Its pretty clear Starlin Castro is on his way to being the greatest baseball player of all time.

Eventually the World Series will be played to win the Castro trophy.

But in the meantime I think we should cover history, or Castrory, year by year.


Sophomore slump?

Psssst, PLEASE

I think in a Sox town like Chicago Castro is the cubs best chance to steal some pub.

"If someone finna pub you, you gotta take the pub"



Right now Castro is the front runner for the MVP and he's in the conversation for Cy Young.

He'll win comeback player of the year because last year's numbers will be downright pathetic compared to his numbers this year.

Cool trolling bro.

Castro's hitting will go down, but his fielding will get better, since there's no way it can get much worse.

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I directed that at the original poster, but yeah, maybe I was too harsh regarding his fielding.

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In 14 winter league playoff games Castro committed 10 errors. I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to 2B with Barney taking over at SS. I know he's still young but a major league team can not afford to have that many errors at the most important defensive position.

I don't know, man. They sold us on Castro being the shortstop of the future; they can't have said shortstop of the future cede his position to a guy whose ceiling is utility infielder. Well, I mean, obviously they're going to have to if he can't put a glove on the ball in the goddamn winter leagues, but man, sounds like another Failed Cubs Prospect.

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You crazy


His offensive numbers were great and he's so young.

He was already set to give up the position to Lee. So its not a big deal to me. I thought he was going to second anyway



One scout's review of the best player he saw in the Arizona Fall League -- 19-year-old Cubs middle-infield stud Starlin Castro: "A young Hanley Ramirez."




/\


Need I say more? Has a scout ever been wrong with a comparison like that?

If .300/.347./.408/.755 is a failure as a 20 year old rookie, sign me up for that.



Starlin's line this year...

.298/.370/.445/.815

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Team Cutler.

Starlin Castro is obviously the worst baseball player of all time.

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If he can't field that position, it would be in the best interest of the team to move him. He still gets to bat even if he plays 2nd base you know.

You cannot have a winning team if you have 25, 30+ errors at shortstop, and I don't care how great the guy hits. You need his bat in the lineup but if he can't PLAY short at an acceptable level defensively, then you have to move him somewhere else on the diamond.

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Take it easy frank. The dude was 20. he barely had any time in the minors.
Fielding can be learned I believe. You're either a hitter or you're not for the most part.
He's got the speed to give him the range at the position. With a little experience, he'll learn bat angles, bat speeds and watching pitches and counts to learn tendencies. With better coaching with Lou gone, maybe we'll see an improvement in fielding.
But really, he's only 1 year into his MLB career. Let's hold off calling him a bad fielder for a bit.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I would assume most infields below the major league level can be mediocre to say the least, Casto's error total may be somewhat inflated.

Plus it seems to me a lot of young infielders developed defensively after a tough spell in the minors. IIRC, didn't robin Ventura struggle early in his career defensively before settling down?

Last year he made 27 errors in 123 games playing on major league infields.

And if he got to 27 balls an average infielder wouldn't it's close to a wash. I'm too lazy to look up his range stats so I'm not even sure he has good range, but errors don't tell the whole story either way. Look no further than shitty fielding, gold glove winning Derek Jeter.

You've seen too many of those "Pick 13" billboards.

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What are those?

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This might as well say IMU vs stoneroses

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Jeter has lost a step but he is far from a shitty fielder. Jeter is sure handed and still has an extremely accurate arm. The worst thing a team can do is give the opposition more outs because it leads to more runs, more pitches and shorter outings. A lot of teams will gladly trade range for a SS who turns outs into outs.

Ozzie Smith at age 23, 25 errors....at age 25, 24 errors.

Ozzie Guillen at age 22, 22 errors....at age 25, 22 errors

Ventura had 25 errors at the age of 22.

Jeter had 22 errors at the age of 22...at age 26, 24 errors.

All on major league infields

Castro had a higher frequency of errors but he is also a bit younger, no need to panic right now about his defense.

Good stuff enigma! Puts it all into proper perspective.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Jeter had the worst range of any starter at SS last year, he's lost more than a step. That leads to just as many extra pitches and shorter outings as errors. Teams will say they'll trade range for accuracy because no one wants to say "we'd rather have a guy that gets more errors" in public.

I can not believe that it took me this long to find this absolute gem of a thread. To compare Castro to Future Hall of Famer Derek Sanderson Jeter is probably one of the funniest jokes I have ever heard. And trust me, I have heard all of Tom Dreesen's knee-slappers.

That being said, this seems like a perfect time to explain my philosophy of arguing with others, vis-a-vis The Chicago Sports Fan Message Board:

1. When I offer an opinion here, I am correct, and all who agree with me are correct;
2. All who disagree with me are incorrect;
3. I will not change your mind, nor will you change mine;
4. My time is far too valuable to waste time debating with those who disagree with me.

If wish that more people followed this philosophy. Then I would not have to read eight (8) pages of useless, time-wasting debate on trivial matters.

Praise Christ.

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Don't forgot, nobody in major league baseball other than Juan Pierre hit into more outs than Derek Jeter last year.

I'm sure I can make a pretty long list of players who made a lot of errors and were moved from that position. Just to name a few Chipper Jones and BJ Upton were SS, Miggy Cabrera and Ryan Braun were 3B and Alphonso Soriano was a 2B (yikes!). I don't think they have 25 gold gloves between them like the guys you compared him to.

Joey Votto was hit with a lot of Sophomore slump questions after he finished second in the Rookie of the Year balloting . . . to Geovany Soto.

Well, no shit. I'm talking about the folly of the Cubs pushing a guy as Shortstop Of The Future, only to have him turn out to be Butcher Of The Present. It's just another file for the Cubs' dossier of developmental incompetence.

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Go ahead make your list, have fun.