Quality is coming up short.

PositionSPORTS

Byline: Josh Bousquet

COLUMN: FANTASY SPORTS

One of the big spring training questions in these parts is who will play shortstop for the Red Sox this season.

This came about after Boston traded away two players - Marco Scutaro to Colorado and Jed Lowrie to Houston - who saw most of the time there last season. Apparently, neither did enough to necessitate the team keeping them. The Red Sox evidently expect so little from the position that they are willing to go into the season with, er, someone manning the spot.

And the position's talent pool is so shallow that those two players Boston didn't see any need to keep are now slated as starters for their new teams.

Welcome to the shortstop position.

Things are so bad that the clear top guy ended last season with injury issues. The Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki put together a great 2011 season by batting .302, hitting 30 homers, driving in 105 runs and even stealing nine bases. He was, however, limited in September with bursitis in his left hip.

There are no indicators that Tulowitzki won't start this season completely healthy, but it says something about the position when someone can do essentially nothing over the season's final three weeks and still outshine everyone else.

As if the position wasn't already supermodel thin, we could lose some starters to new positions. Scutaro is set to play second base instead of usurping Tulowitzki's spot, and the Marlins are so shortstop-greedy that they decided Hanley Ramirez wasn't enough and plucked Jose Reyes off the free agent market.

Ramirez is the second-ranked shortstop on most lists, while coming off a shoulder injury and moving to third base. Reyes is third, but the speedster hasn't eclipsed more than 50 steals in three seasons after topping that number in four straight seasons.

Even with the question marks of this top trio, they clearly stand out above the rest of the position. From there down, it's largely a game of chance.

The Cubs' Starlin Castro had a tumultuous offseason while facing a sexual assault charge, something sensational enough to hide his emerging stats that say he could be ready to join the position's elite. Only 22 years old, Castro already has had two .300 seasons in the majors. Last season, he also had significant increases in his home run (3-10), RBI (41-66) and stolen base (10-22) totals.

If Castro can keep the personal issues at bay, he is young enough to have years of natural maturation and improvement ahead of him.

The Rangers'...

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