Kuzul

The Chicago Cubs have locked up Starlin Castro with a long-term deal and the young shortstop will be calling Wrigley Field home for many years to come.  NBC Sports’ D.J. Short reported that the contract is worth $60 million dollars over seven years and will keep the 22-year-old in a Cubs’ uniform until he is 29 years old. President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein—in his first season with the Cubs—sold off veterans such as Ryan Dempster and Geovany Soto at the trade deadline. It was another season in the seller’s role, as the team has struggled all season and is currently sitting 25 games outside of first place in the NL Central.Epstein did his duties, cutting pay roll and adding prospects. Now, he has focused his attention on securing the most promising young talents on his roster.Castro is batting .278 with a .423 slugging percentage this season. The 22-year-old batted .300 ...

The Chicago Cubs and shortstop Starlin Castro are reportedly thinking about committing to a long-term relationship.CSN Chicago's David Kaplan was the first to report that the Cubs and Castro are negotiating a six- to seven-year contract. That would buy out Castro's four seasons of arbitration eligibility as well as his first three years of free agency.(Castro qualifies as a "Super Two" player, meaning that he's earned a fourth year of arbitration over the usual three. As MLB Trade Rumors explains, a player with two years and 134 days of service time in the major leagues earns such status. This is why you see many teams hold promising prospects in the minors until after June, to limit their major league service time and avoid that fourth year of arbitration.)But is this really the best decision for Castro? The 22-year-old gains the long-term security of a major league salary for multiple seasons regardless ...

In January of this year, the New York Times ran a story that said the Yankees are saving now for a potential free-agency splash next winter. The story highlighted hurlers Matt Cain of the Giants and Cole Hamel of the Phillies as potential targets for the pinstripes. But could the Yankees be loading up the ole piggy bank for the heir apparent to Derek Jeter? Could it be that the Bronx Bombers are eyeballing Starlin Castro, the sweet-swinging shortstop for an annually afflicted Chicago Cubs franchise? At first this question seems preposterous, especially in light of how well Jeter has been playing thus far this season. But looking big picture, a few things have occurred in the past month that points to the potential for Castro to eventually become a Yankee. First, Castro is eligible for arbitration after the 2012 season. While the Cubs have signed Castro ...

Starlin Castro has quickly established himself as one of the best shortstops in the league.He led the National League in hits (207) and at-bats (674), and also popped 10 home runs while collecting 66 RBI. His slash line of .307/.341/.432 was also very impressive.Early in this season, Castro is putting up great numbers.He's played in all 17 games, while driving in eight runs and posting a line of .358/.389/.478.The only knock on Castro is that he's not a very good fielder. He's already made seven errors through 17 games this season, and has made a combined 56 in two seasons prior.Regardless of his defense, his offensive skills are enough to make him one of the top young players in the game today.With the Cubs in rebuilding mode and hoping to compete in the near future, Castro would likely be a key part of the process.That doesn't mean he'll be with ...

The Chicago Cubs poured it on the Reds 6-1 today as their bats finally came alive to end their losing streak at six.Paul Maholm earned his first victory in a Cubs uniform, and the Cubs were finally able to prosper with runners in scoring position.Here is what we learned from this Cubs win. Paul Maholm looked great: Maholm looked masterful all day as he kept Reds hitters off-balanced as they managed only four hits off of the lefty.  What was impressive with Maholm today is he threw fourteen first pitch strikes to the twenty six hitters he faced as he was able to induce seven ground-ball outs.  Maholm will never be a power pitcher, which is evident by his low strikeout total in in this outing with five, but with his change in pitch speed to keep hitters guessing, he can continue to have outings like this more often.  Steve Clevenger should start:   Clevenger is taking ...

What do you do when you have a young talent who has a great hit tool but makes more errors than a weatherman's forecast? And is run prevention as important as run production?Those are some of the questions surrounding the Cubs new field manager and coaches as they work with the Cubs young shortstop, Starlin Castro, who made two more errors on Saturday.It would be easy to say that he needs to move off of shortstop, but that is not only too simplistic of a solution, it may not be a solution at all. Not only would they have to find a position he can play well, but they would be reducing his value since he plays a premium defensive position.He is too inexperienced to be given up on now, for good shortstops are so hard to find. The Cubs need to continue to work with Castro and make absolutely sure ...

Continuing in Dugout Central’s annual pre-season ritual, I am going to present my predictions for the National League Heartland – er – Central Division in 2012. Last year saw an early-season surge by the generally hapless Pittsburgh Pirates, only to see them fall right back in the race where they’ve been for the better part of 20 seasons. July 17 saw Milwaukee Brewers pick-up Zack Greinke out-duel then-Cub Carlos Zambrano 2-0 to put the Brewers up half a game on the St. Louis Cardinals and 1.5 on Pittsburgh. The Brewers didn’t look back, going 41-17 from that game to win their first division title in 29 years. However, the last laugh was had by the Cardinals, who snuck into the wild card spot and defeated the Brewers in the NLCS en route to their NL-best 11th World Championship.   There were some major shake-ups both in the front office and ...

Dear Mr. Ricketts, With yet another baseball season having gone by, and again nothing to show for it, this is my final plea.We as Cubs fans need a change.  For years, we were stuck with the Tribune Company, which looked at the organization as a business. Yes, I agree it is, but it appeared their sole interest in this company was purely monetary. Once you and your family came along in 2009, the stories of your love of the team and desire to push them towards a World Series seemed like a dream come true for Cubs fans.  We understood that you needed to sit back and watch the operations of the organization to see what your large moves would be.Finally, in the middle of this season you let go of General Manager Jim Hendry, and you have set out on the path to finding his replacement. It has been no ...

Last week I wrote about my hope for the 2011 Cubs. For the first time in a long time, I look at the Cubs organization and see reasons to be optimistic about their short and long-term future. Almost immediately after posting that story to Facebook, I got a message from one of my college buddies—and fellow long-suffering Cubs fan—that was, uh, not so optimistic. He stopped short of calling me a total idiot, but did suggest rather strongly that I needed to immediately go outside, turn around three times and spit. It’s not that he thought I was an idiot for being hopeful, just for saying it publicly. This is how most Cubs fans are wired. They are like that girl in high school who had her heart broken one too many times and overreacts at even the smallest male indiscretion. Everyone understands, but no one wants to be the ...

This is sort of like last minute Christmas shopping. Here is one final tip for you before you have your fantasy baseball league draft. Sorry but I can't stop you from picking a bunch of stiffs. What I can do is give you a few ideas as to which "sleepers" might be able to help your team in spite of your other draft picks.There have been a ton of injuries this Spring, so some of these sleepers may get an early start. I have my own draft on Sunday, so I'll be reading this too when I'm done writing it. I've heard the phrase, "maybe you should take your own advice" before, so I just may have to do that.None of these guys are Rumpelstiltskin sleepers, but they will probably go late in your draft and a few maybe not at all. I listed the teams by division starting with ...