"That was probably as good as he swung the bat all year long in a 10-day, two-week period," Sveum said. "He actually hit into some bad luck, too. I thought he had one or two more home runs if the wind wasn't blowing in. Lined a couple balls in some big situations right at people. He's not the prototypical on-base guy or anything like that, but right now, if we get him going in a spot that he's obviously flourished in before, it's a way to maybe get him going," Sveum said. "Like I've said before, nobody has a crystal ball for why people hit better in certain spots. Realistically, you just have an at-bat, it doesn't matter. But some people do hit better in different spots. That's the way it is."Here's a dose of reality. Castro moved into the leadoff spot on August 21 and has played 18 consecutive games in that position in the batting order. He is 18 for 78 with 5 walks. That's a .230 average and an OBP around .277. Before moving to the leadoff spot, Castro was hitting .240 with an OBP of .275. For the season, Castro is batting .239 with an OBP of .278. Castro has 25 walks and 115 strikeouts to date in 2013.
Perhaps I am missing something, but by my reckoning, Castro is actually doing worse as a leadoff hitter or at best pretty much the same. If the idea here is to stop trying to teach Castro how to bat at a major league level and just let him swing at everything in the hopes he will straighten out, then, OK, I get that even though in terms of developing his talent, it makes no sense. But lets stop kidding people. Right now Castro is a mediocre player who is prone to make errors on routine plays in the field and who is pretty much an automatic out.
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