Agony and Ivy

Oh god...Castro looked behind him here comes the JD criticisms...

Cardinals fans: THE BEST IN BASEBALL

The good thing is Shelby Miller is a terrible pitcher and she'll leave more that a few over the plate.

Why did I think his fat ass was sitting in NYC doing replay reviews?

The Cardinal Way bro.

what the devil I've always had an irrational dislike for him. Impossible to explain... Well done.

Bruce Rauner's wife looks like a horse.

At least we don't have to see Kap and Haugh commercials.

[expletive] Bad Jake, be the good Jake!

That should be enough for vaunted ace Dylan Axelrod.

It's hard to walk Billy Hamilton and I swear he's got a 20% BB rate against the Cubs.

I hope it doesn't bug them. All I know is that it annoys the piss out of me. I don't think being some kind of playoff hero would end this unless he won them the WS in walkoff fashion and then immediately retired. I think you underestimate what a playoff appearance will do for everyone on this team. Again, it doesn't matter what pundits and dumbass reporters or message board posters say because it's not going to make Starlin a less valuable player and the Cubs front office isn't stupid enough to trade a guy because sometimes he has mental lapses when he hits .280 with 15 HRs at premium position. It can annoy you to all get out, but you can't change the narrative or if someone really is a racist piece of [expletive]. The play tonight pissed me off for about 15 minutes, then I realized it was a super emotional reaction to a single play in a game that doesn't matter on a play that was inconsequential in the outcome of that meaningless game. Yes it sucks that Starlin has mental lapses and gets crucified for them when other players don't, and a lot of that is bad luck and bad timing and possibly some sort of racism, but he's a damn good baseball player and I am going to enjoy watching him be part of some successful Cubs teams.

Dude, I have to admit, I completely forgot about that and you're probably right. I am a Buffalo Bills fan too, and I know when Marcel Dareus' brother was killed it took him half the season to look right on the field. It's very easy to forget these guys are human.

Soler's single was not one that I would consider a "seeing eye" grounder. A grounder between SS and 3rd that narrowly missed each is pretty much the definition of a seeing eye grounder. Honestly he smoked it which makes it even less likely that Castro scores.

Like people are saying, it's not that he doesn't make mistakes, but it's that the few times he makes genuine big mistakes, like the incident above, blows up into EVERY mistake being a big deal regardless of how common or harmless it is. Take Kaplan and Hollandsworth right now; I'm pissed that Starlin watched his hit, but that happens. It's not unique to him, a ton of players do it and it's not going to go away. Benching him isn't going to stop it, yet these two are ranting like it's some kind of crippling issue that's going to infect the other players and "someone needs to act." It's an absurd overreaction to something frustrating but ultimately not a serious issue. He shouldn't have to do something Herculean like carrying the Cubs to the playoffs or beyond to simply be evaluated like most other players are. I honestly don't think Starlin or a single player in that clubhouse gives a flying [expletive] what these guys say. I don't think he's a mentally weak baseball player at all, and by tomorrow I will forget what happened tonight because in the end Rosscup gave up a 10000 foot homer and Starlin doesn't score on the Soler single anyway. On top of that, this team isn't going anywhere this year so it doesn't matter to me. What i was saying is that if he wants (and again he doesn't give a [expletive] about the "narrative" so none of this matters to him or his teammates) he will have to do something like come up big in the playoffs on a big stage. Again, the people that really think these plays are somehow "contagious" are the same people that think runs come from RBI and TWTW, but in the moment that was an incredibly frustrating play, because it's not like Starlin has 300 career homers to look back on and say "I thought I got it all."

Ya I don't think he gets sent there either...

He's not a power hitter. I wasn't comparing him to other shortstops, because he's a terrific offensive shortstop, so maybe that was bad phrasing? Either way you don't stand there and admire a ball to the deepest part of the field when you're a 15 homer guy. It has nothing to do with earning it or anything like that, you just have to know you're not a 420 foot homer guy so there is no way that's a no doubter.

He doesn't. Jaxon has nothing but flat movement on all of his pitches. I was encouraged by Turner, but even if he does, who cares? He cost nothing.

That doesn't make it not racist. The narrative can be racist on some level locally because I believe if it had been Rizzo you wouldn't read about it tomorrow but JD would've still gotten on him. However, Castro has had too many instances where his mental lapses have cost his team and lost games. And guess what? That's not because he is brown, that's because he doesn't keep his head in the game at all times. Other players have issues with that too, but it doesn't seem to show up in situations that directly cost teams ballgames. He has earned the reputation and it's easy to keep it when it happens on a regular basis. I still think he's a stud and I love his game, but those little plays right there need to go away and that has nothing to do with skin color. How many games has it cost them again? And why don't Rizzo's defensive and baserunning lapses count as much? (And yes, I know you pointed out that he wouldn't get the same crap) It's sadly a narrative that will dog Castro for the rest of his career. Even if he never did something like staring at his hit tonight again he'd still get too much [expletive] thrown at him for minor mistakes every player makes. That's where the imbalance comes in. That's what makes the narrative racist or at least racially motivated on a local level. Bobby Valentine didn't jump on Starlin because he's brown during that ESPN game he jumped on him because he had his back to the pitcher. Since that one night its become a thing during every Cubs game ever, and he probably will never get away from it, until he does something on a national stage again, like carry a team in the playoffs. Let me correct myself, saying he has cost the team whole ballgames isn't fair, but he has absolutely cost his teams runs with his lapses and one would be that stupid ass Cardinals game on Fox last year. Of course, that and what happened tonight doesn't make it a pattern, and I have watched just about every inning of every Cubs game since he came up to the big leagues and you know as well as I do that he does have lapses mentally even if I can't point to more than a handful of specific instances. And yes other players make mental errors but again he has the rep because he has made his mistakes at poor times and it will take something major to change the minds of most Cubs fans. And the incident tonight is inexcusable, I don't care who you are, but if you're a light hitting shortstop you don't sit there and admire balls you hit to center field. I might be wrong but I believe one of my first few posts on this board was criticizing Rizzo for not covering first on a dropped third strike which is about as basic as it gets for a first baseman and how it wouldn't be an issue the next day and I am pretty sure it cost the team 2 runs. So, I would say I am consistent.

That doesn't make it not racist. Fine. Think of it this way. Every gaffe-prone hispanic player in Chicago is going to get the rep, but a guy like Rizzo (who is a tootblan machine) or Coghlan (who is brutal defensively and has been caught admiring this year too) goes under the radar. That's why the rep is both deserved and created by racism. Ugh, this one cost them a tie game. This is exactly what I was trying to say only more succinct.

That doesn't make it not racist. The narrative can be racist on some level locally because I believe if it had been Rizzo you wouldn't read about it tomorrow but JD would've still gotten on him. However, Castro has had too many instances where his mental lapses have cost his team and lost games. And guess what? That's not because he is brown, that's because he doesn't keep his head in the game at all times. Other players have issues with that too, but it doesn't seem to show up in situations that directly cost teams ballgames. He has earned the reputation and it's easy to keep it when it happens on a regular basis. I still think he's a stud and I love his game, but those little plays right there need to go away and that has nothing to do with skin color.

Anti-Starlin Meatballism was born of ESPN getting him the one time when he was 21 or 22, but that right there is absolutely inexcusable. It's not about "playing the game the right way" or anything like that, it's about costing your team in a big way. God that play annoyed me.

Castro deserves every bit of criticism he's about to get.

i want to destroy my tv when i see kaplan's smarmy ass face He sucks so much I despise his Michael Irvin suits and hot sports takes.