Welcome Jason Bartlett

• Juan Castro's 2006 fielding percentage is .968, good for 21st among the 27 major league shortstops with 50 or more games under their belts. You probably didn't know that when you said he had one of the best percentages in the league. Not sure what you're basing your glowing opinion of Castro on, but I assume it's his once-deserved, now-ridiculous reputation for being a superb defenseman. Anyone who's actually seen him play this year and witnessed his hugely diminshed range can tell you that Juan Castro in 2006 barely resembles Juan Castro three years ago. Want more proof? He tied his career-high error total as a shortstop this year (7) in 50 short games. He and Tony Batista were largely responsible for the Twins' major-league-worst Defensive Efficiency rating (.667), a stat that measures the number of balls put into play that turn into outs. And if you want to get real technical, look at his VORP--a stat that measures his overall value (defensive and offensive, since that's what I originally was talking about anyway) as compared to a readily available replacement-level player (in other words, a negative VORP score means you have no business playing in the majors, much less as an everyday player). Castro's 2006 VORP is -6.9, with only 18 of the 758 current major leaguers having a worse score (in case you're wondering, Rondell White is dead last at -22.2). And that thing about shortstops not being very good hitters? Yeah, I already wrote that. In the post. That you commented on. But you're right. What do I know?

• Juan Castro as one of the worst all-around players in the MLB?? You obviously don't know much, if anything, about baseball. He's not a good hitter, no one will dispute that fact, but his fielding is fantastic, he has one of the best fielding percentages of any shortstop in the game. Shortstops are usually not good hitters, Derek Jeter and Miguel Tejada are the exceptions. Having Bartlett back at short is the right move but those of us who know baseball were a tad sad to see Castro go.

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