Hold Shapiro to the same standard

[viper123]

Bad luck has struck again. Shapiro's mark (Alomar Trade) has exploded in his face. Escobar, one of two major jey players is no good to us for probably two years. I don't blame shapiro, I'm not a fan of the alomar deal but he went with a different philosophy and got prospects. Hart had similar luck with picthing Black Jack and Ben McDonald, great pitchers until they put on a tribe uniform. Two #1's that failed, so Hart never could land a #1 or maybe he became gun shy. Shapiro over the short term (2 years) might have failed on his first deal but I'm willing to give him a chance.

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viper

[tomyo18]

The Indians were outwardly saying Escobar needed another year, but you know damn well they were hoping he would blow Milton Bradley away this spring and win the job. So theis is a huge blow. But you're right. He'll be in the same position next spring, maybe worse off, and who knows? This could ruin a career.

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[Edwardo]

Escobar will come back, but with how much speed? It was a big part of his game. Stealing bases, legging out doubles and triples, and covering a lot of ground in the outfield is what 5 tools is all about.

He seems like a good kid with a lot of talent that just needed the proper nuturing.
The Mets don't seem to do well with young hitting. I wouldn't be surprised to see Escobar develop into a fine hitter- .290, 30 HR, and an excellent OF with a great arm. But, what a shame if the blazing speed is gone. I hope this doesn't happen to any more players on any teams this year. It sucks.

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[Hawaii007]

It was sad that Escobar got hurt especially when his early ST stats made it look like he was on his way to blowing away the competition. Hopefully he is mentally tough enough to recover and doesn't decide to hit the weights too hard and lose his flexibility and his "athletic" build. Players have come back from ACL tears and haven't missed a beat, most notably Moises Alou, so it isn't time to write off Escobar.

Overall, if you take the ST stats seriously, even without Escobar making any progress this year, the trade does not seem half bad. Snyder has shown he can hit and is a more then capable back-up this year, Traber has shown bright spots and everyone says that Riggan has the stuff, even though he had a rough last outting. And we all know how well Lawton is doing, on GRASS for all those Astroturf conspiracy theorists. Anyway...like I said, If Lawton hits as well as Alomar does this year, anything from any of the other players just makes the trade that much sweeter.

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[the teacher]

I recall Chipper Jones having a similar injury at the same point in his career, perhaps even a year later: he was ready to break into the bigs and he blew out his knee sliding. He seems to have turned out ok.

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Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est

[Alex]

glad to hear about Chipper Jones.

As for holding Mr. Shapiro to the same standard....

IF, and I say IF either Escobar's agent or Tribe Management were trying to encourage Mr. Escobar to have a great spring before the March 11th contract renewal deadline, I hope they would be men enough to admit their mistake.

Why was Alex Escobar still unsigned until at least March 02, and perhaps even at the time of his injury.

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Here is the excerpt and the link....


Ryan Drese and Alex Escobar are the only Indians still not signed.

The Indians announced yesterday that Milton Bradley, Russell Branyan, Jolbert Cabrera,
Sean DePaula, Tim Drew, Alex Herrera, Victor Martinez, Chad Paronto, Jason Phillips, Jerrod
Riggan, David Riske, Roy Smith, Martin Vargas, Jake Westbrook and John McDonald have
agreed to terms.

The Indians can renew Drese's and Escobar's contracts at their own terms by March 11.

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/plain...9814040248.xml

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Alex