Ryan Braun And The Five Stages Of Grief: Depression

Now that we're done with denial, anger and bargaining it's time to move on to this, probably the most difficult step.

No matter what comes of this positive test and the appeal, this franchise and its fans have suffered several wounds that will never heal:

• Even if the BBWAA decides not to act regarding Braun's NL MVP (which would be the correct decision), the award will always be seen as somewhat tainted.
• Even if Braun is cleared of all charges, we now know exactly what opposing fan trolls and other morons are going to use as ammunition against the Brewers for roughly the next decade.
• Unless the best possible outcome takes place, the Brewers are probably going to play a significant portion of their 2012 schedule (less than a third, but probably more than an eighth) without their best player.

Frankly, if those are the only issues we have to deal with then we'll have hit the best possible outcome.

There's really nothing about this that doesn't suck. So, if you'd like to talk about how much things suck, this is the place.