It just never smelled right.

When news of Ryan Braun's positive drug test was leaked to and then reported by ESPN, it just seemed to not add up. Of course, the journalist in me is loathe to believe a cheating professional athlete who claims innocence. After all, how many times have we been lied to over the years by someone caught red-handed who just wants to beat the rap?

Furthermore, as a Milwaukee journalist sticking up for the city's biggest superstar, charges of blind cronyism can call into one's entire body of credibility. If you believe Braun, the cheater, what else are you going to buy hook, line and sinker? Santa Claus? The Tooth Fairy? Will you, the journalist, be mocked by your peers as the one dummy gullible enough to actually believe the player over science?

So that having been prefaced, I fully know the risks of saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

I don't think Braun cheated.

I will never claim to be someone who runs in the same circles as the Brewers superstar MVP. He has a $100 million contract and a $5 million house with an ocean view in Malibu. I do not. I have never been to Braun's lakefront condo, I have never been in his car, played golf with his dad or met his mom. I will not make the claim that Braun and I are friends, because we aren't. Our relationship is purely professional, and I am perfectly fine with that because the last thing I would ever want is for someone to say my objectivity is clouded because of a personal relationship, because that is simply not the case.

But I just don't think he cheated.

Monday, on Dan Patrick's national radio and television program, Patrick cited inside sources as saying that he has been told that Braun may become the first player in Major League history to win his appeal for a positive banned substance test.

"There were whispers that this was a personal medical issue, that he was taking something for that, that may have spiked his test," Patrick said Monday. "I since found out that that is not the case. Ryan Braun may be exonerated here. He may be found innocent. And judging from all of the information I was told, there's a good chance that he should be."

Patrick cited "somebody involved in the process" when making his comments, which were measured and come just days after Braun's hearing in New York before baseball arbitrator Shaym Das, who now has 25 days in which to make a final determination. Patrick added that what Braun tested positive for was not a masking agent, either, unlike the case of Manny Ramirez and others.

Since the beginning of this saga, Braun has steadfastly maintained his innocence. He has done that via his representatives at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), text messages to reporters, and now, at the Baseball Writers Association awards banquet. Saturday night, Braun accepted his National League MVP Award and took a few moments to make the first verbal statement in regards to the matter.

"Sometimes in life we all deal with challenges we never expected to endure," Braun told the audience at the Hilton – New York Midtown. "I've always believed that a person's character is revealed through the way they deal with those moments of adversity. I've always loved and had so much respect for the game of baseball. Everything I've done in my career has been done with that respect and appreciation in mind, and that is why I'm so grateful and humbled to accept this award tonight."

Perhaps it is naive to think that Braun is telling the truth, but he sure doesn't sound like someone who uses performance enhancing drugs. His work ethic has been praised by teammates and team executives alike since the day he got to the Major Leagues. At every turn he has thanked his parents for instilling in him the virtues of hard work and not cutting corners.

Certainly he has his moments of cockiness, but few elite athletes don't. Even on the day he was awarded the MVP, he chuckled when a reporter asked him on a conference call about ever lacking confidence.

Trust me. Confidence has never been an issue with Braun. His self-assurance can be off-putting to some, just as his cliche spewing got tiresome to the local media years ago. It's no secret that he couldn't stand former manager Ken Macha, and he has made comments about the roster in the past that have irked general manager Doug Melvin to the point of the superstar being called in on the carpet for a good chewing out.

But that's not a reason to not believe him when he says that he is innocent.

Is it so hard to fathom that there could have been something amiss with the sample? Or, is it even possible that Braun is the subject of a witch hunt perhaps from the very source that leaked private, confidential information that was supposed to be sealed to ESPN? So far, all we know about the "Outside the Lines" report is that it was horrifically incomplete and fraught with inaccuracies.

Furthermore, the leaked report that Braun had taken a banned substance for a "private medical problem" widely rumored to be a sexually transmitted disease was apparently based in nothing but pure conjecture designed to embarrass and humiliate a human being that happens to be good at the game of baseball.

But the most damning piece of evidence to preserve Braun's innocence might be the exact same piece of evidence that tried to condemn him back in October.

Riddle me this: of the literally thousands of PED tests that baseball has administered, how could Braun's be more than twice as high as the next highest test? The odds of that alone seem staggering.

On the surface, this looks like a case for Law & Order or CSI. Considering all of the conflicting reports, inaccurate reporting, shameful conclusions drawn, and absolute lack of privacy and thus due process in the court of public opinion, it looks like someone is out to get Braun.

But who? Why? For what possible gain?

Only the one who leaked the story and rumors could tell you.

After all, baseball has had a history of leaking confidential information. How else can you explain the Mitchell Report? The players listed in the report were not supposed to be revealed; after all, the report was not meant to punish anyone but was used rather as a tool for the owners and players to clean up their house before Congress got even more involved.

Yet there all 89 names were in December 2007 for the entire world to see.

Baseball had a steroid problem. No one with any intellectual honesty would argue that point. Today, baseball has an information leaking problem. Obviously someone told ESPN that Braun's test came back positive, which is a blatant violation of baseball's collective bargaining agreement. Furthermore, if Braun does have the personal medical issue that was widely snickered at in December, Braun's HIPAA rights have been violated, which is punishable by up to one year in prison. Either way, MLB's lawyers may have a mess on their hands.

The only thing I know for certain about Braun is that he isn't stupid. In today's anti-doping culture in baseball, you would have to be a moron to run the risk of getting caught using a PED. The 50-game ban is certainly one thing. But the public scorn and ridicule that every player knows he would face makes getting caught even more moronic.

Remember, Braun went to the University of Miami on an academic scholarship. He may be cocky; he may be arrogant. But he ain't stupid.

"The bigger issue here is the testing and was Ryan Braun a victim of the testing by Major League Baseball," concluded Patrick. "Let's see how this plays out... The feeling I got (Sunday) from somebody involved in the process in this, it's not as cut and dried as people would think.

"And Ryan Braun may be an innocent man."