No mjor-league player that has tested positive under the league's current drug policy has ever won an appeal. Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun is looking to be the first and TMZ.com reports that he is defending himself by claiming that his positive came from medication that he took to deal with a private medical issue.

Braun, the National League MVP, could be out for the first 50 games of the season if he does not win his appeal. On Monday, the Brewers told MLB.com that they still didn't know when the appeal would take place. "As bizarre as it may sound, we don't know anything," assistant GM Gord Ash said, the site reprots. "Nobody should have known anything at this point."

The attorney for Braun, David Cornwell, appeared on CNN on Friday, MLB.com reports, saying, "Confidentiality was breached here, and I think we will find -- I fully expect to be able to demonstrate that Ryan did not violate the substance policy of Major League Baseball. And consequently, we shouldn't be dealing w

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Because the bidding process for Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish is totally secret, it is difficult to know for sure which teams have actually posted bids for him and which haven't.

ESPN reports that the two team names that kept coming up as the probable winners of the process that ended at 5 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday are the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Other teams that have supposedly placed bids as well include the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners, ESPN reports.

Darvish's current team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, have till Tuesday to decide if they want to take the bid or not.

MLB.com has it that the Los Angeles Angels, Tampa Bay Rays and Minnesota Twins are said to have not posted bids for Darvish, the 6-5 25-year-old who went 18-6 last season with a 1.44 ERA and 276 strikeouts.

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The 32-year-old Coco Crisp has been in the big leagues since his debut in 2002 with the Cleveland Indians. Since then, the switch-hitting outfielder has also played for the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics.

Now the word from MLB Trade Rumors is that Crisp is likely to add another team to his resume and it could be one from his Southern California hometown. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs have both been talking to Crisp about joining them to play left field, the site notes.

As MLBTR points out, the Cubs already have Alfonso Soriano out in left and have him under contract for another three seasons.

Crisp hit .264 with eight homers and 26 doubles this past season for the A's. He also had 49 stolen bases, a career high. Of course, this was also the first year since 2006 that Crisp was healthy enough to play in more than 130 games. The last time he played more than 100 games was in 2007 when he helped the Red Sox win a World Series.

 

Let the rumors come to

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Some rumor mongers have it that the Colorado Rockies are hot for free-agent outfielder Michael Cuddyer, but MLB.com reports that he's got some competition in the form of Carlos Beltran.

According to "two Major League sources with knowledge of the situation," the Rockies are trying to get the six-time All-Star Beltran signed, the site notes.

The 34-year-old Beltran, a switch hitter, batted .300 with 22 homers and 84 RBIs for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants last season. At Coors Field, Beltran has hit .276 with six home runs, 24 RBIs, nine doubles and a triple over 25 games in his career.

MLB.com notes that Beltran also has interest from the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, and it remains unclear when Beltran will make the decision of where he'll call home next season.

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Joe Saunders is suddenly a free agent. The Arizona Diamondbacks declined to offer Saunders salary arbitration by the Monday night deadline and so he has been set free, MLB.com reports.

Saunders went 12-13 last season with 103 strikeouts and a 3.69 ERA. Last week the team had offered him a two-year contract "believed to be in the $12 million range," the site notes, and Saunders made a counteroffer. But the sides were too far apart and the team traded for Trevor Cahill from the Oakland Athletics on Friday. Cahill went 12-14 with a 4.16 ERA and 147 strikeouts for the A's last season.

If the Diamondbacks had kept Saunders, they would have had to pay him between $8.5 million and $9 million this season, MLB.com notes.

While Saunders can now explore the open market, it is still possible that he'll return to Arizona. "I don't think it precludes us from bringing either player back," D-backs assistant general manager Billy Ryan said, according to MLB.com. "We communicated to them that we are sti

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