Insert “no Angel” pun here
by Brandon IsleibSeptember 20, 2009
Giants wunderkind Angel Villalona turned himself in on a murder, according to sources out of the Dominican Republic. I may be forgetting somebody, but I can't remember anything like this happening during a player's career (thankfully, of course). Maybe we throw Ugueth Urbina into the mix, but his situation was far more complex than someone turning themselves in.
Will this have any effect on clubs thinking before they sign 16-year-olds to million-dollar deals? Probably not; every team will have done their homework enough to believe their megaprospect is mature enough to handle life. But for me the incident raises a basic question of character sample size; how much of a person is enough to know they're all right? While my tendencies never have been violent, I can see how little I should have been entrusted with as a 16-year-old versus the just-24-year-old I am.
Regardless of speculation and random philosophizing, this incident doesn't look pretty. It may develop over the next days, so stay tuned.
Brandon Isleib possesses more baseball-related spreadsheets than he does law firm clients, but he's been building up the former for a lot longer and has reason to believe he's better with them anyway. He can be reached via the electronic mails.
Julio Machado’s career ended because of a murder charge back in 1991.