WIN WIN WIN WIN

Mateo is the guy who has the eye problem right? What do the Giant’s know that the Cardinals don’t?

hopefully it turns out to be a good risk. It sounds like the kid has a lot of talent, if he’s not brought down by this eye condition. Not that we didn’t need them before, but especially with this Angel Villalona situation we need all the toolsy, hope-they’re-a-future-star kind of prospects we can get.

nice

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/10/mateo-to-san-francisco.html

ESPN.com’s Jorge Arangure reports (via Twitter) that the Giants may be on the verge of signing 16-year-old Dominican prospect Wagner Mateo. A deal could be finalized “within [the] next couple of weeks.”

Mateo was originally signed by St. Louis in June to a contract with a $3.1MM signing bonus, but the deal was voided by the club in September after medical tests revealed that the young outfielder was suffering from vision problems. The entire situation is nicely detailed in this piece by Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, noting that Mateo’s signing was an impressive victory for the Cardinals’ rebuild Latin American scouting operations.

In a tweet from last June, Arangure said that San Francisco came closest to signing Mateo away from St. Louis’ grasp in the first place, but got “cold feet” offering a bonus of $3.5MM. The Cards and Giants were two of several teams interested in the highly-regarded young outfielder.

Read that STL Dispatch article and they paint his 20/200 vision as an intractable problem. The fact that he’s been to the best doctors in America doesn’t seem too promising. But it’s not my money, so sign this Dominican right on up.

After all, they cleared Freddy Sanchez, didn’t they?

Giants voided a Latin signing earlier this year because of health concerns.

he can always be an umpire.

I’d be thrilled if the Giants sign him. The eye problem sounds serious, of course. I doubt the Cards would go through the embarrassment of voiding the contract unless they were convinced of long-term trouble.

But I can’t help but root for a kid like this. His talent earned him a $3.1 million contract and a ticket out of poverty, and he lost it all in a physical because of things he had no control over. I hope he’s the exception to the rule, the one guy who can succeed with 20/30 vision.

Plus, he’s bound to be cheaper at this point. w00t.

I don’t think the Cards didn’t want him, they just didn’t want him at that price anymore. Once they voided the contract though, I don’t think it was something they could work through to get a new deal in place.

I’m too impatient to get excited about these types of signings. Call me when he’s in AAA, in 14 years.

giants are more willing to gamble on a hitting prospect than the cardinals are is how i SEE it…hehe, get it?
i could write for the mighty boosh

Didn’t see it posted earlier, thought it might be nice to revisit video of his swing.

Can’t we just buy the kid a pair of contacts?

Resolved Question
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How bad is 20/200 vision?
i have 20/200 vision and i can’t see anything. is 20/200 really bad? do alot of people have worser vision than 20/200. also, does anyone else get really bad headaces from contacts because i do and my eyes are always dry. i want to get lasik when i am 21, but is that to young? i heard someone lasik and in one year they got their old eyesight back. i have heard alot of bad stories about lasik. is it too dangerous?

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Best Answer – Chosen by Voters
the lack of good central vision in the right eye, from the neuritis, could have allowed a tendency for the right eye to drift out (“exophoria”), which was previously well controlled, to become apparent (“exotropia”).

You don’t say whether the optic neuritis was an isolated incident or associated with other problems. If the latter, it’s possible that the nerve controling the inward movement of the right eye, the medial rectus, has had a similar episode to the optic nerve.

In the first case, if the turn is obvious, cosmetic surgery to re-align the eye might be considered, but in the second it would be approached only with a fair degree of caution.

If you wear glasses there are also possibilities to reduce the appearance of the strabismus without surgery.

AKA “Lazy Eye”….The vision in my right eye is 20/12, but the vision in my left eye is 20/100….

I was good at baseball until people started throwing breaking balls…My depth perception just didn’t work very well, I couldn’t tell the difference between pitches….

I can’t even imagine closing my right eye and trying to hit a baseball…I would be really skeptical of the kid if he has serious vision issues…It’s not my money, though….Spend, spend, spend! (As long as it isn’t too much money)

No matter what happens here, signing Wagner Mateo makes the Giants look like a kind and compassionate team, while the Cardinals look like evil Americans to Latin players. Perception is important to signing those players, because they are often signed very young, and are thus influenced greatly by their advisors, parents, and communities/countries. If the Giants establish goodwill in Latin America (by standing by Angel, if he turns out to be Innocent) and then signing Wagner Mateo, they could position themselves as a major front-runner for Latin talent for the next decade.