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Cubs Thu Aug 30 2012

Cubs Building Blocks: Starlin Castro

Cubs_200.pngWith wins and losses being utterly meaningless for the remainder of the season, it's high time to look at the pieces the Cubs have for the future. What players are Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer counting on to lead the team to the playoffs in the future? Our series begins with the new $60 million man, Starlin Castro.

Everyone has a strong belief about Castro. He's too lazy running the bases, too aggressive hitting, too distracted while fielding. Whatever you may think of him, he's now an incredibly rich young man. The Cubs agreed to a seven year contract extension that could stretch into 2020 with a team option tacked on the end. It's a big commitment to a player lacking a consensus opinion, but in an age of quarter billion dollar contracts, the Cubs may have scored themselves a steal.

The positives are clear. Castro, still just a 22-year-old kid, is locked up through what should be the most productive years of his career at what seems to be a reasonable price (when comparing it to numbers and ages of free agents en route to becoming billionaires). He's been a very capable hitter since the day he was called up, and has made great strides to improve defensively in his 400+ games.

But baseball isn't all roses for Castro. Despite being selected to the All-Star team, he's in the midst of one of the worst hitting slumps of his young career. A kid who's used to having a batting average over .300 consistently can't seem to get out of the .270s, and at the low rate in which he draws walks, he makes more outs than nearly anyone in baseball.

It makes sense for the organization to offer Castro an extension right now, though. If you tried to sign him when he's hitting .325 with 18 homers and 20 steals, an offer of $60 million would get laughed out of the room by his agents. Look at the case of potential AL MVP, Mike Trout. The Angels can't offer him a contract extension because anything south of $100 million would seem like low-balling, and would be a huge gamble based on five months of work. Instead, they'll pay him the league minimum with reasonable raises, followed by agreed upon arbitration figures until it's time to sign him to a $250 million contract around the time of his free agency.

The Cubs get a cost guarantee, and Castro gets long term insurance - it's a great deal for both sides, even if he doesn't reach the lofty expectations folks in the industry had for him when he made his debut at the age of 20. And despite what his batting average, on base percentage, and power numbers look like, I'd argue that Castro is slowly becoming a better batter.

Before hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo (who's known for his free-swinging theories) was fired on June 12, Castro had recorded just six walks in 264 plate appearances, including a stretch of 41 games where he drew four balls in an at-bat just one time. Since Jaramillo's dismissal, Castro has drawn 20 walks in 280 plate appearances, including 10 walks in the month of August alone. If you translate that over a full season, it would put Castro among the Top-25 in all of baseball in terms of walk rate.

Despite some recent struggles (and the occasional mental lapses that can be infuriating), Castro's play at shortstop is now average to above-average, which is a vast improvement from when he came to the Majors and made countless errors amid talk that he'd eventually move to second or third base. He's still young enough that he could become a plus defender if he puts in the work.

At $60 million, Epstein and Hoyer have put their money where their eyes are. They see a player in Starlin Castro that is immensely talented, while still being plenty young enough to become an eventual Top-10 player. He's now a cornerstone of the Cubs franchise, but he's not alone. Check back next week for the next player to be featured in the series: Cubs Building Blocks.

 
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