New Information About Manny's Suspension

Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn provide some previously unknown details relating to the Manny Ramirez suspension of 50 games.

"The Ramirez saga, as described by three sources with direct knowledge of the case, began to play out in spring training when the 36-year-old outfielder provided a urine sample for testing.

The test came back showing elevated levels of testosterone. Every individual naturally produces testosterone and a substance called epitestosterone, typically at a ratio of 1:1. In Major League Baseball, if the ratio comes in at 4:1 during testing, a player is flagged. In Ramirez's case, his ratio was between 4:1 and 10:1, according to one source."

There's nothing really new here, but it does establish the league's reasoning for exploring this issue further in the first place.

"First, MLB asked the World Anti-Doping Agency lab in Montreal, which conducts its testing, to perform a carbon isotope ratio test to determine whether the testosterone spike resulted from natural variations within Ramirez's body or from an artificial source. The test revealed the testosterone was synthetic -- in other words, it was ingested somehow.

Secondly, as per the drug-testing policy, MLB requested all of Ramirez's medical records, including those from doctors he might have consulted outside of MLB. Addendum C of the policy is authorization by every player to provide 'health information' from 'all health care providers (including but not limited to [add Club orthopedist and medical internist], other physicians, laboratories, clinics and Club trainers) with whom I have consulted pursuant to my Uniform Player's Contract or the Basic Agreement.'"

From the moment it was reported that elevated testosterone was in his system, almost everybody assumed it was synthetic, but this confirms it.

"Ramirez and his representatives were prepared to appeal the synthetic testosterone results, intending to argue he had taken a steroid precursor known as DHEA, according to two sources. The drug is akin to the now-banned substance famously known as Andro, but it is not on baseball's banned list."

I think he probably would have won this appeal case, mainly because it could be quite difficult to prove that the synthetic testosterone didn't come from DHEA.

On a side note, I really am surprised to hear that DHEA is not banned by the federal government or the MLB. I just always assumed it was illegal because the Olympics forbids it.

"Within the records was a prescription written for the drug human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) -- No. 55 on the list of banned performance-enhancing substances in the policy. The drug is mainly used for female fertility issues, but it is best known among male steroid users as a substance that can help kick-start the body's production of natural testosterone, which is stymied when using synthetic testosterone (aka steroids).

The synthetic testosterone in Ramirez's body could not have come from the hCG, according to doping experts, and so suddenly Ramirez had two drugs to answer for. Worse still for the ballplayer, MLB now had a document showing he had been prescribed a banned substance. This was iron-clad evidence that could secure a 50-game suspension.

And so, in the hours before the appeal was scheduled to proceed, Ramirez notified MLB that he would accept the 50 games and drop his planned legal fight."

So basically, Ramirez dropped the appeal because there was nothing he could do about the hCG paperwork being found. Again, this is not surprising news, but it does confirm that Bill Plaschke is a moron.

In addition to the ESPN report, Bill Shaikin and Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times have some new details on the situation.

"Although anti-doping experts have said HCG is commonly used to replenish testosterone after a cycle of steroids, sources close to Ramirez have suggested the HCG was prescribed to combat issues surrounding sexual performance."

This was one of the possibilities I listed when the news first broke, but I thought it was highly unlikely at the time, and I still do.

"Ramirez is 36. Among men ages 30-39, about 2% have significantly low levels of testosterone, said Dr. Glenn Braunstein, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Braunstein, an expert in reproductive endocrinology, said such patients generally would be treated with testosterone, not with HCG.

'There's no reason to use it in healthy male adults,' he said.

In rare cases, he said, HCG could be prescribed. In the case of a healthy male in Ramirez's age group, he said, the odds of such treatment would be less than 1 in 1,000."

So basically about the odds we're all giving him anyway.