Ryan Braun is the latest big-name player that is receiving a lot of attention from his involvement with the faulty program known as Biogenesis Laboratories in Miami. Yesterday Yahoo! posted a story on their website confirming that Braun had been mentioned several times in the records and was scheduled to pay between $20,000-$30,000 to the clinic. Another passage congratulated Melky Cabrera on his all-star game MVP and called his results the "Braun effect."
Braun released this statement today. "During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Tony Bosch, used him as a consultant," Braun said in his statement. "More specifically, he answered questions about T/E ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples."
Almost a year ago, Braun tested positive to extremely high testosterone levels and received a 50-game suspension from the league. Only the sample that contained Braun's results were kept in somebody's basement for two days over the weekend instead of being shipped to New York immediately. Needless to say Braun wiggled out of that one.
One question that needs to be asked though. Why did Braun go to Tony Bosch to ask about P/E ratios? Bosch isn't even a licensed professional doctor nor has any documented history in the medical field. Also, once Braun released this statement, his lawyer said that he knew nothing about Bosch and denied ever meeting with him.
At first it was said that about 20 players were documented in the reports from the Miami clinic, and so far eleven have been leaked out one way or another. Three more named besides Braun were uncovered today in the Biogenesis papers, being Danny Valencia of the Orioles, Jesus Montero with the Mariners, and Francisco Cervelli of the Yankees.
Cervelli issued a statement today saying that in 2011, when he had a foot injury, he reached out to Bosch to get the fastest treatment possible, but insisted that he never took any banned substance. The only thing is, the Yankees have their own medical staff that is more than likely top of the line and can handle a broken foot, but Cervelli decided to go across the state of Florida from the Yankees spring training home and met with a non-licensed pediatrician.
Danny Valencia issued this statement on the accusations "As any innocent person would be, I am shocked and troubled that my name is in any way connected to this story," Valencia said in the statement. "I have never met or spoken to anyone connected with Biogenesis, in fact I had never even heard of this company prior to the New Times’ story. I take tremendous pride in the hard work and dedication I put into being a professional baseball player and have never taken PEDs or failed a drug test of any kind during my career." Jesus Montero has yet to respond to the allegations.
Overall two things can be taken away from the past day.
One is that this won't be the last we hear from this Biogenesis report. The Miami New Times hasn't yet decided on whether or not to release anymore names due to lack of evidence, and because they only want to "report the news, not make it." But more and more people are getting their hands on these notes taken by Bosch himself. Yahoo! Sports had enough material to conclude that Ryan Braun was a viable part of this, and the MLB has barely begun their investigation of this mess. Expect there to be more name dropping within the next few weeks and even more controversy to occur.
The second thing is that Tony Bosch and this clinic he ran was a legitimate place that helped "recover" athletes. Alex Rodriguez has been accused of being Bosch's most cooperative and demanding patient with many injections and Bosch even coming over to A-rod's house once. Both Rodriguez and also accused Gio Gonzalez said that they've never heard of the Biogenesis clinic before.
But with recent news of Cervelli, Rodriguez's teammate, and Braun both acknowledging that they've looked to Bosch for medical help confirms that he's been known within MLB circles. It also confirms that the notes and reports being released from the clinic haven't been forged by someone trying to frame these players.
With so much information not known yet it's too hard to make a decision on this. But five out of the eleven accused players have tested positive for PED use in the past, which could either be a major coincidence or the tell tale sign of a large operation going on here. Along with that the other pieces of evidence, being the records kept by Biogenesis, or the several players confirming that Bosch had helped them in some way, or the fact that many of these players are either from Miami or played at the University of Miami, seem very legitimate.
