The banned substance appears to be some type of synthetic testosterone. Braun is appealing, and requested a second test after learning of the positive result. Apparently the second sample result was ok…
If the second sample result was okay it’s possible there was an error, I guess.
Braun would have to be monumentally stupid to cheat at all, much less cheat in a way that gets caught. If he’s not cleared, this is quite a PR blow to the major leagues, which was beginning to get out of this cloud and just named Braun the MVP a few weeks ago.
I am eager to hear his amazing explanation. We’ll see if it’s anything plausible.
From Sports Illustrated:
I assume the sample from the first test was preserved, because the only result that matters is whether or not there was a positive detection of synthetic testosterone from that.
Told ya Kemp was the MVP!
Last I had heard they weren’t saying if it was a PED, a suppliment or some other “banned” substance. There has been a lot of noise about taking his MVP away, but it won’t happen.
Well, they’re not going to take away Barry Bonds’s MVP Awards, either, or Roger Clemens’s Cy Youngs.
It would also be in defiance of the point of the award, which is to designate the most valuable player. Braun cheating would not change the fact that he was, in the estimation of the voters, the MVP. The penalty for cheating is (appropriately, IMHO) suspension, not pretending that he didn’t hit 33 home runs.