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Will Ryan Braun Face Game Suspensions?

Mike McGinnis/Getty Images stringer

Sports contributor Howie Magner is kind of blue when he thinks about the Brewers.

It has been a frustrating Spring on Miller Park Way, in a number of ways. After ending the first month of the season on a roll, the Milwaukee Brewers went downhill in a hurry in May.

And if that weren't bad enough, the word surfaced at the start of this month that Major League Baseball is looking into possible 100-game suspensions for a number of players - including Brewers' star Ryan Braun - for being linked to a now-closed anti-aging clinic in Florida.

Braun is still playing - or rather, still in uniform. He hasn't played much, thanks to an injury to his right hand.

Sports contributor Howie Magner says what's changed is Tony Bosch, the man who owns the clinic, has told the MLB that he will cooperate with their investigation.

"What's new is that Bosch has flipped, but we don't know what Bosch is going to say," he says. "We don't know if Bosch is going to be able to implicate Ryan Braun."

Though Braun had been suspected of reportedly using performance-enhancing drugs a couple of years ago, Magner says he gets uncomfortable when conclusions are jumped to based on, so far, anonymous sources and speculation.

But Magner says the situation does reflect the ongoing race between people producing performance-enhancing drugs and scientists developing tests for those drugs.

"It used to be steroids.  Nobody talks about steroids any more," he says. "Now it's all human growth hormone.  What's the next thing after human growth hormone?  I have no idea.  Telekinetic implants?  I couldn't tell you."

Magner writes the Sports Nut column for Milwaukee Magazine's website, and he's senior editor at the magazine.