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According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Luis Castillo has 
grounded in to seven double plays in only 25 opportunities, which is the third-worst rate in baseball.
…what’s worse, it feels like so many of castillo’s double plays occur during what could be a big rally…first and second, one out, castillo hits in to a double…over and over again, it seems…
…for what it’s worth, from what i can gather out of people close to the team, Mets GM Omar Minaya wanted to sign David Eckstein, not castillo…
…however, eckstein’s plan was to hold out a) for more money from another team, and b) the opportunity to remain at shortstop…in fact, there are lots of people who believe eckstein had zero intention of playing second base…anywhere…
…meanwhile, castillo had a three-year offer from the Astros, and, for the sake of not waiting around, the Mets gave castillo one more year and ended their search for a second baseman…
…and so now the Mets have a 33–year-old second baseman with bad knees, earning $6 million per season for the next four years…
For what it’s worth, Eckstein is batting .246 in 30 games for the Blue Jays, while starting at shortstop.
Also, in 34 games for the Braves, Ruben Gotay is batting .258 in just 31 at bats.
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Hey…since86.
Here’s one for you.
Third worst rate in the bigs. Jeezus.
I would have loved an Easley/Gotay platoon at 2B, and then make a run at the O-Dog after 2008. So much for that.
Thanks for posting Castillo’s terrible DP rate. I knew he was grounding into lots of DP’s but due to my now heavy drinking I could not remember how many chances he had. it seemed to me like it was every time there was a chance but as I said the Mets have caused me to drink so much that I could not remember. Now I know
Lets be serious if Wright | Beltran | delgado | Alou actually produced would we even mention Castillo’s numbers? His numbers are in no way horrible. (well aside from the double plays..) lets foucs on the real problems with this offense.
i disagree. Luis Castillo is placed into a very important role on this team, and he is failing miserably. Sandwiched between Reyes and Wright and representing strenght up the middle, Castillo is in one of the most important roles on this team. And his ability cannot match that expectation.
Castillo just had a nine game hitting streak. He’s been on base in all but two games in May.
In May: he has 13 runs in 74 at bats. Church has 14 in 79. Wright has 15 in 107. He has as many stolen bases and wright and beltran. He has the most sacrifice hits.
If someone is on base when he’s at bat, he moves them forward constantly —
In 40 at bats with RISP this year, he has 13 hits, a sacrifice, and 11 walks. That’s .325 avg with .a 471 on base percentage. Those aren’t numbers I’d like to give up.
I’m not sure how they figure only 25 double play opportunities. With runners on 1B, 1B+2B, and 1B+3B, he’s had 14, 14, and 5 AB respectively. And that doesn’t count all the times he’s walked.
Castillo had a slow start, but he’s the least of our problems. He wasn’t hired to carry our offense.
My brain is going to melt. I guess things did not break how Omar wanted but I cant watch this guy for 2 more games let alone 3.5 more years! Why, Why, Why! guy has more knee problems than Nancy Karrigan
haha 86 went crazy earlier on me, but i guess castillo isnt as glorious as he thought he was
the guy posts some insightful stuff. That is why I am completely floored at therealsince86’s allegiance to Luis Castillo. It’s mindboggling.
I got into this with him on the earlier Gammons thread. My point is that Castillo has a useless high OBP in the 2 spot b/c this team that should be stretching the diamond with 1st-to-3rd baseball. Castillo commits them to station-to station baseball and rarely scores or creates runs. He doesn’t drive the ball and, in fact his .360 OBP is 40 POINTS higher than his SLUG. That is horrible. THrow in his DP rate, propensity for sacrifing an out, and the fact that he makes the field smaller for the defense….this guy should be no where but the 8 spot. Let alone…he shouldn’t even be in a MEts uniform.
I have yet to get since86’s response to these points about Castillo on that thread or this one. Either he concedes, or he’s just out giving Castillo his mid-afternoon backrub/lap dance. Who knows?
haha and his case was that he has a high OBP with 2 out and RISP, well if thats the case he should be leading the team in rbi. the main point is, if hes not grounding out, his OBP is infield hits or short slaps to the outfield that can only move runners one base
or maybe he is Luis Castillo?!?
The 2 outs with risp stat was in response to someone’s anecdotal observation that all his hits and walks were coming in meaningless situations.
You guys both make good points but I still think Castillio is far from this teams biggest problem.
you have 2 names?!?!?!
now you are forcing me to google all your posts and see how many times metinDC23 follows a therealsince86 comment with a “Right on. I agree”. :)
I’d still rather have somebody with a high OBP than a low one. But Castillo is getting painful to watch–my knees hurt every time he has to run. Hey–doesn’t Willie play a little second base? How about a Rose/Torre-style encore?
or Harold Reynolds. He is on the payroll, after all.
As much as I like Castillo Please 4 year contract……Ugh
He’s right in line with a long list of middle infielders who came here and played like crap - - starting with Roberto Alomar, Carlos Baerga and Tony Fernandez.
Only difference is, Alomar, Baerga, and Tony Fernandez were good before they came here.
Thank you for posting this. Alos, please not that those bad knees are also 9 out of 10 in SB chances.
He might not be great, but he is much better than any other reasonable choice Omar was given.
Thank you….He gave us one less question mark for next year and omar had to do everything he could to keep him(giving him one more year). If omar had options im sure he would have not signed for 4 years or castillo would not have been here.
Also, even though its 4 years, its 4 years at $6M per year. That’s really nothing. If the Mets want to trade Castillo after/during next season they can do so. It would just mean the Mets have to eat about half of the money, small price to pay when it meant securing his good buddy Johan on the Mets.
And for those of you complaining about Castillo, this is what he is. His #s are right where his career avgs are (his batting avg is a little off his career pace, but a couple of 3 for 4s and he’ll be above his career mark, just shows you what a worthless stat avg. is). The guy walks, steals bases, plays good D, sees plenty of pitches and is a capable bunter. I mean what more do you want from a light hitting 2B. Please, stop complaining about his limp, he always limps around like that. Its part of the mind games he plays with the other team.
Enough of mentioning scrubby players like Gotay, Easley, Eckstein, these are all inferior 2B options for the 2008 Mets.
If Wright, Beltran and Delgado hit some more and Alou can stay healthy then there is nothing wrong with this team. Firing Willie will take the growing mental burden off of these players and allow them to relax and play the way they are capable of.
David exkstein id a motivated little scrappy passionate WS MVP who is much better than this gutless stiff
Its gotten so bad that I wish we had signed Eckstein - and he is terrible.
At least he doesn’t seem to phone it in every night.
Without “phoning it in” he has managed even worse BA and significantly worse OBP than Castillo. He sucks even though he runs out…walks.
The only image I have of a Met who threw like a girl is Rusty Staub.
And he was really good.
Let’s not ruin that with Eckstein in a Mets uni. ok?
Did you read the post? “there are lots of people who believe eckstein had zero intention of playing second base…anywhere”
-if that is true, who would you want playing 2B for this team this year?
Kaz Matsui is better than Luis Castillo. By far.
a comment like that needs to have “(sarcasm)” after it so people don’t think you are serious.
please don’t force me into a position to defend Luis Castillo. It’s been a bad enough day as it is.
Yeah, maybe, but the Kaz/Unit HR 1-0 SO a few years back is still memorable.
why hasn’t captain scrappy rubbed off on the Blue Jays?
oh, that is right, because scrappiness is a myth that sounds good on winning teams…
ie Endy Chavez is a scrappy little player (circa 2006)
eckstein also sucks. both eckstein and castillo are wildly overrated because people who don’t understand “numbers” think they are “scrappy.”
i would have been way happier with gotay. ruben was no slick fielder but i would gladly trade that for the ability to hit the ball out of the infield more than once a week. plus if he sucked, he could have been replaced. now we are stuck with castillo for FOUR YEARS.
remember kids, you can’t spell SCRAPPY without CRAPPY.
keep in mind, gotay sucks too
keep in mind, gotay did not require a fricking FOUR YEAR contract that we will be paying long after castillo (and omar) are gone!
like, precisely what about this is hard for people to grasp?
Gotay will be out of baseball while Castillo is still having productive years in NY. This contract isn’t going to handcuff the Mets. It’s 4 years at $6 mil/per. That’s not the end of the world.
Gotay is garbage offensively and defensively.
I would rather have a 33 year old with an established career and 2 WS rings over a bum that had 2 good months in his entire life and is a career .275 hitter in the MINORS.
What is so hard for you to grasp kid?
yep, it is going to handcuff the mets, because they’re not going to go out and sign a competent second baseman while this one is making $6M a year to bunt and bunt and bunt and bunt.
best case scenario is that we dump him at the deadline.
in 2010.
$6 mil is 4% of the team’s salary. Wake up man, it’s not that big of a deal. He can bat 2nd, play solid defense, steal bases, and turn the double play. Gotay can’t do any of that.
yes but dykstraws point is when a young competent second baseman comes onto the market (hudson from arizona i believe but could be wrong) that could help us well into the future, we’d be more hesitant to sign him because we have omar and johans friend at second base
Yes, they did not sign him for the 4th year. And his defense was a big reason for the signing.
However, that said I expected him to be better this year and I guess Omar did to. But we can say that about every position player except Church.
He should bat 9th, but that would be too unconventional for Willie.
I thought we signed Castillo because he was Johan Santana’s best friend with the Twins and they came as a package
am I wrong about that?
my sentiments exactly!
I think you are….
But Santana was supposed to come for $150… he just gave up the difference to castillo.
:)
I always felt (and still feel) that was an overhyped story. Castillo or no Castillo, as long as the Mets acquiesced Johan’s salary demands (and they did), he was coming here, period.
arod wanted a tent, pvt jet rides… blah blah.. all santana wanted was castillo i can live with that..
and the Yankees will continue to live with that curse for another decade.
well maybe the best friends should plan a sleep over, have the team over, make popcorn, watch a bunch of keanu movies and show up the next day and win a baseball game.
i don’t know if you’re wrong about this, but you’re not being realistic.
“well, the wilpons made a very generous offer, but in the end, i am going to stay in minnesota, where i will continue not to play with the little guy who means the world to bm, forest whitaker.”
Exactly.
“I thought we signed Castillo because he was Johan Santana’s best friend with the Twins and they came as a package / am I wrong about that?”
No one really knows except the big boys
I happen to really like Castillo, but he is not a #2 hitter, bat hi eighth and put endy at 2 for the time being…or church when he comes back, or how about Beltran….
Endy should be batting 8th in New Orleans. When was the last time he got a big hit? Or even a small hit?
in mlb2k8 before yesterdays game
The only value Castillo has is to bat 2nd, for the hit and run. Otherwise he’s dead wood. Unfortunately, the Mets would rather have Reyes try and steal 95 bases for PR purposes than have the runners in motion.
Newsflash: A guy with 55 SB’s is as menacing as a runner with 85. Start making Castillo swing early in the count by putting them in motion, we are in the NL after all.
Endy has been absolutly awful. He shouldn’t be playing period.
At least Castillo gets on base at a decent rate.
Definitely would like to see Beltran in the two hole. That’s where he batted b4 coming to the national league. Willie refuses to shake it up. We should try:
Reyes or Reyes
Beltran Beltran
Wright Church
Church Wright
Alou Delgado
Delgado Alou
Schneider Schneider
Castillo Castillo
Pitcher Pitcher
castillo
reyes
beltran
wright
church
alou
delgado
schneider
pitcher
I like either one, I wouldn’t mind seeing Beltran out of the 4 spot for a spell.
it doesn’t matter. god forbid we see a lineup that actually changes things around and makes some sense at the same time.
castillo would be infinitely less annoying hitting 1st or 9th. i daresay he might even do a tolerable job. 2nd or 8th do not optimize his skillset at all.
It would be different if someone was hitting…anyone…I would say “stick with it”, but its like they are flatlining..
Thats what i figured was the reasoning omar did this. He did not have many options at 2b(i know the gotay fanclub will bash me here). I think if we had someone else that could offer a good BA and good Defense, castillo would not be here. He had to give that extra year to keep him here and give us one less hole going into 08. Omar was handcuffed and had to make the move. No one knew he was going to have such a mediocre start. SOMEONE PLEASE TEACH ANDERSON HERNANDEZ HOW TO HIT!!
i liked gotay as much as anyone but his glove is an adventure.
I dont care who is on the team and who is hurt, hitting Castillo in any other spot but 8th is no longer acceptable. Even if he is batting .350 (which will never happen) opposing teams still know that at worst, Castillo will walk or hit a single, AT WORST. This can not be good for the pitches Reyes sees.
There is a great stat for Castrato, he is 0 for 47 when he’s tried to bunt for a base hit since he became a Met.
Love out and out lies.
He was 13 for 22 on bunts last year, half of which were with the Mets. This year he is 2 for 6, so that 0 for 47 while I am sure it “sounded” plausible when you made it up, is beyond far fetched.
Actually it was either Beningo or Roberts who said it last week. But if I misheard or they were wrong I’m happy to concede the point, you don’t have to be a meanie.
Also, are you sure that you’re not talking about infield hits?
Yeah Castillo is a “stiff”. A stiff with two rings I might add.
wow what a slap in the face was the reality of the post ….
no chance they just eat his contract or get stubborn randope to put luis in the 8th spot and keep him there till his contract is up……
bring back Edgardo Alfonzo ! seriously, have him play second instead of castillo.. i hate castillo
does he come in a package deal with Bobby V. and Benny Agbayani? Sign me up…
correct, as “bad” as castillo is, he was better than every option at 2B in the 08 market, however, maybe we could used a year of having no-one at 2nd and made a push in 09 but the fans would just whine about that because 2008 is our year!!!
Also, what are the breakdowns on Luis Castillo when
A. Reyes is on base
B. Reyes is not on base
Just guessing from watching 49 games and knowing baseball but I would think his A. #’s are pretty good
If the offense relies on Castillo, they’re in trouble anyway.
Don’t forget, while the 2006 Mets got off to their torrid start, the second basemen were Anderson Hernandez and Kaz Matsui - who are far worse offensively (and also defensively in Matsui’s case) than Castillo. So it can be done with limited production from one spot in the lineup.
Eventually Jose Valentin had a good year, but the Mets were already 11 games over .500 when he took over the job from Matsui.
when will castillo learn that he can’t bunt for base hits anymore? Also, everytime Reyes gets on 1st with no outs Castillo bunts too early. Reyes is the best f-ing base stealer in the league, let him steal the base and then bunt him to 3rd. Then D-wright sac fly or hit and bam we got a run.
The Braves did this throughout the 90’s and it killed me, but it clearly works.
ENDY BAT 2ND??? LOL LOL
CASTILLO IS WORTHLESS AS ANYTHING BUT A #2, HE IS A GUY WHO MOVES A RUNNER FROM 1ST TO 3RD, AND DELGADO OR SCHENIDER CANT GO FIRST TO 3RD, SO END OF STORY
JUST LIKE SORIANO CAN ONLY HIT LEADOFF FOR SOME REASON, CASTILLO CAN ONLY HIT 2…EITHER HE SHOULD HIT 2 OR NOT AT ALL!!!!!!!
OOPS, DIDNT SEE CAP LOCKS WAS ON AND TOO LAZY TO RETYPE
I agree. I think the castillo in the 8hole experiment is a failure. He needs to bat second because he has the ability to move reyes over. That is his role and it will be until his time here is up.
As I stated above, it’s a shame the Mets donrarely hit and run..
your handle has become ironic!
how often does he actually hit #2? Once in a game for sure.. maybe twice?
any single can move reyes from first to third. Why should we take an auto-out every first inning to do the same.
As the main comment says, he also fails at moving a guy from first to third too often! And causes 2 outs in the process.
Don’t worry Valentin will hit #2 soon, bc he will be our secondbaseman. And willie knows, only secondbasemen can hit second. its magical.
When castillo plays he should bat #8. At least Reyes can drive him in sometimes. If not, then the real #2 (church or beltran) will get a shot.
castillo excels at moving runners from first to the third step of the dugout
bluecapsonly…you are wrong, castillo waits till its 2 strikes before even attempting to do anything every time reyes is on. every time. he wont even swing at a meatball just to give reyes a chance, and reyes has been awful on the basepaths so far.
I don’t think castillo could even hit a meatball out of the infield. His HR last week was actually hit by his stunt double.
The entire Mets offense stinks because of castillo.
Doesnt make much sense does it….
hojo needs to go… good job helping church but everyone else is awful
Eckstein .246/.315/.322
Castillo .259/.361/.322
Eckstein is no better than Castillo, he’s just (a lot) whiter, I mean, “scrappier.”
there’s no reason we can’t admit they both suck.
Oh absolutely. I do think Castillo could play a role on a team where guys actually get on base, and I don’t see a better option at the ready, but yeah, they both suck.
see this i don’t understand. castillo is at his WORST when guys are on base because 1) he cannot drive in runs unless he hits a bleeder and 2) he is very susceptible to double plays because he only hits feeble grounders.
castillo’s BEST attribute is his OBP. literally this is all he can do. he should be hitting in front of reyes, whether hitting leadoff or in the 9-hole.
If his best attribute is OBP, then unless he is hitting into a crap-ton of fielder’s choices, he should be moving the runner in front of him along as he gets on base.
I have no problem with him batting ahead of Reyes or 9 to see how that works out.
of course he hits into a crap-ton of fielder’s choices. he is a weak ground ball hitter.
“moving the runner over” is a HUGELY overrated outcome anyway unless the runner is being moved from third to home, or maybe second to third with less than two outs. at best it is generally the silver lining on the cloud of burning one of your precious 27 outs. it is not a goal.
moving runners over. lol. do we get extra fractions of runs when we strand guys at third instead of second?
Eckstein really blew his free agency. By holding out for a large deal he ended up w/ a 1 year deal for about 4-6 mill less than what he was seeking per season. And now he’s not playing all that well, further diminishing any chance next offseason of getting a deal remotely close to what he wanted last offseason.
Hope he fired his agent.
Castillo isn’t going anywhere… He did have knee surgeries over the summer— but how long can we keep giving that as an excuse? I give him another month— if he doesn’t show something by then we are in trouble. I wonder if the Mets fall out of contention do they eat half of his salary and dump him to a contender.
At the beginning of the season, Carlos Beltran offered that “the Mets are the team to beat” in the NL East. Well, the rest of the division must have been listening, because they have certainly taken him up on that offer! :-(
that’s a funny joke….from a year ago, about Jimmy Rollins, when the Phillies were sucking.
sucks
If the Mets can be dumb enough to take Zambrano for Kazmir there has to be organization that will take Castillo in a trade, Right??
I would love a Brian Roberts rigth now but no way Baltimore takes what the Mets can offer. A Met fan can only wish Phillips gets hired as the GM then maybe we could get Roberts for a dead arm like Heilman and they can take Castillo and his slap hitting double plays…
Phillips was the worst.
Castillo should not bat #2 because he gets fastballs with reyes on and they get turned into double plays.
#2 needs to be someone who can really turn a fastball into a linedrive into the outfield. not the infield…
I am speaking of Church or Beltran here.
reyes
beltran
wright
church
or reyes
church
wright
beltran
If the problem with young guys is that they can’t hit ML curves, why not put Evans #2 until church is back…
reyes
evans
wright
beltran
I’d even rather see delgado hit #2. (though that might take away the steal with the SS at second.
What will happen first??
A.Willie Fired
B.Wright get a 2 out hit with risp
C.Heilman a Mets Sp
D.Delgado has a month hitting 320
E. Reyes admits he is off the crack
chruch4prez, gret poll excpet for C. please everyone give up on that dream…Jorge Sosa was a much more accomplished (AKA BETTER) starting pitcher in the majors than Heilman ever was…do want want Sosa back? NO.
but great poll nonetheless, please replace C. with Mike Pelfrey chews his tongue off while having a rendevous with Spitzers hooker.
The fact that Omar over-reacted when Houston was prepared to offer Castillo a 3 year contract is PROOF that he is a bad GM. I dont understand why youd give a 4th year to a player whose knees have been degrading for years. Its not like the mets didnt have any options at 2nd base. He should have offered Castillo 2 or 3 years at most, and if he didnt take the offer, we could have played Gotay / Easley and even Jose Valentin when he comes back!
Well at least he gave him 3 year money. Seems like he loaded up on years figuring by the 4th year he could eat it. I doubt they thought he’d age this fast.
what do you mean. they tried before they bought.
Ding ding ding
While I disagree with you when you say Omar is a bad GM (he’s made his share of mistakes but he is definitely in the top half of MLB GMs), a Gotay/Easley platoon would have been wonderful. Easley hits against lefties, Gotay would have hit against righties. Simple. Although I blame Willie for the Mets losing Gotay.
So did Gotay (blame willie)
the mets just need a better lineup, i miss lo duca for realz at least he could hit unlike schneider..nd in 06′ u had lo duca batting second then beltran batting 3rd and beltran was a monster batting 3rd…so it should be
Reyes
Castillo or Church or iduno
Beltran
Delgado… yes… im serious
Wright
nd so on seriously….nd bring back Fonzie to play 2nd =]
Anybody who thinks we need that roided up bum back on this team needs to get their head examined..i’ll take schneider everyday of the week over “brooklyn’s own” Loduca
ok just watch schneider … he cant hit, and he has risp nd cant get them home, nd i think he batted .235 last season lol, and imagine lo duca in those situations with risp..atleast he could hit..
Funny we upgrade the D at catcher, and the rest of te team D goes in the schitter.
POSITIVE NOTE
schnieders throws are fun to watch.
LoDuca wouldn’t even be the starting catcher on the nationals.
also, who really thinks he’s 32 years old?
Ok Guys…if ya’ll are so smart..who needs to bat #2 if Castillo can’t do it…
reyes
evans/pagan when he’s back. we have to shake this up somehow.
“33–year-old, rally-killing second baseman with bad knees, earning $6 million per season for the next four years”
don’t forget the bunting…always with the bunting…bunt, bunt, bunt.
i don’t think he’s fast enough to bunt his way on anymore.
it’s going to be a long 4 years.
what do the mets have as far as 2b in the minors? anyone good?
nope! you would think they might try moving someone into the position…
Anderson Hernandez who is a defensive whiz, bat not so good.
.195 in triple A
geeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
and the other choice is argenis reyes who seems no better, but maybe we’d psych out other teams with a reyes-reyes middle infield.
i saw the guy in ST, and I was impressed with what I saw. Good plate discipline, line drives, not a bad glove. Odd that his numbers aren’t what I expected. But still, I would take this guy over Castillo in a heartbeat.
the other Reyes.
Are Eckstein and Gotay signed to 4 year deals?
EXACTLY
We have to get off the 4 year deal thing, its meaningless.
He sucks now, which is the problem. I would not mind seeing him bat leadoff for a while, and reyes 2nd. Also, get Beltran out of the 4 spot. It may wake one/all of them up.
If reyes was getting on base more consistently, you would see castillo taking pitches for reyes to steal, then bunting/moving him to third. I believe it would be less of an issue, but everything is magnified now.
we really shouldn’t be talking about what number spot a guy is hitting in, it’s pretty meaningless. what’s more important is who a guy is hitting between. beltran needs to be in front of a deep threat because he gets on a lot (even while struggling) and can probably score from first on a double. and he should be hitting after a base stealing threat so he will see more fastballs.
so i think he needs to be after reyes or castillo and before wright or church, or between wright and church. and get him away from delgado or alou!
You guys, a career .276/.373/.351 2B may soon be available, and he is only 54 years old, classic Omar move…
This is the least of Minaya’s terrible moves. Has anyone seen the farm system lately? AAA New Orleans reads like a beer league roster
Thats because all of the top tier prospects are usually kept in AA
I can’t kill Omar for that, trading for Santana was a no brainer, but depending on guys like Alou, Pedro, Delgado, and Castillo and having no backup plans is unforgivable
I said this in a thread before, only two of the prospect traded for Santana were brought in by this regime. So that’s not really an excuse for why the farm system is so bad right now, they’ve had 3 years. I would hope they could bring in more than 3 or 4 decent prospects in that time, especially with all his talk about going hard after international free agents. Where are these guys? So far it’s F-mart, Guerra and Tejada was brought in this year.
you know what’s great. when this blog eats your posts. you get to vent and no one sees how bitter you really are. i feel much better.
best to copy your posts before you enter them
then i’d sound irrational and irritated like most else. i’d like to be thought of as rational and constructive.
Scott hatteburg Dfa’d
well no sh1t that double plays happen in potential rally situations. you’re not going to see a DP with man on 1st and 2 outs, duh.
Put SNY on child lock. Worked for me this weekend.
Leading the league in pure number of DPs hit into…
11: Guerrero, J. Castillo
10: Loney, D. Ortiz
9: Schumaker, P. Feliz
8: Escobar, Ordonez, Teixeria, Kotsay, Milledge, D. Lee, I. Rodriguez, Y. Molina, Stewart
There are some pretty good players in that list.
It doesn’t excuse Castillo, obviously.
The problem is most of the players on that list are RBI guys, you can live with their DPs
good point.
I thought we should have signed Soriano when we had the chance - true not a great 2B but what a bat, plus potential help in the OF.
Looking at these numbers, how come Willie doesn’t try Castillo in the leadoff spot and move Reyes to number 2?? It’s worth a shot.
I almost threw up when I read your comment.
castillo’s obp is 362. why not…? not gonna hit into many DP’s with the pitcher batting in front of him
.361*
why? I see no problem with it, he gets on base.
because “conventional wisdom” says that you put your fastest player in the leadoff spot, even if “plate discipline” isn’t in his vocabulary.
and we all know how wise conventional wisdom is, ugh.
I’ve ALWAYS said that, I think that would be a great idea
I would give it a shot.
with an offense struggling this badly, why not try it?
maybe reyes would see more fastballs in the 2-hole because of wright, who knows
or Beltran…
he should.
He’s a good 2B. 4yrs isn’t as bad as everyone wants to think it is.
The problem is, this guy should not be batting second. Let him ground into double plays from the 8 spot.
i think the team should consider moving reyes to #2.
how about for now…
Chavez
Reyes
Wright
Beltran
Delgado
Schn
Evans
Castillo
Since Castillo is so keen on taking pitches, wouldn’t it make sense to have him lead-off?
endy chavez and his career .308 obp should be nowhere near the top of a lineup
If everyone chipped in a bit, would we come up with enough to buy him out?
Who needs Elias to tell you that 64% ground ball rate + hobbling runner = ridiculous double play rate?
Two options for the two-hole:
1) Drop Castillo to 8th and use his .360 OBP to clear the pitcher. Until Church comes back, just move everyone in the order up. At least you might get an extra at-bat out of Wright and Beltran.
2) Swap Castillo and Reyes. Castillo’s OBP is better than Reyes anyway. Use Reyes’s better power numbers to move Castillo along and speed to stay out of the DP’s.
and castillo is not as hobbled as everyone thinks. I would try it, at least until Reyes gets going a bit.
It’s moreso that he “hobbles” than is “hobbled.” He definitely is difficult to watch.
He can still steal a base, he has a few from earlier in the season. And he can definitely go 1st to 3rd. But we don’t see him on base in those situations.
Something should be done, this offense has sucked for quite some time.
The Mets should seriously cut Delgado and plug in the young guys to see what they got. What is Delgado going to do the rest of the year? Maybe hit .250 with 25 homers. That is awful for a 1B.
See what Evans and Carp have. If they look good the Mets won’t have to spend 100+ million on a first baseman. That money could be used for pitching, eating Castillo’s contract, and replacing him.
Castillo’s painful to watch running, but he actually runs pretty fast.
All the other 2B options suck.
Kelly Johnson on the Braves isn’t very good (except against us) and Gotay has barely cracked the lineup there.
Easley can’t really field. Also, he’s not hitting at all right now.
Eckstein sucks. OBP of .315 or so, no power? yuck.
Bat Delgado 2nd. It’s so dumb, it has to work!
Delgado’ll hit if he has someone good behind him. We can hope.
I would bat Beltran 2nd or 3rd. If you don’t want his RBIs in the 2 spot, then bat him 3rd.
I am not sure why Randolph is so set on hitting him 4th, especially since this lineup is certainly not clicking. Yet Reyes 1st, Wright 3rd, and Beltran 4th has been a constant. All 3 of them are off to poor starts, you can’t justify leaving any one of them where they are.
And I like Wright as a 3 hitter - but you have to try something else.
Castillio
Reyes
Beltran
Wright
mix and match the rest
Beltran can score from 1st on a Wright double and Castillio’s high obp would be more valuable in front of Reyes’ line drives (assuming he hits them). Maybe being in front of Beltran will help Reyes and maybe giving Beltran some protection will help him.
I would love to see this.
You can juggle the lineup all you want but in all honesty they do not have enough good hitters.
Fair enough, but their best hitters are not performing to the back of their baseball cards, which is a big part of the problem. I doubt they are all finished south of their 30th birthdays.
Hearing things like this make me like him less and less..ridiculous….I hate to bring up the Valentin thing again but I’d LOVE to see Val come back and play pretty well and eventually take over and play most of 2nd base for the year. And yes, Orlando Hudson in the off-season.
I actually would think a platoon of Valentin and Castillio could do well. Their both switch hitters but Castillio is much better from the right side and Val is much better from the left.
Castillo sucks. He’s one of the better 2Bs in baseball.
Discuss.