Starlin Castro discussion thread

[brett05]

I mean zero disrespect but your post made me grin

 

[Rice Cube]

It's not that illogical, though. MLB hitters are generally better than MiLB hitters. MLB hitters will hit the ball harder, thus making defense more difficult to play overall.

 

[brett05]

But with the quality of fields the bounce is truer. My guess is it takes only a few minutes for fielders to get up to speed if they are good fielders to start with

 

[Rice Cube]

But with the quality of fields the bounce is truer. My guess is it takes only a few minutes for fielders to get up to speed if they are good fielders to start with

So you're saying that a minor leaguer has to deal with more bad hops than a major leaguer? I don't know, man...a lot of AAA fields I've been to (i.e. the Durham Bulls) are pretty well-kept.

 

[brett05]

I am willing to say every major league park is better. Just way way way more money

 

[Kaz7]

I don't think the difference between AAA and MLB hitters would make that much of a difference for defense. Now I never faced MLB or Minor league hitters, but I started at SS for four years in college and majority of ground balls hit to the SS occur when hitters roll their wrists over which results in a ball not being hit too hard. In fact a lot scouts, coaches, and other players would even tell you that the hardest hit ground balls go to 3B or 2B, not SS.

 

[Rice Cube]

I don't think the difference between AAA and MLB hitters would make that much of a difference for defense. Now I never faced MLB or Minor league hitters, but I started at SS for four years in college and majority of ground balls hit to the SS occur when hitters roll their wrists over which results in a ball not being hit too hard. In fact a lot scouts, coaches, and other players would even tell you that the hardest hit ground balls go to 3B or 2B, not SS.

Very interesting. Does the aluminum bat vs. wood bat make a difference here?

 

[Kaz7]

I would say it did a little bit, but not much because AAA and MLB pitchers throw a lot harder than most pitchers in college which results in balls being hit harder at that level. I graduated in 2010 and I believe in 11 they outlawed composite aluminum bats because the ball was just jumping off those things, but I bet only about 10% of ground balls hit in my direction were hit with a decent amount of velocity. Like I said though, majority of ground balls hit towards the SS are not hit entirely hard, especially with a right handed hitter at the plate. This is still true at the AAA and MLB level. It's hard to tell on tv, but the next time you are at a baseball game watch ground balls that are hit toward the SS (with a right handed hitter at the plate) and then compare it to ground balls hit to 3B or 2B.

 

[Rice Cube]

Righto. How would you say your playing fields were maintained?

 

[Rice Cube]

@Kaz, since you're a shortstop, what do you think of what Castro is doing with regards to glove work, positioning, etc?

It seems to me he often throws sidearm and doesn't always charge the ball even though they kind of told him to do that more in spring training.

 

[Kaz7]

Haha, average. The field looks beautiful from an aerial view, but we had a decent sized lip on the grass where it meets the front of the infield dirt that caused a couple of bad hops. With that being said, it was a huge advantage for me because I knew it and was able to react to it, whereas visiting SS's were somewhat surprised by it.



Here's a link to a picture of the field if you want to check it out. We kind of had our own version of the green monster, but in right field.

http://www.manchester.edu/Athletics/department/images/baseball_field2007small.jpg

 

[EnjoyYourTiger]

If Castro ends the season with less than 30 errors I will suck Waldo's balls.

 

[Kaz7]

Yeah, it's very important to throw over the top, more so for outfielders than infielders, but still important for infielders. When you throw side arm the ball has a tendency to tail on the first basemen, especially from the SS who has the farthest throw to first. Soriano had this issue big time when he was first converted from 2B to OF, although John Dewan has a defensive stat called a "kill" in which Soriano led all OF's from 06-08 I believe. As far as charging the ball, he should definitely be more aggressive with that considering that he has the least margin of error. If he plays passive and there is the slighest bobble players can easily beat it out.

 

[Rice Cube]

I noticed that Aramis Ramirez often threw sidearm as well. It's almost as if they were taught that way in the Dominican and nobody on the Cubs bothered to try to correct it.

I think Castro's issue is concentration. As previously discussed he gets to his spots and has a strong arm and is capable, he just has brain farts for whatever reason (late covering bag sometimes, etc) and that kind of sucks.

 

[Kaz7]

Yeah Aramis did as well, but we all know he wasn't a great fielding 3B. The only time it is acceptable to throw side arm as an infielder are on those slow rollers that most MLB players bare hand because they don't have enough time to field the ball, get set, and throw it over the top.


I do notice with Castro it appears that he is getting smarter and making less mental mistakes. There were many times last year, and even more times his rookie year where he would make an errant throw to first base when he wasn't going to throw the runner out to begin with. This probably had to do with MLB players getting down the line much faster than minor league players. Physical errors (which tend to fielding errors opposed to throwing errors) are a lot easier to fix.

 

[Jntg4]

Castro has a positive Fld right now... 0.1. Already at a 0.8 WAR too.

 

[dabynsky]

Castro has a positive Fld right now... 0.1. Already at a 0.8 WAR too.

In before the various ZOMG YOU USED WARZ post.

 

[Rice Cube]

WAR is a counting stat and can change depending on whether Castro sucks or not. I'm not sure how FanGraphs calculated Fld but I'd wait till the end of the season for now. For defense, with metrics being as inconsistent as they are, it's best to just use your own lying eyes until you have a full season of data.

 

[Capt. Serious]

Make it 8. I'm sorry, but this guy will need a new position soon. 64 career errors already?

 

[daddies3angels]

Make it 8. I'm sorry, but this guy will need a new position soon. 64 career errors already?

Again only 22. With rebuilding no sense and moving him. Let him learn while team sucks