Castro is building block for Cubs

Every time Starlin Castro makes a mental mistake, it seems to become an instant referendum on his future, like he should be traded tomorrow.

There?s also the runaway hype. Even Hall of Famer Ernie Banks had this reaction when Castro was named to the All-Star team last summer: ?He?s better than me.?

Let?s settle at the midpoint: Castro won?t be ?Mr. Cub? ? or an ex-Cub ? anytime soon.

On Friday, Bobby Valentine will be exactly where Cubs people thought he wanted to be when he blasted Castro on television last season from the ESPN broadcast booth ? in the Wrigley Field dugout.

Except Valentine will be managing the Boston Red Sox.

That ?Bobby V? moment came up when Cubs executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer interviewed Dale Sveum last fall: As a manager, how do you keep your shortstop?s head in the game?

As Epstein begins dismantling this team and bringing in his own players, while Cubs ownership tries to copy the Red Sox model, the thing to do is wondering whether Castro can be a player to build around, when the answer is obvious.

Remember that the 22-year-old shortstop is younger than top prospects Anthony Rizzo and Brett Jackson and appears to be on his way to his third .300 season in the big leagues.

?Youth sometimes holds this back,? Sveum said, ?but it?s just a matter of making him understand that he?s got to make people around him better all the time. You only do that one way ? by work ethic, trying to be a leader on a consistent basis on the field.?

When Epstein fired hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo this week, citing a new message of selective aggressiveness and more plate discipline, the natural follow-up question involved how Castro would fit into ?The Cubs Way.?

?We?re not trying to cookie cutter our hitters,? Epstein said. ?Usually, hitters are sort of naturally patient or naturally aggressive and it?s hard to necessarily change that, especially at the big-league level. I think most of that is hard wiring. That?s just an innate quality that you?re born with or develop.

?(It) may be more (telling) in Little League the type of hitter you?re going to be than (what) you do in the big leagues. But we spend an awful lot of time trying to make some progress on that front and try to teach the right approach in the minor leagues and that doesn?t stop in the big leagues.?

Castro has walked only six times this season, posting a .308 on-base percentage that?s nowhere near what the front office expects it to be in the future.

?Starlin is an aggressive hitter,? Epstein said. ?You tend to see hitters develop some patience naturally as they get more experience at the big-league level. So he?s a very accomplished hitter, but he?s still relatively inexperienced. There?s a good chance that you?re going to see his on-base totals continue to increase as he works toward his prime.

?Most players his age are in Double-A trying to figure out how to get on base against Double-A pitching, and he?s doing it in the big leagues. He?s always going to be an aggressive hitter, but I think as he develops more power, and I think that will happen, pitchers will be more careful with him and then he?ll adjust back and be a little more patient.?

Sveum appeared to be running out of patience when Castro forgot how many outs there were on June 4 in San Francisco. But the manager didn?t bench his best player.

?It?s the nature of playing nine innings for 162 games,? Sveum said. ?There?s going to be some mental breakdowns with everybody.

?We magnify a lot of things that other veterans do throughout the league, too. Just watch ?SportsCenter? and you see a lot of veterans sometimes do a lot worse things than Castro?s done.?

There are really only two ways to view this Cubs season, from an altitude of 10,000 feet or under the microscope.

Take a moment from last Sunday at Target Field. Castro watched a groundball bounce off his glove. Instead of giving up on the play, he pounced on the ball in the outfield grass.

The throw wasn?t a straight rocket ? Castro looked more like Joe Montana rolling right ? but it dropped right into catcher Koyie Hill?s glove and nailed Minnesota?s Trevor Plouffe at home plate.

Pitcher Ryan Dempster watched the play unfold.

?As soon as the ball got away from him, he hustled right after it,? Dempster said. ?He made a really unbelievable throw if you look at it, from his back foot, throwing a strike to home plate. That?s the kind of ability he has, and I think that?s why people harp on him so much about his attention out there on the field, because his ability to not only do it at the plate, (but) out in the field as well.

?He has a chance to be a really, really special player.?

There?s no doubt Epstein understands how rare it is to have an elite shortstop. After trading Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs in a four-team deal on July 31, 2004, the Red Sox won their forever World Series with Orlando Cabrera.

Between 2005 and 2012, the Red Sox used six different shortstops on Opening Day ? Edgar Renteria, Alex Gonzalez, Julio Lugo, Jed Lowrie, Marco Scutaro, Mike Aviles ? and traded away Hanley Ramirez in the Josh Beckett-Mike Lowell deal.

You shouldn?t discount the mental toughness it took to get here this fast. With Epstein and Valentine watching, know that Castro plans to keep coming back stronger.

?Exactly, that?s what I do,? Castro said. ?Right now, if something happens, I don?t get frustrated in my head. ? If you?re thinking about it too much, maybe the next play you?re supposed to make (you) make an error. So I keep my head up.?

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