Jason Grey's Insider-only take on Jason Castro and Chris Johnson has a very interesting note about why, despite being a pretty big guy, Castro hasn't done much slugging:
I've written before about the issues many longtime scouts have with the hitting philosophy at Stanford, which preaches a flat, contact-oriented swing. Those scouts feel that approach doesn't help players hit with authority at the next level, and they would certainly point to Castro as an example. Castro has a short swing, but his bat speed is just average, and it doesn't help that his best power is to straightaway center. He could be good for 15 homers a year eventually, but that's likely well down the road. He also must show he's not going to wear down as the season progresses, which was what happened last year.
It's a very in-depth, very well-written article on both Castro and Johnson.
I haven't heard of Stanford products having trouble translating to the Majors. So let's look.
*Since 2000, 70 players have been drafted out of Stanford.
*Of these 70, 42 have been position players.
*Only one of these players - of course until tomorrow night - drafted since 2006 has made it to a major-league roster: RHP Drew Storen. So if we look at the period between 2000-2006, we're talking about 27 position players drafted by Major League teams. 13 of them have made it to the Majors.
*The position player with the highest WAR is Carlos Quentin (5.5 WAR), drafted in 2003. But of the other 12, four of them have a career WAR above 0.0 (Ryan Garko: 2.1; Sam Fuld: 0.6; Chris Carter: 0.1; Jed Lowrie: 1.5
*This is but a quick look, and it's entirely possible that I did a count including guys drafted twice. So take this for what it's worth (meaning, "probably not much.")
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
