get to ask that question, because the evidence required to answer it wasn't handled in the right way, and as a matter of law, that evidence is gone.

It doesn't matter if we think this particular evidence is trustworthy despite the flaws in its handling; the point is to avoid those kinds of case-by-case determinations, by holding the people in charge of gathering or keeping the evidence to a certain standard that must be upheld in every case.

Baseball isn't the state or federal government, of course, but the league and union agreed to very similar rules, for very similar reasons; if the union was going to agree to subject its players to the kinds of harsh penalties the current system calls for, they insisted on requiring the testers to follow procedures that made completely sure that the samples were true and trustworthy -- not to permit an arbitrator to ask, on a case by case basis, whether we could be comfortable that the samples were probably trustworthy, but to make sure that precise procedures were followed, to the letter, in every single case.

Dino Laurenzi, Jr. had one job -- to make sure that the procedures for the handling of test samples, as established by the agreement between baseball and the players' union, were followed with respect to Braun's sample. The evidence presented in Braun's arbitration case suggested -- to two members of the three-arbitrator panel, at least -- that Laurenzi did not successfully perform that job.

That was all there was to it -- the procedures that must be followed in order to suspend a player under the agreement were not followed, so the player could not be suspended. It was not a declaration that Braun was "innocent" or that Laurenzi was somehow crooked, but only that the appropriate procedures for a "guilty verdict" were not followed. Maybe most importantly: in no way does the fact that Braun appears likely to have in fact been "guilty" mean that Laurenzi somehow did his job better than he actually did. Laurenzi was still put in charge of handling the samples in accordance with policy, and still (according to the panel) failed to do so. There's no reasonable way in which Braun's subsequent suspension, for different violations, serves as any kind of vindication for Laurenzi's failure to do the job that, had he done it, would certainly have gotten Braun suspended a year and a half ago.

Finally: as stated in more detail elsewhere, Braun doesn't owe Laurenzi anything. A major, kind of unspoken part of how the criminal procedure system works is that if your rights to having proper procedures followed have been violated, you not only have the right to contest those procedures, you're not only acting in your own rational self-interest, but you almost have a duty to raise those issues; regardless of guilt or innocence or something in between, in making sure the proper procedures were followed in building the case against you, you're a part of helping to police and enforce the integrity of the process for everyone else.

Moreover, Braun didn't attack Laurenzi personally. He said:

There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way that the entire thing worked, that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened.

Sure, "things we learned about the collector" could insinuate something unsavory. It could also mean, translated from lawyer-speak into baseball-player-speak, that they learned that the collector may not have handled the sample in strict accordance with the procedures.

Ryan Braun: Sorta smart and highly normal

It took a couple of years, but Ryan Braun seems to have finally admitted that, yeah, he did cheat.

Which is ultimately what it did mean. Which Laurenzi didn't. Which is the reason Laurenzi faced media scrutiny and apparently lost his job -- not because Braun made one or two statements that may or may not have vaguely suggested bad things about him, but because Laurenzi did not in fact do his job.

So whatever else you may find in the litany of things Braun is guilty of, the ruination and character assassination of one Dino Laurenzi, Jr. is not on there. Rail at Braun all you like for the cheating he (apparently) did. In that 2011-12 appeal, though? Braun and his lawyers used the criminal procedure rules as adopted by baseball and the MLBPA in exactly the way they were intended to be used, and has nothing to apologize for there.

More from SB Nation:

• Ryan Braun suspended for rest of season | Rob Neyer on Braun | Steven Goldman on Braun

• A-Rod may be next superstar to be suspended

• Cubs, Rangers complete Matt Garza trade

• 50 baseball-related metal names | #HotCorner

• MLB trade deadline: Why we might see less action than usual

You see it every time a player is caught using PEDs. People write columns, and people tweet, that it doesn't matter, that they don't care.

Those people are entitled to their opinions, of course. I'm here to tell you why I think Ryan Braun's suspension does matter, and matters a lot. Yahoo's Jeff Passan sums up my feelings on the matter here:

Though no Brewers player expressed as much publicly after Monday's game, their private disappointment dovetails with the sort of embarrassment anyone lied to feels. In their midst is someone who asked for their trust when it wasn't warranted. Across baseball, Braun's suspension was celebrated because there has been a monumental shift among clean players and in front offices, one reflected bravely by MLB Players Association executive director Michael Weiner: We should not defend those who do not respect the game, those who have no honor, integrity, class, dignity or professionalism.

That's exactly it; those words describe exactly the opposite of what Ryan Braun has done; he not only used PEDs and got caught, but lied about it, and then continued to do it after all of that happened. ESPN's Buster Olney said essentially the same thing. Olney's colum is behind a paywall; it's worth reading in its entirety, but I'll post two of the most relevant portions:

The names of the players involved are irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. What is significant is what an incident like this now signifies: PED cheaters have become pariahs, and increasingly regarded as thieves among the brethren, because they are stealing jobs and money that rightfully belong to others. A PED cheater is now viewed by the MLBPA something like the college kid who pilfers stuff from the rooms of others in his dormitory.

And:

But all along -- back to the first evidence of steroid use -- it is the players’ union that has wielded the ultimate power on this issue, because no drug testing nor changes to the agreement could have happened without its ascent. For years, the silent majority was more likely to complain individually and privately to sports writers about the rise of steroids than to stand up and say something in a union meeting, but now they are loud and angry, and they’ll drill a guy with a fastball if that’s what it takes.

This is why Braun will never regain his reputation with other players. He lied to them, and he cheated them -- and incredibly, he kept lying and kept cheating even after getting caught, with the positive test in the fall of 2011.

And if you think it still doesn't matter, please read this remarkable collection of quotes from players put together by Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy (it includes a quote from the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano and manager Dale Sveum, who knows Braun well from his time as a Brewers coach and interim manager).

Two of those quotes, in particular, caught my eye. First, from Diamondbacks infielder Willie Bloomquist:

"I got a chance to play with Ryan on the USA team and he’s a good dude, a really good guy. But having said that, it’s disappointing. We as players have done the best job we can to clean up the game and rid it of all this sort of thing. Everyone knows the consequences and penalties for it and yet there’s some people that seem like they can sneak by the system without getting caught and what it does is it cheats everybody else. It cheats the game, it cheats the fans it cheats the players they’re playing against."

And from D'backs reliever Brad Ziegler:

"It’s frustrating that guys are still trying to beat the system, but it’s also frustrating that he’s essentially accepting responsibility for it now which means that everything he said back at the beginning of 2012 was a lie. You never want to see that out of anybody let alone a fellow ballplayer. It’s frustrating that guys are still trying to beat the system, but the lying and the denials are more the issue for me just from a human being’s perspective."

These two clearly are not the only players who feel this way -- in fact, you can read more similar reaction from other players here, including this:

"Watching him talk right now makes me sick,"Skip Schumaker of the Los Angeles Dodgers said. "I have an autographed Braun jersey in my baseball room that I'll be taking down. I don't want my son identifying what I've worked so hard to get to and work so hard to have - I don't want him comparing Braun to me."

Will Brewers fans who have similar memorabilia do the same? There's a good argument, from a major-league player, that they should. Some have called Braun the Lance Armstrong of baseball; there's a comparison to be made with Armstrong about the lies Braun told, though Braun never attempted the other things Armstrong did, such as trying to bully or ruin the lives of his teammates and colleagues.

Those players who have not cheated, not lied, who have played the game clean and "the right way" (as Ryne Sandberg put it in his Hall of Fame induction speech), want the game cleaned up, so there's a level playing field, so that their competitors are truthful and honest and play the game with their own natural abilities. If the players want it, why shouldn't the rest of us want that? CBS Sports' Danny Knobler sums it up:

The truth is on our side now, and the truth is that Ryan Braun is never going to gain back our trust and respect. The truth is that Ryan Braun badly harmed the game he claims to love so dearly, first by trying to cheat to get ahead and then with the loud and obnoxious denials.

Baseball does care about cleaning up the game. The players union cares, too, because many of its members now care.

From the beginning of sports, players have always sought a way to get an edge on their competitors. That's just human nature, and the competitive nature of professional athletes. They've stolen signs, scuffed baseballs, popped greenies and taken PEDs. Some of those things are within the rules, some of them bend the rules, some of them are against the rules of the game or even against the law.

An edge is one thing. Cheating and lying about cheating is another. Sure, Ryan Braun will return to baseball next season, but he will be scorned by many of his opponents, looked at suspiciously by his teammates and booed mercilessly when he plays on the road. Braun made his choices; now he will have to pay for them. He's not the last to have this penalty, either; it seems likely that Alex Rodriguez will also serve a suspension, possibly even longer than Braun's, and, according to that link, perhaps 15 others will also be suspended.

It's the right thing to do. The players want it. Their union leadership has agreed. Baseball is cleaning itself up, and I would argue that we're all better off for it; we'll see games and competitions between athletes using their own natural abilities, honed by hard work. Will these players seek another edge? Of course they will; again, that's just human nature. We can only hope that they'll do so within the rules of the game, so that their opponents, and we, the paying customers, won't be cheated and lied to.

That's the important thing, not that someone hit 73 home runs while supposedly hopped up on some concoction out of a lab. Give us an honest show, honest work, and honest performance. That's all we can ask for.

This feels like deja vu, like I've already written about this nearly two years ago. Ryan Braun is, once again, suspended. This time, of course, it's official--no appeals. He got more games as a punishment than he would have the first time, but at a more convenient time. I gave some of my feelings yesterday when the news broke, but I want to expand upon that.

I'll be honest with you: When I first saw that Ryan Braun had been suspended for the remainder of the 2013 season, I felt more impassive than anything. A year-and-a-half ago I was a lot more shocked. This time around, not so much.

The whole thing just doesn't feel very unexpected. With how fiercely MLB was pursuing Braun and others, it was only a matter of time before a suspension occurred. When Braun's name first appeared on the Biogenesis papers as reported by ESPN, there was still some hope that he was innocent. His explanation that his lawyer's used Anthony Bosch as a consultant in his original appeals case made so much sense. The Miami New Times knew about Braun's name being in the papers, but did not publish because they did not think it was proof against him.

Things looked like they remained in Braun's favor at the time, but it planted just another seed of doubt. That seed grew and grew and eventually became an MLB Oak. Each passing week it looked more and more likely that Braun would eventually have to be suspended. The MLB wanted it. Most national writers were calling for it. It was bound to happen, and it became a matter of when, not if.

So, yeah, when the news broke yesterday it was hard to really muster up much shock. I certainly was hit with a dry mouth and blank mind for a bit. It was hard

There's still something weird about the whole thing. Neither Braun nor MLB specifically stated what he was suspended for, outside of "violating the league's Joint Drug Agreement". The Miami New Times never wanted to publish Braun's name because the evidence wasn't strong enough. Braun's testosterone levels when tested were still at absurd levels.

I'm not saying Braun is innocent. Occam's Razor says that the simplest explanation is often the correct one, and that likely holds true here as well. I don't think he is innocent. I just think that this whole thing has been very odd, from the start to the finish, if this even is ultimately the finish.

I've said on Twitter that I really hope some world-class reporter takes the opportunity to write an in-depth book about Biogenesis, because unless that happens I'm not sure we're ever going to hear the full story about everything. We don't need the full story to know the result, but I really want to satiate my curiosity about everything that happened in the past year and a half.

People are upset at Braun, Brewers fans and non-Brewers fans alike. Not for using PEDs so much as for trying to escape punishment. Me? I can't blame the guy. I probably would have done the same thing. I think a lot of people would have. You can be a big person and say that you never would have lied, but then put yourself in a position where you decided to use in the first place and think what you would say. You already decided to do something expressly against the rules. Maybe you or others really would have come clean and kudos to you if you think that's true. I would like to think the same about myself, but the truth is probably otherwise, especially if I think I have a good shot at winning.

Mostly, I think this whole "if only he admitted to it" thing is a crock. If he admits to it after getting caught, that makes him better? I can see that argument if he admits to it out of guilt for using, but not after getting caught and facing punishment anyway. "Oh crap, you caught me? Uhhh...sorry everyone! Cool now?" No, I would probably try to get out of the suspension, too.

Furthermore, Braun's appeal was never even supposed to be known. It is a confidential process that was leaked to the press and became a huge story. What if he went through the appeals process, lost, then the news broke he was suspended and he apologized? Is he a better person then, despite doing the exact same thing? You would never have known about the appeal. What if he won, and we never knew about his original positive test at all? How would you have felt about him yesterday? Would his apology have rang more true? Would he be as villified? Would he be seen as such a liar as he is now? What if word came out that Andy Pettitte had appealed his positive test? Would he be as forgiven?

People say Braun was supposed to be a role model. To that, I say that no he wasn't. Baseball players and athletes aren't inherently role models. They can rise to that level, sure, if they do a bunch of make-a-wish things or whatever. But how many ballplayers are real true role models? They play a ballgame and otherwise live their lives. They aren't saving anybody, they aren't the moral compasses of society. They're athletes. You're living in some weird 1950's glorifying the past state of mind if you think a ball player has to be a role model.

While it sucks that the sample collector was fired from his job, he did his job wrong in a way that could effect results from the sample. That's a pretty egregious error. If he had done his job right, this whole thing would have been over a year and a half ago. There were other locations where he could have shipped the urine. Instead, he chose to keep it around for a couple days.

As Deadspin points out, Braun's worst statement about the sample collector wasn't even anything close to as bad as national media are making it out to be, anyway.

If people around the nation believe that Dino Laurenzi, Jr. deserves to have a public apology from Ryan Braun, they should be calling even more for an apology to and rehiring of Shyam Das. And not by Braun, either. By Major League Baseball. Das was the independent arbitrator hired by MLB in Braun's appeals case. He ruled in Braun's favor, so he was fired. Seems fair. But certainly Laurenzi, the one who did his job wrong, was the one who deserves the apology.

A lot of people are angry right now. Whether their reasons are valid or not, the reactions are mostly understandable. I think people will cool off in the next few days, and Brewers fans will still cheer for Braun. Maybe some won't anymore, but I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority will be back to whooping and hollering midway through 2014.

Steroids exist in baseball. Players lie about it. I think the worst thing about steroids is the health concerns they come with. Some agree with that, most don't. Braun was second in the 2012 MVP race, the season after his positive test came out. I find it hard to believe he would be using just months after a very public positive test. The fact that he was still one of the best players in the league tells me he doesn't need steroids to be an MVP player.

I'm still going to cheer Ryan Braun. I'm just glad this whole year-and-a-half long mess is over. As a Brewers fan, I'm glad the suspension is only for the rest of a lost season.

Mostly, I'm glad that we can hopefully move on.

I made this point in my reaction post, but I want to open it up for further discussion because I think it's an interesting thing to think about.

Under Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Agreement, we never should have known about Ryan Braun's original positive test in October of 2011, nor would we have heard of his several-months-long appeals process that he ultimately won.

According to the Joint Drug Agreement:

...the Commissioner's office, the Players Association, the Treatment Board, the IPA, the Medical Testing Officer, Club personnel, and all of their members, affiliates, agents, consultants and employees, are prohibited from publicly disclosing information about an individual player's test results or testing history...

Any and all information relating to a Player's involvement in the program, including, but not limited to, the fact or the results of any prohibited substance testing to which the player may be subject, and any discipline imposed upon the player by the Commissioner's Office shall remain strictly confidential.

Decisions of the Arbitration Panel, and the record of proceedings before the panel in matters arising under the Program, shall not be disclosed by the Parties, other than to their respective constituents...

From the Journal-Sentinel:

Under the MLB drug program suspensions are supposed to remain confidential until the appeal is heard and denied, but Braun's drug test was playing out publicly.

So what if the public never knew about Braun's original positive drug test, nor his appeal?

Much of the anger at Ryan Braun right now stems from him "lying" about not taking PEDs. However, without us knowing that he tested positive originally, Braun would never have had to make public statements.

How Braun's case should have played out: Braun tests positive, appeals, wins. And that's it. No press conferences, no national articles, nothing. Braun's name should never have been publicly connected to Performance Enhancing Drugs until the Biogenesis papers were leaked and Braun's name was on them.

While there would not have been National news articles calling for Braun's head, I still think Braun would have been suspended Monday. While the fire wouldn't have publicly been there, MLB was likely still upset that Braun beat their appeal. There was obviously proof enough to do so, so here we are.

What I'm wondering is, would the public reaction be different today if there had been no word of Braun's drug history until more recently?

Much of the anger stems from Braun lying and deceiving the public about using PEDs, but without that original positive test and appeal, he would never have had the opportunity to make those statements publicly.

So imagine that you never knew Braun had originally beaten MLB's system prior to it finally catching up with him. Would you accept his statement released yesterday more genuinely? Would MLB's statement being relatively kind to Braun be taken more at face value? Would Braun be closer to Andy Pettitte on the forgiveness scale, or would he still be closer to Barry Bonds?

If you'd like a break from all the Braun stuff, there is a baseball game tonight.

At 7:10 tonight the Brewers will send Donovan Hand (3.27 ERA, 3.59 FIP) to the mound to take on the Padres and look to even this week's series. Hand recorded a single out in relief on Saturday, allowing a walk but noting else. He last started on July 4, allowing three runs on six hits over five innings.

Despite only throwing more than 64 pitches one time, Hand has pitched into the fifth inning in each of his three major league starts. Almost 55% of the balls put in play against him have been hit on the ground: only Johnny Hellweg (62%) and Brandon Kintzler (55.5%) have higher rates.

Hand has never faced the Padres in the majors.

He'll face 26-year-old righty Tyson Ross (3.60 ERA, 4.16 FIP), who has also been a swingman in 2013. This is Ross' 23rd appearance this season but only his fourth start. He last pitched in the majors as a reliever on July 7 against the Nationals, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk over two innings. Since then he's made a pair of starts for AAA Tucson.

Ross was the A's second round pick in the 2008 draft, but was dealt to San Diego over the winter. His peripheral numbers are largely ok except for his walks: He's given out about 4.2 free passes per nine innings for his career. Unless you're Nolan Ryan, that's probably not going to work.

Ross has not faced the Brewers in the majors.

Here's tonight's lineup:

Norichika Aoki RF
Logan Schafer LF
Jean Segura SS
Jonathan Lucroy C
Carlos Gomez CF
Rickie Weeks 2B
Juan Francisco 1B
Jeff Bianchi 3B
Donovan Hand P

And in the bullpen:

• Burke Badenhop pitched 1.1 innings (21 pitches) last night.
• Brandon Kintzler pitched one inning (10 pitches) last night.
• Tyler Thornburg pitched one inning (eight pitches) last night.
• John Axford pitched two innings (23 pitches) on Sunday.
• Jim Henderson pitched one inning (18 pitches) on Sunday.
• Francisco Rodriguez pitched one inning (17 pitches) on Sunday.
• Michael Gonzalez pitched one inning (ten pitches) on Sunday.

It's a rare cool July day in Milwaukee. Expect a game-time temperature around 70 under sunny skies with winds blowing from left to right.

The Baltimore Orioles have acquired reliever Francisco Rodriguez from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for minor league infielder Nick Delmonico, according to an announcement from the team.

Rodriguez, 31, is 1-1 with a 1.09 ERA ERA in 25 appearances since re-signing with the Brewers in late April. He has drawn serious trade interest from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers in recent days, and many throughout the league expected him to end up in either Boston or Los Angeles. Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reported in early July that the O's were one of the teams who had been scouting the Brewers' bullpen, but the team's serious interest in the four-time All-Star was unknown until the trade was announced. Brewers' general manager Doug Melvin told Jon Morosi of FOXSports.com that the Orioles were one of three American League teams who were finalists in the K-Rod sweepstakes, meaning that the Tigers and Red Sox were likely involved in the discussions until the end.

The Orioles will only have Rodriguez for the remainder of the year because he signed a minor league deal in April to return to Milwaukee. He will become a free agent after the season, and will likely be rewarded with a multi-year deal.

Delmonico, a 21-year old third baseman, was ranked by Baseball America as Baltimore's fourth best prospect heading into the season. He has hit .244 with 13 HR and 30 RBI for High-A Frederick on the season, and has struggled a bit defensively (14 errors in 42 games at third base).

Rodriguez, who many considered to be the best late-inning option available on the trade market, will immediately provide a boost the O's bullpen and will become the setup man for closer Jim Johnson. He is the second high-profile addition of the month for Baltimore, who also acquired starter Scott Feldman and catcher Steve Clevenger from the Cubs in exchange for pitchers Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop.

With one player on the way out, the Brewers are expected to be active sellers as the deadline approaches. John Axford, Michael Gonzalez, Yovani Gallardo and Aramis Ramirez are among the team's remaining trade candidates, but Morosi says that the team is not close to dealing another reliever.

The Baltimore Orioles have just announced that they have made their second trade of the season, this one for longtime relief pitcher Francisco Rodriguez. In exchange the Orioles are sending minor leaguer Nick Delmonico to the Brewers. Delmonico has spent the entire season so far with the high-A Frederick Keys.

Rodriguez, or K-Rod as the kids call him (well, kids in 2005) is a right-handed pitcher who has spent most of his career as a closer. He started the season on a minor-league contract with the Brewers and has gotten into 25 games this season with a 1.09 ERA since being called up on May 16th. His FIP is quite a bit higher at 3.03 but when your ERA is 1, quite a bit higher still isn't bad.

Rodriguez is 31 years old, which surprised me because he's been in the majors since 2002. Other than a rough year in 2012 he's always been a reliable reliever and in the mid-2000s was a shutdown closer for the Angels.

Nick Delmonico, the player that the Orioles parted with, was drafted in the 6th round of the 2011 draft and while his bat get good reviews, his defense is known to be less than desirable and he's suffered from some injuries. Prior to the 2013 season, Baseball America named Delmonico the Orioles 4th best prospect.

I need to some time for this move to sink in. My initial reaction was that it's stupid, but the more I think about it, I may be coming around. I thought 1) Rodriguez was older, and 2) he was pitching much worse over the last few years than he really was. I'm not the resident minors expert on this site but Delmonico was never been one of my favorites due to the reviews on his defense.

So welcome to Birdland, Francisco Rodriguez! Don't screw up.

More from Camden Chat:

• An Open Letter to My Baseball Fan Moments
• Tuesday Bird Droppings
• Around the Minors: 7/22/13
• Orioles 9, Royals 2: Feldman's eight innings, 18 hits by offense drive O's to fifth straight win

The first big trade for the Brewers has finally happened. Just before tonight's game, the Brewers announced that they had traded reliever Francisco Rodriguez to the Baltimore Orioles. In exchange, they received minor league prospect Nick Delmonico from the Orioles.

The Brewers brought back Rodriguez originally on a minor-league deal, giving him a chance to help a bullpen that was struggling early in the season. He worked his way onto the roster, and has been lights out since being added to the Brewers. He posted an ERA of 1.09 in 25 games (24.2 innings), recording 26 strikouts and 9 walks while allowing a total of 17 hits and 3 runs. After Jim Henderson went on the DL, he became the closer and recorded 10 saves, which included his 300th career save on June 22nd.

In return, the Brewers get a prospect that was rated #6 in the Orioles system according to Baseball Prospectus (h/t Fred Hofstetter), and #4 by Baseball America (h/t Ken Rosenthal). Nick Delmonico is a third base prospect with some experience at first and second. He has spent the year at High A Frederick, posting a batting line of .244/.351/.471/.822 with 13 HR, 30 RBI, and 5 SB. No word on where he will report yet, but it will most likely be High-A Brevard County.

The Baltimore Orioles acquired veteran reliever Francisco Rodriguez from the Milwaukee Brewers for third base prospect Nick Delmonico, the Orioles announced on Tuesday.

The Brewers signed Rodriguez to a minor-league contract in April, and he ended up earning the closer role for Milwaukee. Rodriguez has pitched well since joining the Brewers' bullpen and owns a 1.09 ERA after 25 appearances with 10 saves in 10 chances.

The closer has a track record of success, as he has collected double-figures saves in nine of the last 10 seasons, including a major-league record 62 saves in 2008. Rodriguez has saved 304 games, which ranks third among active players and 21st all-time.

John Sickels of Minor League Ball rated Delmonico as the fourth-best prospect in the Baltimore farm system, and wrote the following scouting report about the infielder:

Orioles fans seem to think he'll be a star. I see him more as a solid regular with patience and at least moderate power, but expectations need to be kept reasonable.

Delmonico batted .244/.351/.471 in 60 games with High-A Frederick this season. The Brewers will assign Delmonico to High-A Brevard County.

More from SB Nation:

• Ryan Braun suspended for rest of season | Neyer reacts | Goldman reacts

• A-Rod may be next superstar to be suspended

• Dodgers sign Cuban INF to $32 million deal

• Cubs, Rangers complete Matt Garza trade

Tigers links:

July trade deadline isn't last chance for Tigers to boost run for playoffs
The Detroit News, Kurt Mensching

As counterintuitive as it sounds, the Tigers do not need to make a move before the July 31 trade deadline.

Analyst: Alexei Ramirez might be best trade option if Detroit Tigers' Jhonny Peralta is suspended
Detroit Free Press, Brian Manzullo

ESPN's Jim Bowden offers some names to look at if the Tigers' Jhonny Peralta is suspended without appeal for his reported connection to Biogenesis.

Jim Leyland says Miguel Cabrera might play in one of next two games, does not expect him to land on DL
MLive.com, Chris Iott

Leyland: "I can assure you he's not going to play both these games the next two days. He will not play both games. Will he play one? I can't answer that right now."

Detroit Tigers' Max Scherzer glad Ryan Braun was caught; Jhonny Peralta has no comment
Detroit Free Press, George Sipple

'There's so much player outrage towards him because of how brash he was against MLB and how brash he was in his defense,' Scherzer said.

Around the AL Central:

Royals Beat Orioles 3 - 2, Despite Stranding 12 Runners
Royals Review, Josh Duggan

Chen serviceable in six innings only to have bullpen make things interesting. Offense was far from impressive in 3 - 2 win.

Tigers 6, White Sox 2: Robin Ventura absent for comedy of errors
South Side Sox. Jim Margalus

First miscue triggers first-inning ejection, and three more followed.

Elsewhere in baseball:

30 Fans from 30 Cities: A Story of Fan Loyalty on Vimeo
Fanbrandz

Every season, over a three day period, baseball fans converge from all across the world to celebrate the best players in baseball at the annual MLB All-Star Game.

Ryan Braun, Media Reaction, and Worshipping False Idols
TigerSnark

This whole Ryan Braun situation both fascinates and angers me. But not for the reasons you may think.

Report: Alex Rodriguez not interested in deal with MLB
HardballTalk, Matthew Pouliot

USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale hears that Alex Rodriguez intends to go down swinging.

Ryan Braun and Brewers fans: a primer
Baseball Nation, Grant Brisbee

Brewers fans are still going to cheer when Ryan Braun does baseball-related things. This will seem confusing. Maybe this will help.

The Marlins are at it again
The Hardball Times, Jeff Moore

The promotion of two more prospects proves the Marlins continue to be run without a long-term plan.

Matt Kemp: ‘I didn’t win the MVP. I was second.’
Big League Stew, Mike Oz

As the fallout continues from Ryan Braun's suspension and his sort-of admission of PED guilt, the connection between Braun, Matt Kemp and their stellar 2011 seasons is one that is often resurfacing.

I'm always scanning the internet to bring you the wide variety of baseball news. Normally, that's a lot of different stories from as many teams as I can. But today, there's only one story. Or at least it seems that way.

• Ryan Braun got suspended for the rest of the season for"violations of the Basic Agreement and its Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program," in connection with the Biogenesis scandal. I'm guessing you've already heard this.
• Now we will proceed to list everyone's reaction to this. Tom Verducci answers questions about why Braun took the deal, what the role of the union was and what this means for other accused players, including Alex Rodriguez.
• Michael Rosenberg (and everyone else, really) thinks that Braun's apology was "weak,"but it's better than the silence that is coming from Rodriguez.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the suspension of Braun is a great day for baseball.
• Danny Knobler says that even when Braun finishes his 65 game suspension, his sentence will not be over. He will never escape the stain of the scandal.
• Jonah Keri agrees, and says that while the deal for Braun is a good one, he's the first big name to be caught in the prime of his career. That stain will stay will him for the rest of his life. But, he adds, it doesn't look like he'll be the last because MLB is just getting started.
• Scott Miller is not accepting Braun's apology. He also thinks he needs to apologize to everyone he's wronged, such as the sample collector from 2011, the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals and Matt Kemp.
• Buster Olney thinks that Braun is the Lance Armstrong of baseball, and he needs to go to Oprah and apologize. And then apologize to all those people Miller said plus more. (Insider article, but they appear to be in a free preview right now.)
• Craig Calcaterra thinks Braun doesn't owe you or anyone else an apology. Except maybe that sample collector, he adds. But he correctly points out that we don't know that the Diamondbacks were all clean. And the Brewers? They benefitted from Braun's actions a lot more than they were hurt.
• Jon Paul Morosi calls Braun "selfish."
• Tim Keown thinks Braun is "sad." He also thinks that the reaction is a little over the top, because it's not like he's the only one doing this. But Keown also thinks Braun brought this on himself with the way he handled the 2011 positive test.
• Joe Sheehan thinks that what Braun did was indefensible, but he's concerned about the mixed message baseball is sending. The outrage goes to 11 on Braun, but barely measures at all when a mediocre player is caught and serves his time.
• Ben Lindbergh summarizes Baseball Prospectus' reaction to the scandal, which is too complex to summarize in a one-liner like I normally do. I rarely link to BP because all the good stuff is behind a paywall, but this one is free and clear.
• Matt Kemp thinks that Braun should be stripped of his MVP award, although he adds that he doesn't want it. He also adds that "it's not for me to decide." The secretary-treasurer of the BBWAA says all awards are final.
• Turning to Alex Rodriguez, reports are that MLB is considering a lifetime ban.
• Bob Nightengale reports that people close to Rodriguez say he has no intention of cutting a deal like Braun did.
• Nelson Cruz is another name that has been connected to the Biogenesis scandal. His manager, Ron Washington, says Cruz has the full support of him and the entire Rangers organization. We'll see. Washington also praised the way Cruz has handled the situation.
• Meanwhile, in tangentially-related news, the MLBPA has named MLB veteran Tony Clark as their new deputy executive director. This puts him in line to be the new head of the union when current MLBPA head Michael Weiner, who is fighting inoperable brain cancer, steps down. Clark was active as a player representative during his 15 year major league career, mostly with the Tigers and Diamondbacks, and has worked for the MLBPA since retiring in 2009.
• A couple of reactions to the Matt Garza trade. Jay Jaffe says the Rangersgave up a lot for Garza.Even though they lost nothing that they couldn't afford to lose, he says that now the Rangers don't have those pieces to trade for a bat that they also desperately need.
• Jonah Keri thinks the trade makes the Rangers better now and the Cubs better tomorrow.
• Keri also writes a nice article for Grantland in praise of James Shields.
• The Orioles were glad when they got Scott Feldman from the Cubs, but Feldman almost ruined whatever value he might add by almost beaning Manny Machado on a throw to first base.
• Dustin Pedroiahas agreed to a new 7 year contract extension, worth approximately $100 million.
• Dave Cameron of Fangraphs thinks that the Red Soxbought Pedroia for the price of Ian Kinsler.
• Chris Carpenter has had a "setback" in his recovery efforts. He's not giving up though.
• Jason Grilli was placed on the DL with a strained right forearm. All I can think of is "Bruce Sutter" and "1977." I'm reasonably confident the situations are completely analogous (for one, Sutter threw about twice as many innings as Grilli does), but I hope the Pirates don't miss him as much as they think they're going to miss him.
• Joe Blantonis in danger of losing his spot in the Angels rotation. Going 2-13 with a 5.66 ERA will do that to you. Also, blowing up at your pitching coach. Why is he only "in danger"?
• The difference with Matt Moore this season is that he's using his changeup more often and more effectively.
• The Marlins promotedChristian Yelich and Jake Marisnick to the majors. As awful as they are, there is some exciting young talent in Miami.
• The Nationalsfired hitting coach Rick Eckstein.
• John Erardi and Joel Luckhaupt write a column for cincinnati.com and their editor or whoever writes the headlines apparently doesn't read it. The article itself is a sabermetric analysis on why Joey Votto's poor RBI numbers are meaningless, yet the headline is "Why Joey Votto's RBI Total Matters."
• Finally, C.C. Sabathia says "I suck."

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Although I still bet we're talking about this Biogenesis stuff.

As the July 31st trade deadline approaches, many San Diego Padres relievers are drawing interest, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com. The Tigers, Braves, Red Sox, Pirates, Dodgers and Phillies are all scouting the team's series in Milwaukee this week, and Luke Gregerson, Dale Thayer, Joe Thatcher and closer Huston Street are all available in trade talks.

The Tigers have shown consistent interest in the group of relievers, according to Morosi. After showing heavy interest in Brewers' reliever Francisco Rodriguez before he was traded to the Orioles, Detroit is now focusing in on Gregerson as their main target. The 29-year old has posted a 2.85 ERA, 7.9 K/9, and 1.8 K/9 in 44 appearances on the season, and is under control through the next season. According to U-T San Diego's Bill Center, Gregerson is drawing more trade interest than any other player on the Padres' roster.

The Braves, who are known to be pursuing every left-handed reliever on the trade market, are among the teams pursuing Thatcher, according to Morosi. Thatcher, 31, has posted a 2.25 ERA, 9.0 K/9, and 1.3 BB/9 in 47 appearances this year, and will likely be a hot commodity on the trade market.

Center writes that Street is not receiving as much interest as the other relievers due to his large contract and inconsistent performance on the year, but is still a candidate to be dealt. In addition to the four relievers, Carlos Quentin, Chris Denorfia and Edinson Volquez are among the team's trade candidates. They are known to be looking for starting pitching in trade talks.

Yesterday evening, volatile 31-year-old Milwaukee Brewers' reliever Francisco Rodriguez, more commonly known as "K-Rod", was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for mid-level prospect Nick Delmonico. Rodriguez has had an up and down past couple years with the Brewers, although this year he's had a ERA of 1.09 and had reclaimed has role as Milwaukee's closer. This isn't a post about a trade between two MLB teams not based in Toronto though. This is about the possible effect this trade has on Toronto's assets in the bullpen. An unpredictable and occasionally wild reliever was traded to a contender to be a set-up man in exchange for the #4 prospect in Baltimore's farm system. A farm system that includes Dylan Bundy at #1 and Kevin Gausman at #2.

Sitting behind the left field wall at the Rogers Centre are at least three, maybe four, relievers who have been better this year than Francisco Rodriguez. With the season quite clearly over, it's time for Alex Anthopoulos to move at least one of these bullpen pieces for something of value in return from a contending team.

The second place Pittsburgh Pirates placed All-Star closer Jason Grilli on the 15-day DL today and promoted Mark Melancon to the ninth inning. Melancon's been great this year, but he's only one year removed from being one of the worst relievers in the league last year with Boston. It also leaves a hole in the setup department for the Pirates that could be filled by someone by the name of Brett Cecil or Steve Delabar. These two All-Star pitchers will never have their trade value any higher and if they aren't shopped to contending teams it would be a real missed opportunity.

Brett Cecil is under team control for three and a half more seasons and could net the Blue Jays a huge return. A team that needs a LOOGY, a set-up guy, or even a team that thinks they could turn him into a starter again would give much more than the mid-level prospect that Baltimore gave to the Brewers. If there's one thing the Blue Jays have been able to do consistently, it's turning potential in relievers into results. Another thing the Blue Jays have shown this year is a top 10 bullpen cannot win games by itself. The pieces the team would receive from trading Brett Cecil would likely be worth much more than the left hander is currently worth to this year's, and even future Blue Jays teams.

An even more attractive trade piece for the Blue Jays would be Steve Delabar. An extra year of team control over Brett Cecil would give the buyer four and a half more seasons of the affordable set-up man, who could easily close if given the chance. Contending teams with struggling bullpens like Detroit, LA, and Boston would all likely be in on a bidding war on the first time All-Star and the Blue Jays could turn their set-up man into multiple assets that can help the team even more going forward.

The last two likely trade targets of other teams in the Blue Jays bullpen are Aaron Loup and Casey Janssen. Loup is in his first year of service and brings to mind former Blue Jays left hander Marc Rzepczynski who was traded in his second year of service to St. Louis in the Colby Rasmus trade. A team trading for Loup would be hoping for a dominant LOOGY for many years to come.

Janssen on the other hand has an option for 2014 and would slot right into a closers role (Pittsburgh possibly?) if given the chance, with the team having the choice to pick up his option or use him as a rental. If "K-Rod" can bring back a top five prospect, someone with a track record like Janssen's could bring at least two or maybe three pieces back to the Blue Jays from a hungry contender.

In the end, it's up to general manager Alex Anthopoulos and how he views this year's team and next. Relievers are the easiest position in baseball to acquire, as he's shown, and acquiring them for cheap and selling them at their peaks has been a successful strategy for AA in his tenure so far. Almost exactly a year ago Steve Delabar was acquired for spare parts Eric Thames, and now Delabar could net multiple prospects one trade deadline later. It seems almost silly to hold onto so many highly sought after relievers when the team's season is clearly over and a "retooling" for next year will have to take place. Having the opportunity to use one of your many bullpen pieces to shore up a hole in the team like second base or catcher is a chance too good to pass up. When the clock strikes midnight on July 31, hopefully the team has made some moves that make it more likely that when a Blue Jays reliever runs in from left field, they're coming in to protect a lead.

With the approach of the non-waiver trade deadline, the beats have talked a lot about shoring up the right-handed side of the bullpen. Much of this talk focused on the potential acquisition of former O's Matt Lindstrom and Kevin Gregg, so it was a shock when last night Dan Duquette sent CI prospect Nicky Delmonico to the Brewers for Francisco Rodriguez. People with credentials and reputations have opinions.

Shall we have a look?

John Sickels, Minor League Ball: "...this is a good return for the Brewers, picking up a young power bat in exchange for a 31-year-old reliever who won't be part of Milwaukee's next good team. It is a win-now move for the Orioles, but that's OK too. They already have a couple of pretty good players at the corners."

Keith Law, ESPN (mostly paywalled, but the freebie clip says it all): "The Baltimore Orioles' acquisition of Francisco Rodriguez makes some sense, but the price they paid -- third base prospect Nick Delmonico -- for a rental reliever feels excessive, while the Milwaukee Brewers get more than they should have for two months of K-Rod's work."

Jay Jaffe, SI.com: "For the Orioles, who have bigger game in mind — not to mention Chris Davis at first — Delmonico was expendable, and Rodriguez fills a need."

R.J. Anderson, Baseball Prospectus (also partially paywalled, but section focusing on K-Rod is a freebie): "While Rodriguez is unlikely to keep his ERA this shiny moving forward, he does set off a chain reaction in the O's bullpen. His arrival means Buck Showalter can use Rodriguez, Darren O'Day, or Tommy Hunter in the sixth inning if needed; it also bumps a lesser reliever from the totem pole...Adding Rodriguez won't be the flashiest move of the deadline, but it will improve the Orioles"

Mark Polishuk, MLBTradeRumors.com: "Since Rodriguez may have been the best right-handed closing option available on the trade market, the Orioles have also done well to keep him away from teams who had more pressing needs at the back of their bullpens."

Matt Eddy, Baseball America: "Delmonico must make hay in the batter's box, because he's a fringy, though strong-armed, third baseman or potentially a first baseman. If he stays healthy, he could be ready for a big league audition during the second half of the 2015 season, though the bar is set high for young corner players...For his part, Rodriguez continues to miss bats and fond the strike zone despite his bust delivery, throwing with the same velocity he's had for these past four seasons, though he finds his fastball a bit less trustworthy than he once did."

Does any of this alter your opinion? Validate it?

When the confession finally came, it was met with little surprise. This was the price of returning to baseball; admit you cheated and lied, and no one will question your right to wear a uniform again.

"I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize," Mark McGwire said in a statement to baseball in 2010. He even offered up an endorsement of Commissioner Bud Selig's efforts to root out cheaters. "Baseball is different now - it's been cleaned up. The Commissioner and the Players Association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did it."

Selig was pleased. McGwire had confronted his demons. "This statement of contrition I believe will make Mark's re-entry into the game much smoother and easier." The message was clear: tell the truth about your past, or else.

McGwire described a long history of steroid use, beginning in 1989, resuming in 1993, and then occurring intermittently thorough the 1990s. But he did not explain what he used, or how, or why. He didn't have to. Baseball had its man, and that was all that was important. When McGwire hedged the next day in his interview with Bob Costas, no one in the Commissioner's office cared. "I was given a gift to hit home runs," McGwire declared. He claimed his home runs were legitimate, that he could have hit them without PEDs, and that he only took steroids for health purposes.

Many baseball Hall-of-Famers reacted with hostility to McGwire, but not Milwaukee's Robin Yount. "I'll be very honest," he told Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Michael Hunt. "Without testing in place, you would've almost been forced to do it to keep up."

While others responded with condemnation, Yount responded with empathy. "I'm glad I didn't have to make that call because it would have been a very difficult decision to decide whether to do it or not." Ever the competitor, Yount all but conceded that he would have considered any edge not specifically banned.

But what about Ryan Braun, who broke league rules and misled countless people with his false claims of innocence? You can bet Yount is not impressed. It was in response to McGwire's 2010 confession that Yount said, "But I'll tell you, I'd be the first one to jump all over somebody who was caught doing it now that testing is in place and they're out there breaking records."

Yount's statement takes on a whole new tone now. Ryan Braun has all but admitted his transgression. What is left of the Braun saga now is questions, questions that will probably never be answered. Other than players like McGwire and Andy Pettite, who offered half-hearted mea culpas to return to baseball's good graces, they are questions no player, or the league, has seriously confronted. What did you use? When did you start? Where did you get it? And why? What did you think doping would do for you?

The 2007 Mitchell Report commissioned by MLB cast a shadow over all of baseball. Depending on who you believed, anywhere from twenty to fifty percent of major league players were using steroids and other performance enhancers in the years before testing became commonplace. The report was an effective tool for the Commissioner. It established that steroids were bad, and that they were everywhere. And that it was the fault of the players who used them, rather than an economic and competitive system that actively rewarded their use.

Rather than a starting point for reform, the Mitchell Report was deemed the end of an era. The finger pointing began in earnest, and continues to this day. It's not wrong to call PED users cheaters, but it is only half the story. The why, the how, the when, these are questions that are simply irrelevant to baseball in its quest for a clean game. Guilt is all that matters.

Robin Yount was able to look past that. Could he have possibly resisted the temptation to use? "I'll be damned if I was going to watch another player if all it took was to take a shot here or there every so often and work out hard to be a better player than the next guy," he told Hunt. "I'm not going to sit there and watch that happen."

What motivated Braun? Was it simply his competitive nature? Was it fame? Money?

That question is, of course, tied up with "when?" Was it during his University of Miami days, when he worked with strength and conditioning coach Jimmy Goins, another of Tony Bosch's supposed Biogenesis clients? Was his college road roommate, Cesar Carrillo, involved? The same Carrillo who was recently suspended after his cooperation in MLB's Biogenesis probe was deemed "unsatisfactory?"

Or was it in late 2010, when Braun, disappointed with his 25 home runs the preceding season, hit the weight room with former teammate Gabe Kapler? Braun reported to spring training in 2011 "bulked up" and supremely confident. His focus was on getting stronger, more powerful, capable of returning to the 30-35 home run hitter he had been between 2007 and 2009. Tom Haudricourt reported at the time, "Braun added five pounds of muscle, raising his weight to a personal-high 210 pounds, and his legs in particular are noticeably more powerful in appearance." Braun claimed it was the "biggest and strongest I've ever been." Were the expectations of his previous success too much?

Was it later that spring, when he approached the Brewers about a long-term extension? One that was eventually agreed to and will keep Braun in Milwaukee through 2020 at a cost upwards of $100 million?

Was it a single instance of use in the 2011 postseason, immediately before his failed test? Was Braun simply motivated to hit a few extra home runs in the playoffs to help his team to the World Series? After all, before the season Braun, reflecting on his 45 doubles, said, "It's just a matter of a couple feet. You hit balls over the top of the wall; a million things factor in."

We'll likely never know the answers to these questions. Braun's admission just days ago was simply to a generic violation of baseball's Joint Drug Agreement. No details, no specifics, and then he high-tailed out of the park before anyone could ask questions. And why should he provide further information? Baseball has no interest in the answers anyway. It caught its fish, and that's all that matters.

Unfortunately, until baseball gets serious about understanding how and why players use, and tailoring its program to address those issues, there will always be Ryan Brauns and Mark McGwires.

"Being truthful is always the correct course of action," Bud Selig said about McGwire. But what incentive has baseball provided for the truth?

The Kansas City Royals are willing to listen to offers for starter Ervin Santana and would trade him if presented with the right offer, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. The Kansas City Star's Bob Dutton adds that the team's asking price for Santana will be steep.

Santana, 30, is 6-6 with a 3.18 ERA, 7.2 K/9, and 1.9 BB/9 in 19 starts in his first year as a Royal. The former All-Star is a free agent after the season, and will likely receive a multi-year deal in free agency. Kansas City has said all along that they would not entertain offers for Santana, but they have fallen almost completely out of playoff contention and currently sit eight games behind the Tigers in the AL Central.

Now that Santana is available, he is arguably the top pitcher available on an otherwise weak starting pitching market that includes names like Jake Peavy (White Sox), Bud Norris (Astros) and Yovani Gallardo (Brewers). Many teams, including the Red Sox, Athletics, Pirates, Dodgers, Phillies and Giants, are looking to acquire starting pitching at the deadline, and will likely explore the possibility of trading for Santana.

The Red Sox have recently been scouting Royals reliever Luke Hochevar, and might look to acquire both from the Royals for a high-end package of prospects. Kansas City has been linked to Phillies' second baseman Chase Utley, so an Utley-for-Santana deal cannot be completely ruled out.

Read more MLBDD:

• Chicago, Boston discussing Middlebrooks for Peavy
• Red Sox rumors: Team scouted Royals' Hochevar
• Tigers sign Jair Jurrjens to minor league deal
• Biogenesis scandal: Alex Rodriguez facing possible lifetime ban
• Tigers rumors: Miguel Cabrera, club expect extension deal

A few weeks ago when the Padres were playing the Marlins, I put together a team of guys who played for both teams. It was fun to do and since I currently have blogger's block and can't think of anything original to type about, I decided to revisit the theme with our present opponent, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Like before, the qualifications for making the team were simple: they just needed to play for both teams at some point. I went with career stats as opposed to the numbers they put up with just the Padres and/ or Brewers; if I had done that a lot of these selections would be different. Since the Brewers have been around for 23 years longer than the Marlins, there was of course a larger pool to choose from. Without any further yada yada, let's start out with the starting lineup:

C- Tom Lampkin
1B- Russell Branyan
2B- Mark Loretta
SS- Tony Fernandez
3B- Gary Sheffield
LF- Greg Vaughn
CF- Jim Edmonds
RF- Matt Stairs

Before I did this, I didn't even know Tony Fernandez ever played for the Brewers. Turns out it was for just 28 games in 2001, his final season. They released him after two months and he joined the Blue Jays for the fourth time before retiring at the end of the season. I'll chalk that up as the one thing I've learned today. Edmonds makes the team despite tanking his short time as a Padre and getting paid a ton of money to leave San Diego. I really, really wanted to leave him off.

Bench:
C- Henry Blanco
Util.- Kurt Bevacqua
Util.- Jerry Hairston, Jr.
OF- Mike Cameron
OF/1B- Rob Deer

Hairston, like Edmonds, is another testament of me not allowing my grudge-holding to prevent me from putting together the best team baseball-wise. Because, man, I seriously don't like that holier-than-thou liar. Sorry, just had to get that in there before I moved on to the arms.

Rotation:
Randy Wolf
Jeff Suppan
Ricky Bones
Dick Selma
Glendon Rusch

Not an ace amongst the bunch, but they did each have some semi-solid seasons. Good thing they're backed by a lethal 'pen.

Bullpen:
Trevor Hoffman
Rollie Fingers
Mark Davis
Mike Adams
Scott Linebrink
Danny Frisella
Jesse Orosco

Better hope you get a lead off the starter if you're playing these guys. You've got two Cy Young Award winning closers, one of them a Hall of Famer, and that's before you even get to the closer. The rest of the guys weren't exactly slouches either.

There are 48 other players who played for both teams that didn't make the 25-man roster. Notable names that didn't make the cut include Tony Gwynn, Jr, Jody Gerut, Mark Kotsay, Eric Owens, Eric Young, Jeff Cirillo, and Dickie Thon. There's no other starting pitching to fall back on when one or more of them would inevitably need Tommy John surgery, so that would be a problem.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs zapped the New Orleans Zephyrs (Marlins), 4-3.

It was the first Cubs win for Jake Arrieta, who gave up only one run on four hits over 6.2 innings. Arrieta walked four and struck out eight.

He also hit a bases-loaded double in the second inning that scored two and another runner scored on an error on the play to give Iowa a 3-0 lead.

The rumor is that Arrieta will make his next start at Wrigley during the double-header against Milwaukee on Tuesday. For his part, Arrieta says he's ready.

Brian Schlitter gave up back-to-back home runs with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but since he started the inning with a three-run lead, he still got his 13th save. Schlitter allowed the two runs on two hits, both home runs, over the one inning. He neither walked nor struck anyone out.

First baseman Josh Vitters was 1 for 2 with an RBI single in the third. However, Vitters pulled up lame on that hit going to second and was tagged out. He's expected to miss 1 to 2 weeks with a hamstring injury.

Tennessee Smokies

The Tennessee Smokies blew out the Huntsville Stars (Brewers), 10-5.

Austin Kirk started and put Tennessee in a 4-0 hole when he allowed four runs on six hits over 2.1 innings. Kirk walked four and hit a batter. He struck out two.

Marcos Mateo got his first win for the Smokies since 2009. He pitched 1.2 scoreless innings. He allowed one hit and he walked two. Mateo struck out three.

In case you've forgotten, Mateo is the guy the Cubs got from the Reds for Buck Coats. I just wanted to mention "Buck Coats."

Shortstop Javier Baez hit two more home runs tonight, a three-run shot in the fifth inning to get the Smokies on the board and a solo home run in the eighth. He was 2 for 6 with the four RBI and he just missed a third home run, what would have been a grand slam, in the ninth. Baez now has 25 home runs this year and eight with the Smokies

Right fielder Rubi Silva hit a solo home run in the sixth inning to tie the score at four apiece. Silva went 2 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored. He also stole his 11th base.

One inning later, in the seventh, Justin Bour cranked his 12th home run, and third in four games, with the bases empty. Bour was 2 for 5.

Jonathan Mota was 2 for 5 with a run scored.

Daytona Cubs

The Daytona Cubs also came back from a 4-0 deficit to stun the Palm Beach Cardinals, 6-5.

You knew there would be some bumps in the Cubs career of Ivan Pineyro, and tonight he allowed five runs on six hits over six innings. The positive news is that he struck out eight and didn't walk anybody.

Jeffrey Lorick got his third win by pitching the final three innings without allowing a run. Lorick surrendered two hits. He struck out three and did not walk anyone.

Third baseman Ben Carhart was 2 for 5 with two RBI.

Catcher Chadd Krist went 2 for 3 with a double and he was hit by a pitch. Krist had one RBI. Left fielder Taiwan Easterling was 2 for 4 with a double and a run scored.

Kane County Cougars

The Kane County Cougars overturned the Beloit Snappers (Athletics), 11-8.

Michael Heesch started and allowed five runs on five hits, including a three-run home run, over three innings. Heesch walked two and struck out one. One of his five runs was unearned.

Justin Amlung got the win after he gave up one unearned run over two innings. Amlung allowed two hits and issued one walk while striking out one.

The Cougars banged out 21 hits tonight, including two home runs and three players having four hits apiece.

Catcher Willson Contreras hit his eighth home run of the year in the third inning with a man on. Contreras was a perfect 4 for 4 with a double and a walk. He had three total RBI and scored twice.

DH Rock Shoulders hit a solo home run in the seventh inning, his 16th of the season. Shoulders was 3 for 5 with a sac fly. He scored three times and had three runs batted in.

Center fielder Albert Almora was 4 for 5 with two doubles and a walk. He scored once.

Shorstop Marco Hernandez went 4 for 6. He scored twice and had one run batted in.

Third baseman Jeimer Candelario had two doubles in a 2 for 6 game. He scored two runs and had one RBI. Left fielder Reggie Golden went 2 for 4 and was hit by a pitch. He had one run batted in.

Boise Hawks

The Boise Hawks lost to the Eugene Emeralds (Padres), 5-4.

Paul Blackburn pitched in his first game since July 12 and was limited to one inning. He gave up two runs in the first on two hits and a hit batter. He struck out two and didn't walk anyone.

Tyler Skulina relieved Blackburn and gave up his first two runs as a professional in his two innings of work. Skulina surrendered four hits. He neither walked nor struck anyone out.

Duane Underwood was Boise's most effective pitcher with three scoreless innings. Underwood gave up four hits. He struck out four and didn't walk anyone. A real positive effort.

Carlos Martinez-Pumarino started the bottom of the ninth and gave up the winning run. He pitched two-thirds of an inning and gave up the one run on three hits. He struck out one and didn't walk a batter.

Right fielder Yasiel Balaguert was 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI single. David Bote was 2 for 4 with a double.

Center fielder Jacob Hannemann was 1 for 3 with a two-run single in the second inning. However, he exited the game in the sixth inning with an apparent injury to his left leg.

Kris Bryant was 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.

AZL Cubs

Lost to the Athletics, 7-3.

Brett Jackson was 1 for 4 with two strikeouts in a rehab appearance.

I think there's at least two or three positive stories in today's bullets. And maybe I'm being overly-protective, but I'm showing you a picture of Tim Hudson on his feet and not writhing in pain on the ground.

• As you've probably heard by now, Tim Hudson suffered a horrific-looking injury when Eric Young Jr. stepped on his ankle and bent it in an unnatural way. If you haven't seen what happens and you want to, the video can be seen at the article linked above. Hudson is, of course, out for the year.
• Jeff Schultz thinks the Braves are going to miss Hudson as both a player and a team leader. Since he's a free agent at the end of the year, he may have thrown his last pitch for Atlanta.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the Braves are going to have to scramble to find someone on the trade market to replace Hudson.
• David Schoenfield thinks the Braves can survive the loss of Hudson just fine.
• Young was pretty badly shaken by the injury. The Braves have assured him that it wasn't Young's fault and Hudson's wife thanked Young for "playing the game the right way."
• Mariners manager Eric Wedge had a minor stroke and will miss ten games. He's expected to make a full recovery, which is the good news.
• OK, I've put off Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez long enough. Braun says that he'll talk about the suspension when he's "legally allowed to say anything." That may be true, but as several people have pointed out, Braun's likely in no rush to get the gag order lifted.
• Scott Miller thinks the negative reaction of other players to Braun is a positive thing.
• Brewers owner Mark Attansio says he's sad, not angry, about Braun.
• Phillies coach Ryne Sandberg says that the penalty for a PED offense should be two or three years. I'm sure his feelings don't surprise anyone here.
• Former player Robert Fickhas admitted to using PEDs, but only twice. He says he knows of others who used them and that no one thought it was a big deal back then.
• The whistleblower at the heart of the Biogenesis scandal says that there are many athletes in sports other than baseball who were customers of the clinic, but no other sport seems interested in investigating further at the moment. He doesn't know of any NFL or NHL players, however.
• Ken Rosenthal says that Alex Rodriguez'srelationship with the Yankees and MLB is full of legal complications. There's no easy way out for anyone.
• Bob Nightengale says that ARod has played his last game for the Yankees.
• If Rodriguez didn't have enough to worry about, apparently he's a slumlord in Prince George County, Maryland. There's no evidence that ARod is actually aware that he is, however.
• Another player named in the Biogenesis scandal, Bartolo Colon, is unlikely to be suspended this season, writes Tim Kawakami. Colon has no incentive to cut a deal.
• George Brett said he'd be the Royals hitting coach for a month. He served as hitting coach for two months and now he's stepping down.
• Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star says Brett's heart just wasn't in it, which is why he stepped down. Being a major league hitting coach just wasn't for him.
• Ervin Santana is the "target" of trade rumors. Literally, in this video.
• Lance Berkmanis considering retirement.
• Should the Orioles be worried aboutChris Davis and Manny Machado's slow start to the second-half?
• The Orioles are interested in trading for one of the Astros starting pitchers.
• The Marlinswon't trade Steve Cishek or Mike Dunn. But they will trade Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez?
• The Twins have disciplined and benched top prospect Miguel Sano for "unspecified violations of team rules."
• Theodore Roosevelt Lilly just designated the Dodgers for assignment.
• The Nationals are hoping their win over the Pirates yesterday can turn their disappointing season around.
• Felix Doubront has a lobster roll before every home start.
• The Mariano Rivera goodbye tour continues in Texas, where again, he met with stadium employees. Most interestingly, he says he never would have chosen "Enter Sandman" as a song to come into the game. He just kept it because the fans liked it so much.
• A rainout was good news for the streaking Rays.
• Both Domonic Brown and John Jaso were placed on the 7-day concussion disabled list.
• Dodger Stadium now serves frozen beer foam. It's not as cool as it sounds. But if you want to take three or four innings to drink your jumbo beer and you want it cold the whole time, it's likely a good idea.
• A team in the independent Frontier League tried to fine players and coaches who threw balls into the stands. Of course, as soon as news of it got out, they ended the policy. I'm a little sympathetic to them here. These independent league teams run on shoestring budgets and balls can be a big expense. But telling kids they can't have a ball is not the way to get families to come to your games.
• Finally, if you're not sick of it already, Sports Illustrated has an excellent oral history of the Pine Tar Game.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.