Moving the Needle – The Bash Fest That is Starlin Castro
It is undeniable that Starlin Castro is the player who gets the most attention on the Cubs’ roster. There is good reason for that. A $60M contract extension will do that, especially when you’re 22. 594 career hits at time in his life when a lot of kids are just finishing college will also do the trick. The man is a lightning rod for fans to pin their hopes for a future championship on.
He is also a man for fans to beat down. And he gets beat down because of the media attention that is placed on him. More specifically, the intense scrutiny that comes with every mistake he makes. We can all still hear Bobby Valentine talking about how his head wasn’t in it on that play on Sunday Night Baseball two years ago…admit it. CSN Chicago’s Patrick Mooney says it best when he says that Starlin “moves the needle.” As in, he draws eyes to the screen, to the paper, and clicks to the websites.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the coverage a lot of the beat writers and the talking heads provide of the Cubs. I think they do a pretty solid job of keeping a pretty uninteresting team entertaining through a tough rebuilding process. That’s their job, and they do it well. Things like this, however don’t help a young player with the weight of 105 years on his shoulders…
On his ninth inning drive to left field, it is true Starlin admired his work. He did not run out of the box as hard as he could have. And I hope it was discussed on the plane to New York tonight between Castro and Dale Sveum. It can’t be with a veteran leader because Alfonso Soriano and David DeJesus both made stupid base running mistakes today, too, and they should also have a conversation with their manager, and it should be less cordial than the one with the 23 year old. To be fair to Starlin, he CRUSHED the ball. The wind made it a double. That ball was going to be a walk-off home run in the ninth inning, the double it turned out to be, or an out. No amount of busting it was going to change that. It sure did put some heat on a kid who is hopefully breaking out of a slump after a good day today, though. Yes, he did have two errors (one of which was a really tough play, and the throw drew Rizzo off the bag when it was going to be close anyway), but his bat came to life a little. He looked like the Starlin we saw in 2010 and 2011.
I like David Kaplan, so don’t mistake this as an attack on him. That’s not the intent. He is a passionate fan who calls ’em like he sees ’em. It’s good stuff. But his Twitter following is roughly 100 times what mine is, and his soap box is television. To an extent, and this is just my opinion, you either have to call all of them or none of them. Alfonso Soriano made a total bonehead play in the 8th, getting thrown out at second on the most routine of base hits right in front of him. After the walk and base hit immediately following his mistake, who knows what happens, but Schierholtz scored the tying run when he could have been the go ahead run after Soriano scores in front of him. Castro’s play in the ninth could have been avoided if Soriano, a 37 year old veteran ball player didn’t make the king of base running blunders.
In the 13th, David DeJesus jogged on down to first base on a routine ground ball and stopped short of the bag. None of this is a big deal, except that the Gold Glover, Brandon Phillips bobbled it and he could have made it a close play at first, or even gotten into first had he hustled. As John Arguello pointed out at the time, though…
This is not to say we shouldn’t be upset or even criticize Starlin Castro. The point is actually much more simple that that. We shouldn’t unfairly criticize Castro. His defense is still a topic of hot conversation, even though he is on pace for the fewest errors in a season of his career, even after his two today (Nine errors in 64 games, which is a pace of roughly 23 for the season…Javier Baez has 26 at last glance at Daytona. So no, he’s not better at short right now, meatballs). My point is that we shouldn’t hammer the kid when he does something inconsequential like today. And we absolutely should hammer all of the players when they don’t hustle, make stupid mistakes, or drop routine fly balls that they can get two hands on and catch, which would save a run (Looking at you again, DeJesus).
Then again, maybe I’m just saying all of this for hits on the blog.
Behind the Ivy 
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