Castro Needs PA’s

Starlin Castro returned to the lineup last night. Barring
injury, you can expect to see Castro in the lineup every game from here on out.

Right now Castro is hitting .309, that would put him at
sixth in the National League but he currently doesn’t have enough plate
appearances to qualify for the batting title. It takes 502 PA to qualify,
Castro has 441 right now. With 15 games remaining, Starlin needs 61 more PA’s,
basically 4 per game which should not be a problem batting in the two-hole.

Just to put Castro’s season in perspective. If he were to
finish the season at his current .309, that would be the fourth highest batting
average for any first year player qualifying for the batting title since the
divisional era began. The only averages higher were Ichiro (.350) in 2001,
Pujols (.329) in 2001 and Chris Coghlan (.321) last year.

On the down side, Castro committed his 26^th error
last night. The kid has a great arm and can catch the ball, it’s just seems that
sometimes he is too casual with his play and that leads to “unforced errors”.

On the whole, Starlin Castro has had a wonderful rookie
season and should be a mainstay in the Cubs lineup for years to come.

The “I didn’t know that” stat-  The highest batting average for a first year
player that qualified for the batting title was .373 by George Watkins in 1930.
Watkins played seven years in the majors with four different teams. Watkins
only topped .300 one more time in his career and finished with a lifetime .288
avg.