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Q: Is there reason to think that Jose Castillo's performance in winter ball and the Caribbean World Series is a sign that he will fulfill his potential?

Rob Miller of Glenshaw

KOVACEVIC: It certainly cannot hurt, Rob.

Castillo batted .308 in the Venezuelan League and, maybe more important, showed uncharacteristic patience by drawing 26 walks against 21 strikeouts in 172 official at-bats. That made for a .389 on-base percentage.

And he has been quite good so far in the Caribbean World Series, going 7 for 17 in the first three games with five doubles and one strikeout.

Any baseball talent evaluator will caution against reading too much into winter statistics, good or bad, and the same undoubtedly applies to Castillo. Still, the patience he showed can only be a positive, and the same surely can be said of the commitment he showed to spend virtually his entire offseason playing baseball. Remember: Winter ball is purely voluntary. Even when the team urges a player to go, there is nothing it can do to enforce it.

Q: Dejan, I'm wondering if we should read something significant into the fact that Jose Castillo is playing right field in the Caribbean World Series. Do you have any indication that Jose is doing so at his request, or is there just a better second baseman on the Venezuelan team?

Brian Young of Saltsburg

KOVACEVIC: I do not know of Castillo's wishes, but I do know that, unlike the Arizona Fall League, a player's Major League Baseball employer has no control over where their players are placed in the field. They can offer suggestions that they hope are fulfilled, such as when they asked Ryan Doumit's team in Mexico to try him at first base and right field, but nothing ties those teams to anything.

By and large, the people running those teams take their baseball pretty seriously, which is why they often show brash impatience in sending some MLB prospects home very quickly after a poor start. That happened with Brad Eldred in the Dominican.

Until tomorrow ...