Tequila Cowboy wrote:I guess this is mostly for Zip and Cubfan but why are the Cubs refusing to play Javier Baez at second base? Are they so sure that they're going to trade Castro that they don't want to confuse the kid when they think he's their ultimate answer at SS with Arismendy Alcanatara the projected 2nd baseman? I'm confused. I've heard a lot of talk that scouts think Baez could play second right now and there is no doubt that he's ready for major league pitching so what's the deal? Darwin Barney is very trade able if someone's 2nd bagger goes down and you would think they would rather have Baez's bat over Alcantara's if they call someone up in June.
Yeah. Seems strange to me that they're phrasing it like that. They obviously have a plan moving towards the future. I'm okay with saving Baez's call up until June 1st to keep control of him for another year on the arbitration side of things.
I know that Castro regressed last year, but I'll preach patience with him. He'll bounce back if they haven't ruined his confidence about his approach. To me though if they wanted to yield top level starting pitching for Castro in a deal eventually, I wouldn't say that you refuse to Baez anywhere. It seems to take away from the Cubs leverage if another team feels like the Cubs "have" to move him for the next man up.
I'd suggest Starlin move to 3rd, but with the unknown in Mike Olt's production and Kris Bryant being another potential June 1st call-up I think that they're going to be covered at the hot-corner in a major way.
I feel so good about Baez that I'd actually more so be in favor of getting Starlin some reps at 2B eventually. But since that wouldn't occur until June 1st, the only thing I could gather is that they value the current team chemistry over potential deal leverage in the future. And as I think about it more, I can't disagree with that.
Although it's likely not going to yield 80 win results this year, this young depth is a very nice problem to have. And once they figure out who they can trust to make long-term impacts, they can fill the other holes with free-agent signings in the future. Front -end starting pitching is a really necessary and place to start.