While Ryan Braun and his handlers continue to imply that something was amiss during the fateful weekend the former’s urine was held hostage in a stranger’s refrigerator, several members of the Chicago Cubs have come to the defense of MLB’s specimen-collector Dino Laurenzi Jr.  ‘‘Just from knowing Dino the three years I’ve been here, he’s been nothing but professional,’’ IF Jeff Baker told the Sun-Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer. “‘He’s been very, very thorough. I have no concerns and no qualms.’’  This sort of begs the question what would constitute an unprofessional urine collection, but I suppose amateurs have to start somewhere.

‘‘If you would have found out that your samples are going to somebody’s house and hanging around for two days, obviously, the more the sample is away from the laboratory, the more bad things can happen to it as far as tampering situations,’’ outfielder Reed Johnson said. ‘‘But, for the most part, I think guys really trust the process.”

‘‘You see them seal it, and the stickers they put all over everything, and then make sure that your number matches up to the number that’s on your sample, slash your case, slash your other case that the case goes in. … If you witnessed it firsthand and saw all the detail that goes into making sure things are safe as far as not having a false positive or anything like that, you wouldn’t be too worried about it as a player.’’

‘‘I’m not worried,’’ outfielder Alfonso Soriano said, backing Johnson’s thoughts on the seals and safeguards involved in the process. ‘‘I’m not worried because I know what I take. It doesn’t matter who takes the sample. If you don’t take nothing, he can take [the specimen] home for a week, and nothing will come out.’’