Dominican prospect Angel Villalona plays first game in three years

It has been a long road for Dominican prospect Angel Villalona. Once one of the top five prospects in the Giants system, he was arrested and charged with murder in the Dominican Republic in 2009. He faced civil and criminal prosecution. The civil case was dropped after he made a payment to the family, and the criminal case eventually fell apart due to lack of evidence.

This is such a sad case. I predicted back in 2009 that the Villalona would eventually be cleared. I think Villalona or someone in his group may have committed the crime, but the whole situation seemed like a bar fight gone wrong. And I suggested the victim's family may have been trying to extort money.

We will never know what happened in that bar in La Romana, the hometown of Villalona. The prosecuting branch of Dominican law enforcement does not have the same resources at its disposal as their American counter parts, and that is the main reason I thought this case may get dropped. It seemed like a 'he said, he said' case to begin with, and without substantial resources it was a hard case to prove.

As for the victim and the civil case, the family of the victim probably got what they deserved even if it was an accident or a bar fight gone too far. Villalona gave them a payment of $139,000.

So, Villalona lost three years of his life and baseball career. Much worse can be said for the victim's family.  But he is only 21 and has finally been cleared to join the Giants system again. He started out with a game in the Dominican Summer League Thursday and went 1-4.

He is still going to have to jump through some hoops just to get a visa to play in the US again, so expect him to play in the DSL the rest of the season. And at 21, he could still turn into that power hitting first baseman that everyone predicted him to be back three years ago as an 18 year old prospect. It will be a long road though, as he is starting from square one in the lowest division of professional baseball in all of the minor league system.

Dominican player Vladimir Guerrero arrested in Dominican Republic, denies role in bar brawl

Dominican player Vladimir Guererro has turned himself in to police in the Dominican Republic following an altercation at a bar. Bar fights in the Dominican Republic seem to be a big issue with Dominican baseball players. Who can forget Dominican player Angel Villalona pretty much ruining his career over a bar stool fight on a winter visit back home?

For his part, Guererro is claiming he is innocent. ''At no time did I attack anyone, nor was I fleeing,'' Guerrero told the AP. ''I presented myself at the jail last night after the complaint from the disco, and this morning first thing I went to the police that are handling the case.''

Looks like your typical Dominican baseball player wrongly accused and possible extortion attempt on a well-known player. But who knows. It seems like a minor incident even if the prosecutors follow through with the charges. It sounds like Vladdy bumped a police officer when they were trying to break up a fight.

For all the lack of law and order in the Dominican Republic, it sure seems that Dominican baseball players end up in a lot of legal troubles in their home country. That is the major reason the Dominican Baseball Guy often thinks 'extortion' rather than the player is 'guilty' upon hearing of Dominican player legal problems.

Vladimir spent last season with the Orioles and hit .290 and 13 home runs. He is still unsigned for this season and is looking for a job. The former MVP is from Nizao, Dominican Republic.

Dominican beisbol player Vladimir Guerrero pictured last year with the Orioles,
photo by Keith Allison on Flickr

Dominican Pitcher Alfredo Simon Suspect in Shooting Death

The recent news that Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon is the main suspect in the shooting death of a man in his native Dominican Republic hearkens to the situation of Angel Villalona a year ago.  While both were involved in a shooting death, on further inspection the situations are quite different.

Villalona is accused of shooting a man in a night club after a disagreement.  The Dominican Baseball Guy added a couple updates on the Villalona situation which you can see here.  There are plenty of links to all the relevant stories from a year ago within these two blog posts.  Villalona is still awaiting trial, but according to this article, he is back playing baseball again, so may be able to make it back to the states some day.  Villalona is from La Romana, DR.

The case of Simon seems to be different.  While Villalona was a minor league player yet to reach the big leagues, Simon debuted 3 years ago for the Orioles and played in 49 games last year.  The other difference is that the shooting Simon was involved in seems to be accidental.  According to the latest AP story, Simon is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, as he either fired a gun in the air to celebrate New Year's Eve or had a gun go off accidentally while breaking up a fight between two women.  Simon's lawyer is saying he merely shot his gun in the air to celebrate the new year.  The saddest part is that the dead man was his cousin.  Alfredo is from Santiago, DR.

This brings up the inevitable "why is a multi-million dollar athlete carrying a pistol?"  Well in the states the Dominican Baseball Guy agrees, but the fact is the Dominican Republic is a very rough place and lots of people carry weapons.  Security in the country is sparse, especially in smaller cities, and Dominicans grow up in an atmosphere where fighting and weapons are widespread.  So, it is hard for professional baseball players to forget their upbringing in that environment.

The Dominican Baseball Guy thinks the best thing for these guys is to just stay away from the country, if they feel they will be tempted to visit their old stomping grounds.  But that would mean never seeing their family and friends again in many cases.  So, as you can see it is a vicious cycle.  Simon is just 29 and has a promising career ahead of him, so if it was an accident, hopefully he can make an arrangement with the family and  get back to the big leagues at some point.

Angel Villalona Update

The Dominican Baseball guy wants to update the Angel Villalona story which I posted on a few weeks ago here.  Apparently he made a payment to the victim of the family which will take care of any civil action that the family may have seeked against Villalona. Andrew Baggarly posted this on his blog, citing an AP story. The Listin Diario daily newspaper in Santo Domingo also released this article. You can use this free translator from Verbatim Solutions if you want to read the Spanish article.

There is a good discussion at the Baggarly blog and at a blog post by Garrett Broshuis, a former teammate of Villalona.

This is a sticky situation. He made a payment to diffuse the possibility of later civil actions by the family. Some think this may admit guilt. I for one do not think this admits guilt. The justice system is not perfect in the US. In the DR, it is even less perfect (corruption, underfunding, and understaffng being major problems). I posted on my original post that there are witnesses from both sides (some saying he did it, others saying he was outside). I think extortion is a very high possibility, if friends of the victim thought they could get money out of Angel, they could have concocted a story.

And the prosecutor is also a politician, so he could be using this for his own gains. The things I find strange are that they have not recovered a gun, nor have they proven that Angel ever owned a gun, and that the only motive they have mentioned is that there was a fight over a seat. Not a very strong case in my opinion.

I said that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the Dominican Baseball Guy in the original post, and I continue to believe this. The latest news is that Angel has had his visa revoked by the US, so whether he is guilty or not this is not good news for him.

Giants Dominican Prospect Angel Villalona Charged with Murder in Dominican Republic

19 year old prospect Angel Villalona has been charged with murder in his home town of La Romana, Dominican Republic. He was listed as a top 50 prospect by MLB.com and #44 overall prospect by baseballamerica.com.  He spent last year with the Giants AA team, the San Jose Giants in the California League.

He is being held for two months awaiting trial. This is a really sad story that has been tearing me up. Kid had his whole life ahead of him. Here is the AP story posted at ESPN.com. And here is the Giants official statement, though it really amounts to blah blah blah at this point.

He signed a contract, with $2.1 million signing bonus back in August 2006, when he was 16. This is the youngest age at which international prospects can sign. He is one of many "bonus babies" to come out of the Dominican Republic. The Giants and their fans had high hopes for him at his signing, and he has progressed nicely through the minor leagues. He was seen as a highly ranked prospect last year as well at single A Augusta Green Jackets of the South Atlantic League.

I first heard about this story through Patrick Clark, at beyond the boxscore. Andrew Baggerly has reactions from teammates at a mercurynews.com article. Garrett Broshuis was also a minor league teammate of Villalona and posted some thoughts on his blog, which I follow. Here is the post.

The AP article will give you the basics, but the Dominican dailies have published a few additional articles. Villalona has only been quoted as saying he is "innocent," in this article published by the Listin Diario. There is a string of articles published at listindiario.com. This one has a picture of the nightclub, where the murder took place (ALLEGEDLY), and the prosecutor says that they have sufficient evidence against him and that their will not be any corruption. In another article, Villalona´s lawyer says that all the evidence they have gathered points to the innocence of his client, and that the media has sensationalized the event and they are to blame. Sound like a typical trial of any kind when good lawyers are involved?

Lastly, there are two articles published at DominicanToday.com, the only English language newspaper in the country. The first one says that he has been charged. The second one says that he will be in jail 2 months awaiting trial, could face up to 20 years, AND (get this) that the scuffle may have begun over a seat.

There are a number of things that could have prevented this. The Dominican Baseball Guy mentions in an earlier post that violence and handguns are not uncommon in this country. This may be an explanation for a middling prospect or your average Dominican. But for a prospect such as this, he could have bought the bar, much less the seat. He could have easily rented out the bar for the night. He could have asked the owner of the bar to give him the seat, and the Dominican Baseball Guy is pretty sure the owner would oblige someone as famous in La Romana as Villalona. Where is his support system? Why did he not recieve more education and/or get steered away from dangerous situations such as this? This is all needless to say after the fact, and this issue has been breached numerous times with young athletes in all sports. The Dominican Baseball Guy will not attempt to offer a solution in a simple blog post.

Notice the Dominican Baseball Guy says alleged murder above. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the Dominican Baseball Guy. The legal process will run it's course and will determine whether Angel Villalona will continue playing a kids game, or be locked up with hardened criminals.