Starlin Castro Shines Bright in Chicago Cubs Debut

For the Cubs, a rookie without a ceiling comes along far too rarely.  After watching Starlin Castro's debut in Cubbie Blue on Friday night, we may have found the next one.

It was only two years ago, in the summer of 2008, that Cubs fans watched Geovany Soto mash to a line of .285, 23, 86.  He went on to win the 2008 Rookie of the Year award before falling off the face of the earth after a marijuana incident at the World Baseball Classic in the Spring of 2009.

Prior to Soto, the Cubs next most recent ROY winner was Kerry Wood, in 1998.  Not so bad, eh?  Two top rookies in a 10-year stretch?  The troubling fact is that those two players join Jerome Walton (1989) as the only three rookie of the year award winners since 1963.

However, while watching the Cubs visit Cincinnati on Friday, the first game after the Cubs got swept in a three-game series against the lowly Pirates, we may have witnessed the dawn of a new era. 

Starlin Castro was called up from the AA Tennessee Smokies on Friday and placed into the starting lineup for the game on Friday, and what he did once he got there was something no one has ever seen before.

Castro walked up to the plate in the top of the second inning.  It was the first time he had stepped up to bat in a live major league game.  Batting in the eight spot with only the pitcher to protect him, Castro became the 105th player (and third this year) to hit a home run in his first at bat of his career.

Castro had already left his mark with the team, but he wasn't done yet.

In Castro's third at-bat, with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, he tripled in Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Soto.  In his first professional game, Starlin Castro had 6 RBI.  He is the first player in Major League Baseball to have 6 or more RBIs in his debut.

The Cubs went on to win the game convincingly, but the win over the divisional rival wasn't on the mind of Cubs fans immediately following the game. It has been a long time since the Cubs have had an everyday Star come through the minors, but perhaps the next one is here.

Congrats Starlin Castro. It took you one game to get the hopes up of Cubs fans everywhere.  You've got the rest of the season to prove Day One wasn't a fluke.