Ryan Braun
Two seasons ago, Milwaukee Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun was one of the best players in all of fantasy baseball and was rewarded for it by receiving the National League’s Most Valuable Player award. In 2011, Braun hit .332 with 33 home runs and 111 RBI in first baseman Prince Fielder’s last season with the team. In addition to excelling as both a contact hitter and a power hitter, Braun also stole 33 bases in 39 attempts and won himself high praise as one of the most versatile and dangerous players in all of fantasy baseball.
However, all that praise soon disintegrated into skepticism and controversy as Braun received a 50-game suspension by the league for failing a drug test. Braun vehemently denied the charges that he had doped and decided to fight them by taking the suspension up on appeal. This all seemed like some desperate posturing and protocol at the time, but in a stunning turn of events, the league overturned the suspension and the drug test that Braun failed after determining that his urine sample had not been handled properly in the chain of custody and had in fact stayed in the truck it was being transported in for too long.
Braun held a press conference to once again deny the charges and thank the league for overturning his suspension on appeal and although the chain of custody argument looked a little bit weak, everyone was forced to accept that, at least in this instance, there was enough evidence to support the theory that one of the best players in fantasy baseball was in fact telling the truth and that there was a distinct possibility that his sample had been tampered with. That is, until last week, when all of last offseason’s questions surrounding Braun had reason to reemerge.