Manny Ramirez and Jordan Schafer can now be mentioned in the same sentence

Who would have thought that the budding young star center fielder for the Atlanta Braves, Jordan Schafer, would one day be mentioned in the same breath as Manny Ramirez. Unfortunately, it's likely something both of them would rather not be mentioned at all. In case you haven't heard, Manny Ramirez was suspeded 50-games by MLB for violating their anti-doping policy. The details of the alleged drugs are now coming out, even though there is a MLB-enacted gag rule in place:

However, testing by Major League Baseball showed that Ramirez had testosterone in his body that was not natural and came from an artificial source, two people with knowledge of the case told ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn. The sources said that in addition to the artificial testosterone, Ramirez was identified as using the female fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG.

The sources said Ramirez was suspended for using hCG because baseball had documentation to prove his use of the drug. A Major League Baseball source said Ramirez's representatives indicated they would fight a suspension for using artificial testosterone.

This suspension differs from our guy Schafer's suspension in that Manny actually failed a drug test and that's how the infraction was discovered. Schafer was turned in by "a rat" and found guilty on circumstantial evidence. Similarly though, the evidence, like that in the Ramirez case, was and still is kept confidential with neither side being able to talk about specifics.

I brought up the crypticness of this policy when Schafer was suspended, but it becomes a bit more magnified with a huge superstar like Manny now under the spotlight, and still no details are made available. What's left is wild and rampant speculation and little nuggets of unverified information from anonymous sources.

I've gotten a lot of calls from people who love this suspension -- there's not a lot of love for Manny Ramirez out there. But we need to keep in mind how bad most of us felt when Jordan Schafer was suspended; especially how unfair many of us, including me, thought it was. Granted there does seem to be more direct evedence and certaily a guilty sample which can be tested in Manny's case, but that doesn't make it any less horrific for the player involved. I believe Schafer was mistreated by MLB. At the same time I do want the sport free from doping, but I'm still conflicted by the harshness of the penalty and paper-thin burden of secretive proof.