Ryan Braun said his relationship with Anthony Bosch was limited to legal consultation. (AP)

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports spoke with Dennis & Callahan on Wednesday about Ryan Braun‘s connections to a clinic linked to PEDs, and what the repercussions will be for the other players whose names appear in that clinic’s records.

Alex Rodriguez, who also was mentioned in the records of Biogenesis America LLC, had responded by calling them a forgery. That claim that was seriously discredited when Braun said Tuesday that he had consulted with clinic founder Anthony Bosch while appealing his 2011 positive PED test.

“I think beyond a shadow of a doubt, what happened yesterday confirmed that these records are indeed legitimate,” Passan said. “Ryan Braun coming out and acknowledging some sort of relationship with Anthony Bosch, and Francisco Cervelli doing the same — that’s two players right there whose names were in the records. And I believe, based on the number of sources to whom I’ve spoken, whom I’ve contacted in the first place, that these records were nothing but legitimate.

“It would take the most massive conspiracy I have ever seen, the most massive conspiracy ever, to fake a logbook of this magnitude and put names on there. … Thankfully, we had enough people talk to us that confirmed the veracity of this, and if nothing else it’s very interesting to see Ryan Braun, a guy who’s been under the microscope before, tied again to a guy who he probably shouldn’t be tied to.”

Passan said he doesn’t think random blood testing for HGH, which will begin this year, will bring about a rash of positive tests.

“Honestly, [players are] always ahead of things, and the HGH test, for as good as people make it want to be, is not that effective,” Passan said. “You need to catch somebody within days of using the product. Is that likely to happen? Sure, it’ll happen maybe once or twice a year. But beyond that, I think for the most of them, they’re smart, and there’s some dummies, and I think we can tell the dummies by the ones who use guys like Tony Bosch and guys like ‘deer antler boy’ as the people who are being their consultants on improving.

“That, to me, is the funniest part of this whole thing. You’d think these millionaires would have a boutique drug doctor. No, they use the shady guy in Miami and the former male stripper who’s selling Bambi’s antlers.”

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Welcome to Wednesday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

WEDNESDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
World Series: Tigers at Giants, 8 p.m. (Fox; WEEI-AM)
NBA preseason: Rockets at Hornets, 8 p.m. (NBA TV)
NBA preseason: Lakers at Clippers, 10:30 p.m. (NBA TV)

AROUND THE WEB:

Rob Gronkowski's stellar play and zany antics have gone over well with most NFL fans. (AP)

♦ Forbes magazine has the results of a Nielsen/E-Poll Market Research survey of NFL fans that attempted to determined which players are the most and least popular. Ranking No. 1, with a 63 percent appeal rating, is Steelers defensive back Troy Polamalu. At the bottom of the list is Lions defensive end Ndamukong Suh, whose dirty play and off-field issues led to his 19 percent rating.

Other notable names with favorable ratings: Saints quarterback Drew Brees (62 percent), Packers DB Charles Woodson (62 percent), Broncos QB Peyton Manning (59 percent), Packers QB Aaron Rodgers (58 percent) and Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (58 percent).

Players with less-favorable ratings include: Bears QB Jay Cutler (21 percent), Eagles QB Michael Vick (23 percent) and 49ers wide receiver Randy Moss (24 percent).

♦ Left fielder Melky Cabrera is eligible to play for the Giants after serving a 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, but the team is keeping him on the bench for the World Series. At Yahoo! Sports, Jeff Passan looks at the hypocrisy and “selective morality” of the Giants, the team that trotted out Barry Bonds for years and now includes on its roster reliever Guillermo Mota, a two-time offender of baseball’s drug policy.

Said manager Bruce Bochy: “With Melky, we felt when that happened, as far as losing him, the club played very well, and the guys that we had been putting out there have done the job. They’ve earned this, and this is the way we’re going to move forward. It would be, sure, tough for Melky to get game ready, but more importantly, it was how we played and how the guys did out in left field, and they deserve to be out there for the postseason.”

♦ The mother of University of Southern Mississippi freshman quarterback Anthony Alford took exception to a fan yelling negative things about her son during Saturday’s 59-24 loss to Marshall. This led to Lawanda Ann Alford being escorted to jail and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Ms. Alford apparently has a habit of this type of behavior. During a baseball game in the spring, she walked onto the field and screamed at an umpire after a questionable third strike call against her son.

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On Oct. 24, 1990, the Red Sox exercised a buyout of Dwight Evans‘ contract ending his long and distinguished career in Boston. The right fielder would go on to play one more season in the majors, with which team?

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MLB commissioner Bud Selig banned Juan Nunez, an associate of Melky Cabrera, from all team clubhouses.

Nunez, who is a consultant for Cabrera’s agents at ACES Inc., took responsibility for creating a fake website that Cabrera was prepared to use for a grievance to challenge a drug test that was positive for testosterone.

The All-Star outfielder dropped his grievance last week when MLB uncovered the plot, and he was suspended for 50 games.

“Please be advised that commissioner Selig has directed that all major league clubs are prohibited from granting Juan Carlos Nunez access to their clubhouses or other nonpublic areas,” MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “Nunez is affiliated with ACES Inc. sports agency. Nunez is currently under investigation for misconduct related to our recent matter under the joint drug program.

Seth Levinson, who runs ACES with his brother Sam, said Nunez was a paid consultant for the company.

On the day Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for steroids, the former BALCO founder Victor Conte revealed some potentially damaging news for baseball.

“I’m not going to name names,” Conte said, “but I’ve talked to a lot of top players in Major League Baseball, and they tell me this is what they’re doing. There is rampant use of synthetic testosterone in Major League Baseball.”

Conte was involved in the 2002 BALCO scandal that included the likes of Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Marion Jones who all were cited for performance-enhancing drugs.

“I would say,” Conte said, “maybe as much as half of baseball [uses performance enhancers.]”

Major League Baseball stepped up its enforcement of its substance abuse policy along with attempting to prevent future cases by adopting the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in 2006. They also completely dismissed Conte’s claim.

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