yea. shapiro tried to cancel the colon trade after a week, but minaya wouldn’t let him out it

Not even real public opinion, more like “incredibly small subset of the public” opinion. Your average fan is more worried about whether Garko can play in Chicago than when Alex White enters a game for Mahoning Valley.

You think the Indians are changing their plan for their first-round draft pick based on public opinion?

Not public opinion, just Cleveland.com opinion.

..I hear they’re a very influential group.

You think the Indians are changing their plan for their first-round draft pick based on public opinion?

Not necessarily. But there’s does seem to be noticeable disconnect between Grant’s original comments and his revision, via Keith Law.

Per KLaw

it’s not a permanent decision to move him to the pen, although they think that’s most likely where he’ll end up.

Draft day

“We’re going to develop him as a reliever,” Grant said Wednesday after the second day of the draft. "We figured we’d just come out and say it.

“His track [to the big leagues] will be shortened,” said Grant, concerning the move to the pen.

From MLB.com on draft day

“In high school, he was a power sinker/slider guy,” Grant said. “He’s added the swing-and-miss split to his repertoire. We’re going to project him out as a bullpen guy — a back-end, power arm.”

Per KLaw

He’ll work in relief if he signs in time to pitch in 2009,

Draft Day

Because White already is nearing 100 innings this season, the Indians, upon signing him, probably wouldn’t use him much in the Minors this year.

“We’ll probably slow-play it once we do get him signed,” Grant said. “We’ll begin the transition to the bullpen probably next year.”

Here’s the extended quote via Tony’s site
:

“We are going to develop him as a reliever, so we just figured we would come out and go ahead and just say that ultimately see him in the future as a power backend of the bullpen guy.He has the makeup to do it, and the mentality to do it. It is very hard to predict who is ever going to be a closer, but he certainly has the stuff to be a backend arm. We think his track will be shortened if we put him in that role and let him go. We don’t draft off of major league need, as our major league need could change drastically in a year. He was the best talent available and we went ahead and selected him in the first round. Everything we look for and value in a pitcher he has it. Alex is going to do whatever is best for the organization and best for him to succeed. We just feel that the strike throwing ability and stuff will play better in a bullpen role. When you stretch it out longer the stuff still plays, but in a shorter role the fastball, slider, and splitter are going to play up. He has three legitimate above average major league pitches.

Maybe Grant and the rest of the front office were simply on the front page. Personally, I’m highly skeptical of that. It sounds more like, Grant was a little too forthcoming and now he’s trying to hedge his bets .