Castillo sees action at third

Here's an interesting mid-day update. Dejan tells us that in the first full team workout today, Jose Castillo took some grounders at third base. Jim Tracy tells us not to read too much into it, but that's pretty much impossible. I mean, all I really do is read way too far into seemingly inconsequential things.

This could mean a couple of things. First off, it could mean that Jim Tracy is done yanking Freddy Sanchez's chain around and will let Freddy settle into second this spring since, a.) it's his more natural position, b.) he's a more valuable player to the team than Castillo or Bautista, and c.) his history with Jack Wilson. I don't think it's a huge deal to Freddy where he plays and I doubt it will affect him much at all, but it's always nice to know where you're going to be. It's also entirely possible that Tracy thinks third base is a more natural position for Castillo. He's a pretty big guy and he's got a laser of an arm; he might actually be better suited to the hot corner than covering the range second base requires. At the risk of being ridiculed for my senseless love for Ryan Vogelsong (click the link and you'll see), I did write back at the end of August of 2005 that we should flip Jose and Freddy and I do still think it's not an awful idea. And the final possibility is that Jim Tracy is being truthful and we shouldn't read into this at all. Naaaaaaahhh.