Detroit Tigers: Nick Castellanos may be the next Matthew Stafford
By Matt Pelc
Detroit Tigers’ Nick Castellanos and Detroit Lions’ Matthew Stafford share more than a number, they both may be under appreciated by the home fans.
Lately, The Detroit Tigers have decided to ruin our summer before it even begins with a dysfunctional on-field product led by a lame duck manager in Brad Ausmus, seemingly just waiting (and probably hoping) for the axe to fall.
With all the negative stories that have played into the Tigers’ season six weeks in, there has been really only one positive: the rise of Nick Castellanos. While many of us, like yours truly, expected Nick to take the next step, it’s hard to imagine even the most avid Castellanos fan envisioning what has happened in 2016.
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All Casty has done in 108 at-bats heading into Tuesday night’s game in Washington is lead the American League with a .380 batting average, 30 points higher than the second-best hitter in the junior circuit, the Orioles’ Manny Machado. He also possesses an insane OPS of 1.017, 13 extra base hits (6 homers) and leads the team with 26 RBIs (next closest is Victor Martinez with 18).
For the advanced metrics crowd, check out this Fangraphs chart of Nick’s BABIP which sits in the stratosphere of .455, compared to .322 a year ago and .326 in his rookie year of 2014.
Even his defense has been better. The potential for Castellanos has always been with his bat, not his defense, and while statistically he’s still not viewed very well, he seems to have improved his range a bit this year and is approaching average levels in the field.
Still, there seems to be some hesitation to fully embrace Nick from a certain segment of Tigers’ fans. These are probably the fans that haven’t liked Castellanos from the start, perhaps wanting him to be something he wasn’t after being held up as the top Tigers’ prospect for many years.
It is almost like because the Tigers never seem to possess a breakout young star in the vein of Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, or Kris Bryant, that it is held against Castellanos for going through the usual young player struggles before finding himself in his mid-20s.
Related Story: Time to Have Faith in Castellanos
In fairness, some of these fans have been won over, but there is still a certain segment that will be quiet until his inevitable fall. He’s not going to finish the year with a batting average as high as it sits today, but that’s not to say over .300 is out of the realm of possibility.
Once he goes 0-for-4 in two consecutive games, the doubters will begin with the “told yas” and the “real Castellanos” cries.
It is fitting that Castellanos wears #9 on his back, because the man who wears that same number across the street from Comerica Park is treated similarly by Detroit sports fans. Yes, the number 9 on the Detroit Lions is none other than Matthew Stafford, the love-em or hate-em quarterback of our much-maligned hometown pigskin franchise.
Stafford is not going to be an all-time great at his position, nor will he likely surpass Bobby Layne as the all-time franchise quarterback (unless he captures a Super Bowl–yes I giggled when I wrote that too), just like Castellanos will never surpass George Kell as all-time Tigers’ third-sacker.
The Tigers’ hot corner and the Lions’ quarterback position have historically been revolving black holes of ineptitude since the aforementioned Kell and Layne manned their respective positions in the 1950’s. In other words, and this may send shivers down the spines of the haters, Stafford is THE best Lions’ quarterback since 1957, and Nick Castellanos is one of the best Tigers’ third basemen since Kell (arguably throwing Travis Fryman and Aurelio Rodriguez in the mix).
Admittedly, Stafford has experienced an up and down career, and can be remarkably different game-to-game, but for many Lions’ fans, his mistakes are magnified and his accomplishments are scoffed because he was throwing to Calvin Johnson, or he was lucky, or this, or that.
Whether fans like it or not, Stafford is the Lions quarterback next season, and likely the season after that (which would be the final year of his current contract). If he was cut or put on the trading block, teams would line up for him. If Castellanos, often considered trade bait, was also put up for bidding with his current statistics and youth, he’d likely receive just as many inquires.
Certainly sports fans largely skew to the negative, and vent their dissatisfaction on Twitter, comments sections of the local newspaper websites, or sports talk radio. This is a recipe for disaster for players who don’t initially gain immediate favor with their home fans.
This means that Castellanos will probably never receive the due he is deserved for his torrid start, nor Stafford will be given the proper amount of praise when he does something good. Instead it will mostly be “why didn’t he do that last time?”