White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen isn’t one to hold back if something’s on his mind. A thought only needs to pass through his mind to make its way into print, as he often fires away without thinking through a subject first.

Guillen was at it again after the names of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were leaked in a New York Times report about the 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

“Can somebody in baseball, please, we're begging people, get that stupid list out and move on,” Guillen told Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. “This is ridiculous. This is embarrassing. It’s a joke.”

It’s a joke? To whom? To the players who have had results of an anonymous 2003 test made public?

As much as baseball fans would like to have full disclosure of the steroid era, it’s unethical -- and possibly illegal -- that these leaks are making their way into print. Your thinking may be that those who do wrong should be exposed, and shouldn’t have the same protections and guarantees as those who are innocent.

Think about that for a minute. What if the company you worked for released delicate personal information about you -- say, the negatives of your performance review or an indiscretion you may have been guilty of on the job -- when you thought it was protected information? At that point, does it matter if what you did is wrong or right?

Failing a single drug test doesn’t mean the accused is a chronic user or abuser. Can we even be sure the result of a drug test is always accurate? The 2003 test was an initial inquiry to discover how widespread drug use was, an anonymous one that was to be destroyed without punitive action, in exchange for honesty. More than five years later, players are being punished with the release of confidential information.

Players having their rights trampled by unethical disclosure should be a concern of all Americans, rather than a rallying cry for more information. We live in a time in which more of our personal data than ever is readily available to anyone.

The lawyers leaking this protected information should be earning their fair share of the wrath for their behavior. As much as this writer would like to know who has cheated, it shouldn’t come at the cost of personal protections under the law.