What Do We Believe in All This Braun Business?

So Braun becomes the first guy to get accused of violating the MLB drug policy and have the suspension revoked. But to me, something is still fishy here and it's not Mickey D's 2 for $3 Filet-O-Fish deal. There are a lot of different factors that make me question Braun's innocence in all of this. Now, I'm not saying he's guilty or he was definitely using PEDs, but let's explore some of the signs that could lead one to believe that this case is due for some further investigation.

Let's just look at Braun's public statement from Miller Park once it was revealed that he would not be serving the 50-game suspension for violating the drug policy. First of all, why do you need to make a 13-minute public statement like this with cameras and microphones and the works? Is this the new installment of "The Decision" entitled "The Appeal"?

He says that the reason he didn't come out before and "attack evereybody" was because he didn't want it to negatively affect the game of baseball. Then why is he doing it now? Once the suspension has been lifted obviously the media will get a hold of it, why would Braun need to come out and confirm everything we already know after the fact? To rub it in people's faces? Sounds like overcompensation to me, an act of a guilty man.

Braun says he was a "victim of a process that failed." Dino Laurenzi Jr. begs to differ. Without getting too specific, Braun basically blames Laurenzi, the urine test collector, or not following protocol which led to the positive test.

Laurenzi states, "I followed the same procedure in collecting Mr. Braun’s sample as I did in the hundreds of other samples I collected under the program."

Braun states, "There were a lot of things we learned about the collector, the collection process, about the way the entire thing worked that made us very concerned and very suspicious."

Who do we believe?

Basically Braun is saying that his sample got switched with one of the other two players who were tested that day, or that Laurenzi or his wife (the only other person in Laurenzi's home where the urine had to spend a night) planted something in his sample that caused the resulting high level of testosterone.

What I don't get here, is where the motive is for Laurenzi? Is he a Cardinals fan? Why has this not happened with any other of the 600 tests Laurenzi has done? One of Braun's defenses was that the testosterone level in the result was three times higher than anything else ever recorded in one of these tests, which was suspicious to him. But if Laurenzi was going to try to frame Braun, wouldn't he be slicker about it and tamper with the sample to make it look like a normal positive test? None of it adds up.

I'll admit that most of the evidence Braun provides points towards him being an innocewnt victim in this process, but from where I sit I think there needs to be further investigation. This was either a freak accident, or there was some foul play from either Braun or Laurenzi. I, as a sports follower, would like to know which one of those things is the truth. Braun says that by the suspension being revoked the truth has prevailed. I'm not sure we've heard the full truth at this point.