Jorge Soler has now played 2 games, so we'll take a look at those, and Starlin Castro is feeling the heat after a mental error may have cost the Cubs a run during last night's game. I'll give my opinion on that as well as those whose view differs from mine on that issue. I won't draw this out or anything, so let's go.
First, the very early returns on Jorge Soler have been very good. In 2 games he is 4 for 8 with a home run, double, and two singles. That's a slugging percentage of 1.000 and an OBP of .500, that's an OPS of 1.500, so of course that's very good. Even though those numbers will surely go down as the rest of the season is played, he's done a very good job in his at bats. He does have 3 strikeouts, but his approach, at the same time has been very good. He hasn't swung at many, if any bad pitches, which is the big thing, and his swing looks very controlled, despite the power he generates.
In the field he's given everyone every reason to feel confident in his fielding ability. There's really been a lack of chances to see him though, so I'll hold back on the judgement, but he's looked solid in the few chances he's had. Again, both with offense and defense, it's WAY too early to come to any sort of conclusion, it's 2 games in a career that many people hope will last 10-15 years, at very least.
Now for the Starlin Castro issue. Starlin Castro started out of the box last night after a long fly ball by just jogging to first. By the time the outfielder didn't catch the ball, and the ball didn't leave the yard, Castro had just gotten to first, and what should have absolutely been a double was just a very long single. Two batters later Jorge Soler singled in one run, but Castro, who was on first, only got to second. The single was to left, so him getting to third on it was out of the question, but there is a good chance that if he was running from second he could have scored there.
Now, I won't lie. Starlin Castro does have a history of mental errors. Early in his career he allowed Hanley Ramirez an extra base after walking back to a ball that he had just made an error on. Just over a year ago, in a game against the Cardinals, he allowed a run to score when he didn't look behind him after catching a pop fly in the short outfield. However, this is something much different here.
First off, that error in the game against the Cardinals was the last mental error that he's made in a game. Since then I can think of at least 2 that Anthony Rizzo has made, several from Valbuena, and many pitcher mental errors. Not only that, but the physical errors are way down too. Castro will likely finish under 20 errors this year, possibly even under 15, for the first time in his career this year, and has overall made a huge step forward in his defense. They can afford a mental error a year with the defense that he's provided this year. On top of that, he just lost a cousin and 3 friends in a car accident. His head is likely still not all there in the game, and if you can blame him then you are a horrible person.
The one argument against him right now that is acceptable is that if he's not able to be all there, he shouldn't be out there. I can understand that one, and agree to some extent. However, we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe Renteria told him that he had to come back by a certain point, we don't know. Also, the bereavement list doesn't give players some massive number of days off, and any person with any heart should be thinking of that loss for at least 30 days or so, to expect someone to just get over it in that short of time is a complete joke. He had enough time to go back home and say his goodbyes to the victims of that accident, and then come back and play.
What really gets me is that people who completely throw the tragedy to the side and talk about his "history". Those people are not only horrible people, but completely stupid and an embarrassment to the rest of the Cubs fans. Most fans are understanding, but when you realize that he hasn't had any mental errors in over a year, and his first one in that time came right after a major personal tragedy. The bottom line is that you have some idiots out there that are even stupid enough to call for the Cubs to cut him after that. Yeah, cut an all star shortstop for having a mental error right after a personal tragedy...that makes sense (yes, sarcasm). My biggest hope is that these people don't breed, because we already have enough stupid people in the world, no need to add more. There is really just no excuse for the criticism that. It only makes you look like a complete idiot. I'm all for freedom of speech, and they have their right to say that, but I also have my freedom of speech and my right to call them idiots for what they say, that's how it works.
So, to summarize, good start for Soler, hope he keeps it up, and the Castro critics are complete idiots and an embarrassment to the Cubs fan base.
No comments:
Post a Comment