As mentioned far and wide, Ryan Braun no longer has a 50 game suspension hanging over his head after an arbitration panel nullfied his MLB-imposed PED penalty.  Reached for comment by The Star’s Brendan Kennedy, former World Anti-Doping Association head Dick Pound (above) argues the reigning NL MVP got off,  “on a very thin legal technicality that has no substantive value at all,” (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)

“He’s running around saying that he’s cleared is a misstatement,” insisted Pound. “Anybody who’s at all neutral in this is going to say, ‘Well, he dodged a bullet with that.’ ”

“This is a 20:1 ratio (of testosterone to epitestosterone) — give me a … break,” Pound said, adding that storing the sample in a fridge over a weekend would not change its contents.

“There was no sign of any tampering, so I don’t understand how a properly formed independent panel could come to the conclusion that that invalidated the test,” Pound said. “It’s not sitting there in the fridge generating false testosterone.”

Pound said Major League Baseball should review its contract with its players regarding performance-enhancing drugs in order to close any loopholes that may be there. But he blames Das, the independent arbitrator, not the league, for what he believes was the wrong decision.

“Frankly, (Das) should have had more sense or more judgment.”