HBT: Deadspin's bizarre theory about Braun

Over at Deadspin, Tommy Craggs offers a potential theory of why Ryan Braun won his arbitration, even though many believe the case against him was so strong:

Over the weekend, however, I spoke with someone familiar with the arbitration process in general. He had another theory: Ryan Braun didn?t get off because of the merits of his case; he got off because the arbitrator who cast the decisive vote in Braun?s favor?the vote with which baseball ?vehemently disagrees??was thinking about his own future.

The upshot: arbitrator?Shyam Das serves at the pleasure of both the union and the league. He has ruled against players an awful lot lately, especially on drug cases, and he used the Braun case as a means to balance the scales a bit so the union wouldn?t get fed up with him and fire him from his lucrative and high-profile gig. As Craggs puts it ?If ever there were a case for Das to throw to the players, it was this one.?

Possible? Well, I suppose anything is possible. But saying that an arbitrator is placing his self interest ahead of the case in front of him is an extraordinarily serious charge. One which I?d feel a lot more comfortable entertaining if it was based on something more than a theory from ?someone familiar with the arbitration process in general.? ?Because really, this is not terribly different from saying that a judge threw a case because he was thinking about his reelection.

Less broadly, the theory has a major problem: ?if the arbitrator was really throwing this thing ? a case where it seems most people who are not Ryan Braun?s legal team think MLB should have won ? it?s just as likely if not more so that Major League Baseball would get angry and fire Das. ?At least it?s a risk, so what would Das have to gain here by being unethical?

What would not be as risky is if Das were to make a well-reasoned decision that explains why this case, and not any others, had this particular outcome. It would satisfy the union because it would be based in reason and would have an outcome with which they were happy. It would satisfy the league, eventually anyway, because it would be based in reason, would not present a scenario that would be replicable in future appeals and would provide a road map to the league about how to fix the problem.

We?re going to get Das? reasoning, by the way, within a few weeks, so we?ll be able to judge that for ourselves. ?Until then, I?m loathe to accuse this man of violating ethical considerations in reaching the decision he reached.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/28/deadspin-has-a-pretty-controversial-theory-on-the-braun-decision/related/

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