PEORIA, Ariz. -- The Cubs insist Starlin Castro needs to start the season at Triple-A Iowa to get the experience necessary to become an everyday player.
But Castro's bat is saying otherwise.
The 19-year-old rookie, who will celebrate his 20th birthday March 24, went 2-for-3 with a home run, three runs scored, and 2 RBI in an 8-7 win over San Diego on Thursday in Peoria.
Castro is now hitting .571 for the spring and looking like he's determined to make the decision-making process difficult for the Cubs. Manager Lou Piniella continues to insist that Ryan Theriot is his shortstop and he's not interested in moving Theriot to second to make room for Castro at short.
Photo: Starlin Castro strokes an RBI double Thursday against the Padres. (Christen Petersen/Getty)
But when Castro smacked a first-pitch home run to left in the fifth inning, Piniella looked at bench coach Alan Trammell with a wild-eyed grin on his face.
Piniella also was excited about the pitching of Carlos Silva, who turned in three scoreless innings, allowing four hits with one walk. A leaping catch in center by Sammy Fuld in the third helped Silva's cause, but he looked noticeably different from his Cubs debut, when he served up a pair of bombs to White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin.
Esmailin Caridad survived a shaky ninth, allowing three unearned runs due to a Mike Fontenot error, before getting a game-ending pop-up.
Caridad then punched his fist in the air and spit into his glove.
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So Castro's hitting .571 while Sorryano is at, like, .100? There is a $9,800,000 difference there...
Does anyone know if Castro is getting his hits off of legit major league pitchers, or if he's getting them off of non-roster invitees and career minor leaguers?? I hope this guy's the real deal, but I've heard this whole song and dance before with Patterson and Pie, so I don't wanna get my hopes up with this kid!!
Did anyone else notice on the highlights of todays game that Sam Fuld was rocking the Cubs spring training jersey, but instead of the walking bear, it was the old school mean pissed off bear head from the days of Hawk and Ryno? Please tell me someone else saw it, I'm not drunk I swear! Go Cubbies!
If we replaced theriot and fontenot with castro and barney and even Fukudome with Colvin would anybody even notice and be any drop off at all?
Hey loulou, Pinella is the one who gave Theriot a shot at short, who put Soto behind the plate, who put Marmol in the eighth and ninth innings, who gave all the young pitchers in the bullpen a shot, who has Fuld competing for a backup spot... he's done all this and yet you claim he has no interest in keeping youngsters around. Get a clue, man. Castro will be in Iowa for two weeks so the Cubs can keep him from free agency for an extra year and then he'll be up and in place for the next decade. Think things through before you go ranting on about your idiotic, preconceived notions.
The Cubs could not afford to keep Harden anyway. He would hve made 10M in arbitration. That would have strapped the Cubs beyond their budget. Paying 10M for a pitcher who can't go 150 innings and is a significant injury risk...for a team with a bloated payroll would have been a bad idea. I don't support everything Hendry does, but letting Harden walk was a no-brainer.
Loulou- you do realize it's been reported that Harden's velocity is way down, and is already favoring his shoulder? He's going to get knocked around like a red-headed step-daughter in Arlington.
As I stated before no matter what Castro does LOU wont keep him up ..Lou loves his Vets.. Hes like Lovie saying Rex is my Qb.. They dont have any reasoning power in their peanut brain. Giive up Harden for nothing when they know LILLY was hurt.. So sick is this GM and manager
As I stated before no matter what Castro does LOU wont keep him up ..Lou loves his Vets.. Hes like Lovie saying Rex is my Qb.. They dont have any reasoning power in their peanut brain. Giive up Harden for nothing when they know LILLY was hurt.. So sick is this GM and manager