Ryan Braun Suspension: Milwaukee Brewers Star Gets off Easy With Light MLB Ban

By Michael Moraitis--Featured Columnist

Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers will serve a 65-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy, but it's a suspension that should be considered light at best for the former MVP.

The first offense for a player who violates the policy is a 50-game suspension, while a second offense gets you kicked out for 100 games. And, of course, a third violation means a lifetime ban for any player involved.

In reality, this is at least Braun's second offense.

In 2012, Braun got off from a suspension after his positive test was thrown out thanks to it being improperly handled. While many people did defend him after that, there were others that thought him to be extremely lucky that his appeal worked out.

Now, fast forward to 2013, and is there anyone who really believes Braun wasn't on performance-enhancing drugs before that 2011 failed test?

I can't imagine that the MLB believes Braun was clean, so that's why this suspension should be at least 100 games or even more. Braun has not only shamed his MVP award, but he has also shamed the league and its fans by lying right to all of our faces in his own weak defense.

His consistent lying in and of itself is worthy of a suspension because it questions the integrity that MLB athletes should abide by. Clearly it's okay to lie, lie, lie until you get caught red-handed much like Braun was during this Biogenesis mess.

The sad thing is that Braun's suspension will teach nothing to future players who decide to take such a risk with drugs because the consequence simply isn't that bad.

After all, Braun is still owed $100 million on his contract which he will continue to collect after this season and the 65 games or the rest of the season he will miss won't hurt the Brewers at all because they are already out of the playoff hunt.

So, exactly where is the impact?

At the very worst, Braun will have to face the public beat down from fans around the league, but that won't commence in his face until next season when Braun returns to the field on Opening Day 2014. That will be the moment when Braun returns to the field after a huge cooling off period and most importantly, that's when Braun's pay checks will start coming in again.

Until then, he can "stress" about his soiled name from whatever million dollar mansion he chooses to rest his head in while he enjoys all the great things his now cheap MLB career has afforded him. What a tough life!

There is still little incentive for players to avoid PEDs when these cheating players like Melky Cabrera and Ryan Braun are still getting paid. If only the MLB could really hit these guys in the wallets harder then and only then will these multi-million dollar athletes feel the sting and think twice about cheating the game of baseball.