Ryan Braun And His "Sore Throat"

Given he is now blaming his transgressions on the improper usage of a lozenge, admitted PED user Ryan Braun's latest prepared statement (given without opportunity for questioning from the press) is so short on detail, it seems to reflect the sorest of throats:

A month after acknowledging only that he made "mistakes," Ryan Braun admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs during his NL MVP season of 2011.

The suspended Milwaukee slugger said he took a cream and a lozenge containing banned substances while rehabilitating an injury.

"It was a huge mistake for which I am deeply ashamed and I compounded the situation by not admitting my mistakes immediately," Braun said in a statement released by the Brewers.

Braun tested positive for elevated testosterone in October 2011, but his 50-game suspension was overturned when an arbitrator ruled that the urine sample was mishandled.

While Braun took full responsibility for his actions and apologized to the collector of the urine sample, teammates and Commissioner Bud Selig among others, the statement still leaves several key questions unanswered.

Among them: Who gave Braun the PEDs and where did they come from? What was the exact substance in the products? Did he know the cream and lozenge were tainted at the time he took them?

Whomever is handling Ryan Braun's public relations needs to be fired, immediately. The handling of this "apology" is so clumsy, I almost feel bad for Braun and his screwing Matt Kemp out of the 2011 MVP award.

I'd be happy to donate a pack of Halls Mentho-lyptus if Braun would just face the music, instead of hiding like a coward.

Elsewhere: From "A First Step, Albeit An Incomplete One" (NYT): "This Twitter message Thursday night from Brett Anderson, an Oakland Athletics pitcher, probably summed up a lot of players’ feelings: “So Braun has spent the last month writing an apology statement novel...”"