Escobar eager for complete recovery

www.duluthsuperior.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 05, 2003 Associated Press

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Alex Escobar is eager to quit thinking about passing the next test and just play baseball naturally.

"I haven't been 100 percent for so long, I'm not sure right now what that feels like," Escobar said Wednesday after participating in base-running drills at the Cleveland Indians' training camp. "I can feel improvement every day, but I don't consider myself completely back until I don't wear a brace on my knee."

It has been just over a year since Escobar hurt his left knee when he ran into the center-field wall March 4, 2002, in an exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Fla.

Before the injury, the 24-year-old outfielder was considered one of the brightest prospects in the game. Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said he would not have made the multi-player trade that sent All-Star second baseman Roberto Alomar to the New York Mets without getting Escobar.

Shapiro's insistence came from seeing Escobar bat .310 with 27 homers and 49 stolen bases in Class A ball in 1998, then rise through the Mets system. Escobar hit three homers in 18 games in his first trial in the majors in 2001.

"We regard Alex as a five-tool player, so the injury was a major setback and very frustrating," Shapiro said. "But Alex may have had the best outlook of anybody. I remember talking to him the next day and he was proud of the catch. He said, 'It was a great catch.' He was more concerned with making the play."

Escobar made a similar catch in a game Monday against Tampa Bay.

"It was just like the one I got hurt on," he said. "I took the test and I passed. I didn't even think of it at the time. Later, I said, 'Hey, that happened the same way, I hit the warning track then hit the wall.'

"To make that catch without thinking about it was a big step."

On Tuesday, he returned to Bradenton against the Pirates on the one-year anniversary of the injury.

"That was just a coincidence and I really didn't think about it because I know my knee is fine," Escobar said. "It is more the mental side that I'm overcoming now. I can't think about how I will catch a ball. It has to happen naturally and I am back doing that every time."

Escobar didn't go out to the wall and curse it or hit it with a bat.

"I'm too busy working on getting into shape to do things like that," he said.

Manager Eric Wedge said Escobar likely will begin the season at Triple-A Buffalo, wearing a knee brace and getting as many at-bats as possible to regain his hitting stroke.

"We'll see how things play out with Alex in terms of how much time he gets in the outfield," Wedge said. "We want a completely healthy Alex. At some point, the brace will come off - but not until it is time."

Escobar said that he will make that decision.

"The person who has to say when is me," he said. "Tuesday, I did some light jogging and sprints without it. It felt pretty good and I'm going to do it again this afternoon. Hopefully I can throw that brace away later this month.

"I still consider myself fast. Maybe with a brand new knee, I'll be even faster."

Coach Al Bumbry said he judges Escobar's conditioning on the way the slender outfielder looks after a workout.

"There hasn't been any problem for him in the outfield or on the bases," Bumbry said. "I watch him afterwards. I've seen him with a little more energy, not dragging, after practice."

Escobar said he works on conditioning with the understanding that his talents are still there.

"The other things, hitting, throwing, are natural instincts," he said. "They will come around the more I just get out and play.

Escobar could not play winter ball as planned in his native Venezuela due to political unrest this year.

"The day I was to start, they shut down the league," he said. "I was more concerned for my family because you don't know what is going to happen."