Castro mixes amazing talent with baggage
It’s been a whirlwind two years, not all of it good, for Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro.
He burst onto the scene as a 20-year-old in May 2010 with a 6-RBI game, including a 3-run homer in his first big-league plate appearance.
That had some people wondering what took the Cubs so long to bring him to the major leagues.
Castro batted .300 during his rookie season and followed it by leading the National League with 207 hits in 2011, to go along with a hitting line of .307/.341/.432 with 10 home runs, 36 doubles, 9 triples and 66 RBI. Along the way, he earned a spot in the All-Star Game.
He also committed a league-high 29 errors at shortstop and occasionally ran afoul of then-manager Mike Quade for inattentiveness on the field.
After the season, Castro was confronted with an allegation of sexual assault, a claim that has not brought any criminal charges by Chicago police.
Castro, who turns 22 on March 24, said he’s learned from his experiences, both on and off the field.
By a good margin, Castro is the Cubs’ best position player and their most important building block. Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2006, he is the organization’s first highly touted prospect to begin living up to the hype in many years.
With all young players, the growing pains sometimes outpace the growth. Here are the key topics surrounding Castro:
Defense
Castro’s response came as no surprise a couple weeks back when he was asked in spring-training camp where he wants to improve.
“My defense,” he said. “I’m working hard on my defense and running bases. I’m trying to steal more bases and focus more.”
Castro comes up a negative in the various advanced fielding statistics, some of which are bought into by baseball people more than others.
Batting third
It looks like Castro will move from the leadoff spot to No. 3 in the order this year.
Here are Castro’s hitting splits from last year:
Ÿ Batting first: .327/.370/.471 with 8 home runs and 31 RBI in 335 plate appearances.
Ÿ Batting third: .225/.251/.320 with 2 homers and 18 RBI in 187 plate appearances.
He sounds ready to make the move.
“He told me something about that,” Castro said early in spring training, referring to manager Dale Sveum. “He said the 3-hole, and I said ‘I don’t care.’ Put me first, second, third and I will try to do my job in whatever spot.”
Last year, manager Mike Quade said he didn’t believe Castro “tried to do too much” batting third. Recently, Castro told reporters he may have indeed tried too hard.
“I was trying to hit home runs,” he said. “Dale told me, ‘If you’re hitting third, just be the same way you are (batting leadoff). You don’t need to hit more home runs.’ So I’m prepared.”
Whether home-run power eventually comes is open to question. Almost all the statistical projections have Castro’s homer total holding at about 10 this year.
“With few flyballs and a low HR/flyball (ratio), HRs will be scarce for now, but at 6’0’’, 190 (pounds), he could stand to fill out a little,” wrote Ron Shandler’s 2012 baseball forecaster.
The future
The Cubs have given no indication that Castro is not the future at shortstop. Others continue to speculate that Castro eventually will move to second base or third base.
The Cubs have prospects Junior Lake and last year’s No. 1 draft pick, Javier Baez, in the minor leagues. Lake, 21, is in big-league spring-training camp this year. He hit a combined 12 homers last year between Class A Daytona and Class AA Tennessee.
“He’s a little raw defensively,” Sveum told reporters. “You can see things he has to get better at there. He’s a real tall shortstop and does everything real tall. He needs to get a little lower.
“The guy’s a specimen. He has some kind of athletic body. He’s got to just keep playing. He’s a guy who needs at-bats in games and stuff like that. That’s a pretty good talent coming.”
At some point, somebody’s going to move.
bmiles@dailyherald.com
Best in the NL
Bruce Miles ranks the top NL shortstops:
1. Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies
2. Jose Reyes, Marlins
T3. Starlin Castro, CUBS, and
Jimmy Rollins, Phillies