Week 31 begins with the number 50

Good Saturday morning to you all, hope that your weekend is off to a fine start.

I don't do this very often, but I just wanted to comment on a couple of stories that happened in MLB this week.

First, Ryan Braun is "exonerated" and doesn't have to serve a 50 game suspension.

This might be the craziest story going, for a long time.  I have questions about this as well.   Why in the world are we sending samples to Montreal?  Please someone tell me why MLB feels the need to do such a ludicrous thing as to send a urine sample halfway across the continent, when I'm sure that there are many labs in the US that can perform the same test. 

I hear that the test administrator had to keep the sample in his refrigerator until it could be sent via courier to the test site.  SO??  Come on people, if a test is administered on a Saturday night, there are no couriers open until Monday morning...what are we supposed to do with the samples then?  There should be approved labs in every MLB city that are capable of performing these tests on a moments notice.  Eliminates the need for shipping the sample, or even the potential for issues such as storage. 

OK...enough of that little rant...Ryan Braun, all I have to say is I hope you are ready for the taunts you are going to hear, and the signs you are going to see at every MLB park you visit this year.  It's going to be rough.

2nd.  Matt Kemp states that he believes he can be the 1st "50-50" player in MLB history.

Now that would be a story that legends are made from.  The closest that anybody has ever come to a season like that would be Alex Rodriguez in '98 with 42 HR and 46 SB (Yahoo!). 

Do I think he can do it?  No, not with the team he has around him.  The lineup is not strong enough to give him the support needed in order to get pitches to hit 50HRs this year.  I believe he can steal 50 bases, although that may be just as big a long shot, since he stole 40 last year in what may be a career season.  Kemp has also done well to avoid injuries the past 4 years (he's only missed 11 games during that span).  To be honest though, I'm kind of glad he made the boast.  Takes a little pressure off of his team mates, reduces the glare, just a little bit, of the ownership mess that the Dodgers have been in over the past couple of seasons.  Maybe one of the Dodger bloggers can create a "50-50" watch? 

What I found ironic (OK..it's a stretch here) is that the two cards featured here as well are the front and the back of '12 Topps Series 1.  Braun is card # 1, Kemp # 330.  If you ask me, it should have been the other way around, with Braun being the ass end of the set.

Thanks for reading, Robert