Anyone pick up Braves OF Jordan Schafer in fantasy baseball after his week one bonanza? We did. Non-fantasy owners who noticed: ESPN the Magazine. They have a feature on Schafer in the latest issue and while reading it last night, we were stunned to learn the details – or lack thereof – surrounding Schafer’s 50-game MLB suspension last year for HGH use.Â

MLB gathered enough information to determine that Schafer was a “nonanalytical positive.” He hadn’t failed a drug test, but he was connected to human growth hormone by anecdotal evidence, a sort of guilt by association. (He wasn’t tested for HGH because MLB is waiting for a reliable non-blood screening process.) It was enough to have him yanked out of the Mississippi Braves lineup. On April 4, 2008, he was brought to Atlanta for questioning, and four days later he was suspended for 50 games.

What? Here’s the “guilt by association” – in a short period of time, Schafer’s stats soared (”Schafer’s remarkable leap in performance from his first two minor league seasons, when he hit .228 with 11 homers, to his breakthrough in 2007, when he batted .312 with 15 homers, 23 stolen bases and a .374 OBP”), and he rose from the 27th best propsect in the Braves organization to 1st. (He was once called the best 13-year-old in America by Baseball America.) MLB looked into Schafer’s crew – which contained some nefarious characters he has since parted ways with; ESPN doesn’t expand on who they were other than to say “workout buddies” – and somehow determined that Schafer needed to be suspended.

And here’s the kicker – Schafer accepted the suspension and didn’t whine about it. His most grevious sin in all of this appears to be that he was a cocky, arrogant SOB who rolled up to camp blinged out with an entourage and a H2, and when he was sent to the minors, said “I feel like I’ve died and gone to hell.” After going to the minors, a teammate called the HGH ratline and tipped off The Powers That Be.

So if MLB was willing to suspend Schafer for 50 games due to “anecdotal evidence,” where’s the condemnation for McGwire and Bonds? Isn’t there sufficient “anecdotal evidence” against those guys?

Making a (new) name for himself (ESPN the Mag)