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Yesterday, Jerry Manuel chose to start Argenis Reyes at second base, instead of Luis Castillo, who was signed to a four-year contract this past off-season.
Manuel, on why Reyes over Castillo, while speaking to reporters prior to yesterday’s game:
“We’ve had some success with him in the lineup and he brings a feeling that I like for where we are now…He brings a little energy, and when he played, we won – and we need to win. So, I gotta see if that combination
works. It’s nothing against Luis. I need to find some things that are working for us right now.”
Reyes and Jose Reyes seems to work very well together on the infield. Last night, they combined for two quick, slick-looking double plays, which helped keep the game close. Plus, while Reyes is batting just .190 in his last 60 at bats, Castillo is hitting .189 since returning from the DL – so, as I wrote yesterday, I’d just as soon see the younger, healthier, better defensive option at that point anyway.
“There’s nothing to say,” Castillo told Newsday in response to being benched. “I’m here to help the team, but this is the first time in my life it’s been like that.”
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Castillo was signed to a 4-year contract this offseason? Really? I hadn’t heard that before.
Speaking of bringing energy:
Pedro may be finished. He may be a shell of his former self. But he is still the leader of this team. I think he needs to say something to this group. Everyone knows it now — something is going on. Last year has crept back in their minds. All year long Jerry got this team off the mat after a tough loss. And now they fail to do that in back-to-back nights?
Pedro is known for loosening the team by walking around naked or being silly at serious times, but he can also explain what the clubhouse was like in 2003 after Game 3 — that the curse of Bambino was brought up by the media, that they were playing poorly at the wrong time, etc etc, and then pull his pants down and say that it never got to him, and prance around naked singing “we will win tonight”.
Here is my proof:
www[dot]nypost[dot]com/seven/03272008/sports/mets/pedros_going_to_speak_up_103684.htm
If I were a player, I wouldn’t listen to the guy who lets up 5 runs every time he pitches.
no more meetings…no more talk..no more rookie hazing…just go out and play well and beat the lowly Nationals.
They have meetings and talk all year. You want them to suddenly change that and not feel pressure?
Pedro has done zero for this team for 2 and 1/2 years except take about $30 mil. If he is who we are waiting for to show motivation with his 83 mph fastball, let’s stop watching now.
If Michael Jordan walked into the Washington Wizards locker room next year to talk about his time with the Bulls in a crisis, they would all listen. Pedro may be done as a player but he is still a legend, and still has something to say — and in May he said he would say something at this very moment.
Pedro pitched well enough to beat John friggin Lannan on Monday.
Actually, if Michael Jordan walked into the Wizards locker room, they would most likely all roll their eyes and turn up their ipods, as they did when he played for them. Jordan was far past his prime then (although MUCH better than Pedro), and the Wiz youngsters really didn’t respond all that well to him. They finished 5th when he was there and missed the playoffs, and 2 years later they finished 2nd and have finished 2nd every year since he re-retired and made the playoffs the last 4 years.
And Pedro did NOT pitch well on Monday. 6 IP, 4 ER, 4 BB to a rotten team–in a big game. And he could not get Anderson Hernandez out in the game’s biggest spot.
Let’s get real guys.
When Dan Murphy is not playing, Argenis Reyes should be batting in the 2 hole… That way we can get Church down in the order where he should be…
Why not have him bat cleanup? Then his Timothy Lupus-like stats could REALLY drive us to the top.
He has one extra base hit in 103 PA, and his numbers are .232/.269 /.263. Do you understand how bad that is?
You want to move up Argenis because he will hit better than Church?
Can anyone imagine what players must think if they read this site?
No I’d rather have him move up because he’s a good hit and run guy. In the two hole from what I recall he was halfway decent at making contact…
Church is a 6 hitter… He’s a guy who needsto be in an RBI spot, not a move him over kinda guy…
At what point has Church been in a move em over situation since september started? Reyes hasn’t been on. The reason you move Church down is because it lengthens the line-up. Our bottom of the order is absolutely abysmal. You know they are not turning the line-up over to continue any momentum.
He Ks about once every five ABs. So does Delgado- it’s a pretty free-swinging ratio. Unless you’re actually prepared to describe Delgado as a good contact hitter, I don’t see how Reyes can be one.
While it is debatable for sure whether Church should hit 2nd, why would anyone say that A Reyes is a good contact hitter/hit and run guy? I know we are all desperate for change, but A Reyes has so far shown himself to be utterly incapable of doing anything at the plate.
I know many of you look at Castillo and see Hitler and Stalin and Chipper Jones and Charles Manson, but he is better offensively at every aspect of the game than A Reyes. Without question.
Thanks Kingman but as I said below Reyes’s strike outs do bring a lot of energy and may be a reliable fuel sorce in a shortage.
Ha!!
Thank YOU TRS86, and as Ricky Fitz said in American Beauty, “Never underestimate the power of denial.”
He was clearly talking to everyone who think A Reyes can hit.
timothy lupus???? Hilarious.
Since he and Castillo are essentially identical at the plate, do you want Castillo batting 2nd also? Murphy and Evans will be playing much more now so we’ll see what Jerry does with the order. I’d like to see:
Reyes
Murphy/Evans
Wright
Beltran (switch with Delgado if facing a RHP)
Delgado
Church
Schneider/Castro
Reyes/Castillo
that will likely be the lineup
problem with that lienup as Jerry has pointed out is that makes how many lefties in a row??? put DWright 6th, hes doing no help in the 3 spot and it breaks up the lefty lineup domination:
1Reyes
2Reyes/Castillo
3Beltran
4Delgado
5Wright or Church
6Wright or Church
7Murphy
8Schneider/Castro/Cancel/Molina/Casanova/Mike Difelice/any other random catcher
9Pitcher
Also, with your lineup, why would you put Murphy 7 and leave Castillo/Reyes 2? Murphy would be replacing one of the switch hitters so you can’t complain about lefties in a row at the bottom and he’d be sitting between two switch hitters so again you can’t complain.
I don’t know why my other post got eaten here…in essence it said, “Bat Church 2nd, put Evans lower. Lefties successfully broken up.”
That is the line-up I prefer. The only thing is I doubt Castro gets any starts. He didn’t even look comfortable at the plate yesterday and he pretty much walked to 1st base on his single
Reyes and Castillo are not “essentially identical” at the plate, unless you only look at the last couple of weeks. By that argument, you could also claim that you’d be happier seeing Evans in the lineup than Beltran, Delgado, or Reyes because he has a better AVG over the last month. As poor a hitter as Castillo is, he is nowhere near as bad as Reyes.
I should’ve been more specific, I meant since Castillo has returned from the DL. Obviously this is a small sample size and he hasn’t been able to get into any sort of rhythm but for the season you are correct, Castillo’s .666 OPS dwarfs Reyes’ .532
Though when you’re comparing a .666 OPS to a .532 OPS, it’s like proclaiming Castillo the tallest midget…
“it’s like proclaiming Castillo the tallest midget”
Ha- very true- unfortunately, that’s what our 2B position has come down to at the moment….
That’s a sorry 7-8-9 in the order there…
Too bad we lost Easley again….
Over/under on Easley’s return? I really hope he’s back for the final week…
If Reyes is now our regular 2B, at least for the time being, he is probably the worst hitter among regular starters in baseball. Why on earth would you want him getting the second most PAs in our lineup and trying to advance or get on base for our best hitters?
Good point. All he does is ground out, so might as well have him be an automatic out behind Schneider instead of at a key spot in front of Wright.
Reyes should never bat above 8th. Even if we have to bring in little leaguers, to bat in front of him.
Maybe we should bat him 9th?
I wouldn’t mind batting Castillo 9th when he plays since for most of the season he’s at least been able to get on base. But Reyes’s offense is ugly no matter where you slot him.
If you don’t want Church batting 2nd, put Murphy in there against righties and Evans against Lefties. Putting a .230/.270/.260 hitter 2nd is suicide. If you must play him, you bat him 8th.
I’d add with Castillo’s complete lack of range the score last night probably would have been 3-0 or 4-0. AReyes made some nice plays to start a few DPs.
Maybe when he learns to hit a line drive he can start. He’s the only player who, in a big spot, I’ve ever found myself rooting for him to hit a dribbler that the IF can’t make a play on. It’s literally his only hope.
Sounds like Castillo is a little sour on the reserve player role. It really is unbeilevable that Omar gave him four years. It is very likely he will be out of the game by 2010. I can not imagine anyone giving him a shot in 2009, he will be virtually untradeable. It is beyond annoying we have to be saddle bagged with this guy.
After all these bad older player signings (Pedro, Alou, Castillo) lets hope the Mets FO understands you DO NOT give out long term contracts to guys over the hill. How much better off would the Mets have been had they just simply relied on their next generation of players.
In all fairness, the Pedro deal was a necessary evil, because it was about so much more than just on-field performance. As for the Alou deal, its not like there were any other better candidates that Minaya turned down in favor of Moises, and he did at least give us a good year in 2007.
The Castillo deal on the otherhand, was not so good. Though he didn’t forgo any other players in signing Luis, he did overestimate the market. While the Mets were in a pickle since 2b talent in the organization, and the majors as a whole is shallow, Omar should have at least looked to increase dollars before years (which he may have done..who knows)
exactly ravi…”who knows”..nobody knows. At the time castillo was the best option on the table and we NEEDED a 2b. He had to do what he needed to do to fill a need and help the team.
Actually from reports Omar did the opposite going with more years and less money.
well i guess that too comes as a blessing as it would be less money for us to eat to trade him than if we signed him to more money and less years….
The Castillo lover strikes again.
You always have better options than signing an over-the-hill player to a multiyear contract.
What Omar could have done is:
1.) As a temporary stopgap, platoon Gotay and Easley.
2.) Very quickly start looking for a way to bring to the organization a AAAA 2nd baseman who will not cost too much. Sort of like an Emilio Bonifacio lite. There are tons of those guys floating around the major leagues. At the beginning of the year, Omar could have easily traded Heilman for a 2nd base prospect superior to Bonifacio.
As soon as you acquire this player, trade Gotay for beans or release him, and platoon Easley and your AAAA 2nd baseman.
These steps would have yielded superior production at 2nd base than we got for 24M less money.
My overall point is that the Mets FO needs to get away from looking at what a guy has done in the past and rather predict what they will do in the future. Too many of his signings are based on past performance.
Omar will be in a very similar situation this offseason with Pedro. There will be no reason to give him more then a year contract as a # 5 starter. If he is asking for more let another team deal with it, as the Red Sox did with us.
At this point if Murphy doesn’t play 2nd base, Castillo probably should be in the lineup in the number 2 hole. He is still (as sad as it is) a much better offense player than Reyes and at the same time is useless in the number 7 spot. This also allows Church to hit 6 which is a better spot for him. If you put Murphy in left, you have him hitting 7th and our lineup looks a lot better.
I don’t understand why Castillo is a useful #2 hitter but a useless #7 hitter. The #2 spot is more important, so if he’s useful at #7, he’ll be more useful at #2. Conversely, if he’s useless at #7, which he isn’t, he’s actually counterproductive, he’ll be more counterproductive at #2.
The Phils bat Chase Utley 2nd. The Yanks often bat Jeter 2nd. Most teams are wise to the myth that it’s important that the #2 hitter be terrible at everything except making contact and bunting runners over. This is Castillo to a tee, except that he increasingly stinks at even doing those things.
Make an example of Castillo. If the team chokes, he and Manuel are out the door. Then we can take a look at finding some way to fill the yawning leadership vacuum.
I agree…good point!
Damn, you are willing to fire your main man Jerry now?
Out the door to where? You can’t just fire Castillo, and what team would want him? I don’t know anything about his contract, can we just stick him in AAA?
Sure you can fire him. You’ll have to pay him, but you’d save money in the end, and it’s a wake up call to the other players. Richie Sexon was cut twice this year…
How do you save money in the end?
I think he can go to AAA, but he has to agree to it – which he probably won’t.
Is that really making an example? He hasn’t been here most of the season, and isn’t a core player.
example or scapegoat?
it’s the core that’s not performing. you can’t put it on castillo though i’d be happy to see him go
I’m not ready to throw Manuel out the door. He was able to lead the team from 7.5 games out of the East, to just .5 games, as well as the lead in the Wild Card.
it is not like willie, the team likes him and wants to play for him. listen i have mixed feelings about this team as do all of you.
i LOVE baseball. and i LOVE my mets. we have only 2 weeks left if not more. i say lets rally around this team NOW. and if they let us down, which they have time and time again then we overhaul. bring in manny, bring in cc. and get a closer and a setup man as lyons or somthing. we do have money coming offf the books and we sure as hell have room to add payroll.
but as of now LETS GO METS!
heres a thought….ron keith and gary mentioned a few times how like 8 out of the last 9 have been lefties…think thats finally taking a toll? The only game they won lately is against a righty…maybe they saw something in how to pitch them when continuously against lefties??
Yeah, changeup, changeup, changeup…
Don’t forget the inside fastballs to set up the changeups…
Could be it….we all know that the Mets are better against righties.
““There’s nothing to say,” Castillo told the Newsday in response to being benched. “I’m here to help the team, but this is the first time in my life it’s been like that.”
-aww man here we go…this could be a setup going into next year to dump castillo.
look bottom line castillo as bad as he is has a better bat statistically. Argenis brings the better glove. As far as energy i dont know how much energy he brings grounding out or k’ing all the time but hey its the managers call. I just hope it works. We will have youthfull energy no matter what with evans/murphy in the linup every day since tatis is out.
LOL Manuel subscribes to Metsblog.
That “added energy” sure didn’t help the Mets score any runs last night…
LOL, there was a lot of energy created from his swing and misses. He was like a windmill.
Reyes
Murphy
Wright
Beltran/Delgado
Delgado/Beltran
Church
Schneider/Castro
A. Reyes
pitcher
This needs to be the lineup for the remainder of the season.
Everyday. For the next 12 games.
I would agree with this. If Castro can play, bat him 7th and drop the 2b to the 8 hole, but Castillo and Reyes cannot bat 7th. Disgusting line-up by Jerry last night.
Well, just flip a coin regarding Reyes and Castillo. To me, they’re both useless. 2nd base is definitely a black hole on this team, but we should have enough hitting (as evidenced by the #2 scoring team in the league) to overcome a week hitting 2nd base.
For next year, well that’s when a decision has to be made. Neither Reyes or Castillo should be considered as a permanent option for this team. If Murphy doeas well this off season at the instructional league honing his skills at 2nd, there’s your solution. I have all the faith in this kid to turn into a decent 2nd baseman as he seems to have the mentality and work ethics years beyond his age. I wouldn’t put anything past this kid. Remember, Jeff Kent, this guy learned to play 2nd and now he’s considered a HOF player.
Castillo hitting .273 with a .370 obp in the 2 hole this year. This year and over his career his numbers are woeful hitting 7/8/9 in the order. Bad move by Jerry sitting him last night. He should have been batting 2nd with Church dropped down in the order.
If you play Castillo or Ryees, they cannot bat 7th. It kills the bottom of the order. They must bat 2nd or play Murphy and sacrifice the defense, which is not my first choice.
Matt, you have no clue if you think Argenis batting RH is a better option than Castillo. Castillo is not good but Reyes is anemic.
Castillo’s defense has been very good since returning. he made a nifty running catch on Sunday in foul territory and turned a stellar dp to bail Pedro out on Monday, so don’t go there.
agreed hubie. Castillo has a better bat than argenis but argenis has more range. Agreed you cant put castillo/reyes at 7th. They must be batting in the 8th spot. Both murphy/evans do well batting 2nd.
Why would you want a black hole batting second? What’s wrong with the line-up being top heavy instead of being evenly mediocre through-out?
Well let me rephrase that. Does it really put us in a better position to have a bad player sandwiched between two good players? I mean hypothetically if you have Reyes and Church one of them will be on base for Wright/Delgado/Beltran to drive in, or Church may even drive Reyes in himself. If you have a guy who’s almost an automatic out, which Reyes has, you’re basically taking a run away early for the sake of possibly getting one later. Is one really better than the other?
I’m sure that didn’t make any sense.
Makes perfect since. That is why right now if Castillo is healthy he should bat 2nd because the only thing he can do is get on base. If he is not healthy he is still a better hitter injured than Awful Reyes ever will be. If he is injured, however, bat him 9th that way he can still get on base for the heart of the order.
Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Delgado, Beltran, Church, Murphy/Evans, Schnieder/Castro, pitcher.
or
Reyes, Murphy, Wright, Delgado, Beltran, Church, Schnieder/Castro, pitcher, Castillo.
It makes sense to me. The thing is imo…if we can have those automatic outs accomplish a goal of moving reyes up a base it would give us a better chance to drive not only reyes in by people who get on base if we have murphy/evans and church lower in the lineup. Bottom line imo bat murphy/evans in the 2 hole(they have done better in that spot) and have castillo/reyes bat 8th.
Thats a good idea real going with the larussa. Both castillo and reyes can run also.
Magic Number for the wild card #12
do you think its time for us to fans to get on WRIGHT???
mr untouchable?
pretty boy?
the mets Arod?
his risp is pathetic and his quotes at the end of games are starting to piss me off. i think we need someone to spark a fire inside the locker room. kinda what wagner did to perez.
last night dwright said ” this is what makes it fun”…ARE YOU KIDDING ME??
What’s he supposed to say?
Athletes in general do not like being quotes. They would prefer that the press simply leave them alone. If I were an athlete, I would tire quickly of having the press corps. keep asking the same stupid questions.
What I would say is: “Look, we’re all here trying our best. Any day, we could get hot and win 10 in a row or lose it and lose 4 of 5. All we can do is play smart, hard, and find ways to win. All of the questions you ask are totally irrelevant.”
But Wright does not say that. He uses the cliches. So does Jeter. So do most athletes. It’s just a way of saying something to get the press out of there so you can get on with your life.
i am so SORRY to all of you for me venting, but i am so sick of watching 150 games, looking up scores on my phone for 4 months to see the last 2 weeks be a joke. i diddnt spend hundreds of dollars to just be at she for the last season.
i think jeff wilpon and minaya need to come out with a statement saying,” if you fail to make the playoffs, there will be drastic changes.”
PLEASEEEEEEE pulll a HANK,
this is the time. this is the team. this is now!
“i diddnt spend hundreds of dollars to just be at she for the last season.”
-yea you did. For history purposes. We still have a shot to win. Imagine the yankee fans..
“i think jeff wilpon and minaya need to come out with a statement saying,” if you fail to make the playoffs, there will be drastic changes.”
-im sure that would be the picture of motivation. Hey you guys are playing for you jobs. How did that work…lets ask willie.
“PLEASEEEEEEE pulll a HANK”
-Yes..manuel must go to the comish and make the nl have a DH
Look.
Bottomline, if the Mets can get back to putting up an early set of 4 or 5 runs and push the Nationals starter out early, you squeeze 5 innings out of Knight and hope to hell the bullpen can provide twelve outs while retaining the lead.
Do that and suddenly everyone can breath again.
This is the biggest hurdle, if they can get by this game you have Santana tomorrow night.
If you can go into Atlanta still only down a half game or up a half game they are in good shape.
As far as I’m concerned, Castillo should be starting and hitting in the #2 hole with Easley out. Argenis Reyes is a double-A hitter and even though he brings a decent glove, he is a glorified Anderson Hernandez (Mets version, not the ”rejuvenated” Met Killer). Castillo is still an absolutely pesky hitter that fouls a ton of pitches off and works long counts and he is the perfect accessory to use to weaken the pitcher before the big bats get up. The man still gets on base, even with two creaky knees. Argenis Reyes should be nowhere near the #2 hole in a good Mets lineup. If you want to make a late-inning switch and put Reyes in the field ala Endy Chavez then that is fine, but get rid of this idea that this kid could hit. The statistics dictate otherwise.
Agreed. Every team has at least 10 Awful Reyes’s stuck in the minors. All field no hit guys are a dime a dozen in the minors and usually never make it out of AA.
neither Castillo nor Reyes should be batting second. They are carbon copies offensively, except Reyes has the ability to drive the ball more and plays better defense. I honestly think he gets to some of the balls that got through the right side late in these past 5 games. Reyes should get the nod over the gimp.
Right now, our smartest hitter is no other than Mr. Daniel Murphy. He takes pitches, doesn’t press, and does not get himself out by swinging at poor pitches. He needs to be batting second and playing everyday, especially with Tatis now out. It has not been proven that he cannot hit lefties. In fact, a small sample size has proven the opposite.
The guy is batting .519 with a 1.38 OPS in the 2 spot. How could this even be argued? Manuel has to pay the hot hand here.
REYES SLUGGING PERCENTAGE IS WAY WAY BELOW CASTILLO. Where do you guys get this stuff from? There is no way that Castillo and Reyes are carbon copies of each other offensively. Castillo beats him dramatically in EVERY catagory offensively.
not to mention murphy will BE in the lineup now that tatis is out for the year…..
where did i ever say anything about Reyes SLUG?
I’ve been gone a while, but I see that your obsession with arguing with people has now evolved into actually putting words into the mouths of others and diverting the convo to another tangent. Shouldn’t you and your imaginary friend being going to lunch right now?
Ok my bad, I would think that basic baseball terminology would not confuse you. How about I dumb it down for you and put it this way. Castillo has more power than Reyes.
good for you. you porved your point. another notch in the belt of therealsince86.
now bat him 8th and shut the phuk up.
LOL, again you are choking more than the Brewers are.
And by the way also if you could read I also advocate batting him 9th. I can see batting him 8th when Castro plays but with Schnieder it should be 2nd or 9th.
yes. you won. congrats. You win the one-on-one contest with yourself debating the power of Luis Castillo over Argenis Reyes. AWESOME!!! Good job. Your work is done here.
Thanks I am sure your praise of all posters on here will go a long way towards increasing my reputation.
I guess you like to make comments and only have people respond that agree with you. Especially when you post things that are not true.
and i disagree.
you see, people in a civilized society are allowed to disagree with you. that’s how the world works.
Disagree with what? That you post random ideas and have no proof for anything?
Yep
great post matty…unfortunatly the metsblog fan base will disagree…reyes is the second coming of arod…
Can we have Argenis hit 3 times in the first inning just to get his 3 automatic outs out of the way? And wile we’re at it, put a runner on first for DW so he can hit into a DP EVERY at bat.
Don’t get the Wright comment. He has been very good but some times you get out.
As for Awful Reyes, LOL. Then what about all the energy he brings. Delgado won’t know what to do with the chemistry machine out of the lineup.
i would have loved to had seen your reaction when David bounced that 2-0 fastball into a DP the other night. Or when he k’d against Hanrahan last night.
Mad as hell but what were my reactions when Reyes popped up or Delgado struck out or when Wright hit HR’s the other day? Why blame everything on one player? It’s a team game. You put the best players on your team out there and hope they perform. That is not what you are doing when you put Awful Reyes in the lineup.
Until you can prove to us that the production we get from Castillo is DRAMATICALLY better than what we get from AReyes, I suggest you drop the Castillo over Reyes argument. And don’t go fishing for Castillo’s historical stats in other uniforms over the past 10 years. RIGHT NOW….he older, hobbled, and is downright horrible.
Mets will get the same amount of offensive production from them both, which is minimal. So put them in the bottom of the order where they can do less damage. But Reyes limiits the damage defensively, and should play over Castillo.
Right and ths sad thing is that the older hobbled Castillo’s offensive numbers are BETTER IN EVERY CATAGORY over Reyes. If you want to use Reyes as a defensive sub like Endy then feel free but he should never start a game for a playoff team.
the voice of the almighty god of baseball knowledge has spoken.
Nice answer, that’s what people do when they can’t back up an arguement at all. Again, I do not like Castillo being in the lineup right now anymore than anyone else. However, I can’t stand Awful Reyes and the unjustified praise that he gets on here. Castillo old and broken is still twice the player that Awful Reyes EVER will be.
and i disagree.
you see, people in a civilized society are allowed to disagree with you. that’s how the world works.
So why are you getting so touchy that I am disagreeing with you? It goes both ways. If you did not like the fact that I used a stat to back up the fact that Castillo is a better hitter than Reyes why could you not just move on? Was it not ok to disagree with you?
I guess the difference is that I actually use stats to backup my opinions and you just post random ideas that you get mad when people prove are not true.
lmao
and thus crowning you as the “almighty god of baseball knowledge ” lollll
I never said anything about Reyes having more power over Castillo. I said he has the ‘ability’ to drive the ball. Why you have gone down this path is beyond me. You are arguing with yourself, and it is damn amusing.
Reyes has the ability to drive the ball, meaning he is not a one-dimensional slap hitter like Castillo. I can care less about Castillo’s stats (the lifeblood to your facts), b/c I’m sure they don’t take only into account his performance since coming off the DL. That sample size is a better indication of what he is capable of doing these next 12 games than whatever sample size you are using.
Take that into account, compare it to Reyes, and the difference is so moot it is laughable. Not even worth arguing. But Reyes plays better defense, so I take Reyes. Either way, what little production we get from either of these guys justifies that they should bat in the bottom of the order.
Man, you two should look at the exchange I had above with kidfromqueens…it’s essentially the same conversation without all the nonsense.
Danny, when someone says “Reyes has the ability to drive the ball more”, it implies a better slugging percentage. It doesn’t mean he “drives the ball better to spot 25 feet in front of the LFer.” Whether or not Castillo is a one-dimensional slap hitter, the fact remains he gets to second and beyond more often than Reyes. I don’t care how he gets there, just that he does. Better defense is clear, so use him to pinch run and as a late defensive replacement.
Since returning from the DL, Castillo has been terrible but if you aren’t taking sample size into account you aren’t paying attention.
therealsince86 (aka the almighty god of baseball knowledge), even though I agree with you about starting Castillo, Danny is right that he should be at the bottom. If nothing else, his propensity to get on base will clear the pitchers spot and give the pitchers the opportunity so sac bunt him over for Jose to drive in.
Next week is Luis Castillo Slappy Meal giveaway to those 12 and under
LOL, good one.
The bottom line, if J. Reyes, Wright, Church & Delgado hit the way they’re supposed to, the A. Reyes/Castillo argument would be a non-issue. This line-up (on paper and based on how many runs they’ve scored this year to date) should be more than good enough to carry a non-hitting (Reyes) or a “Slappy (Castillo) 2nd baseman. The reason we are devoting a whole blog thread to the Reyes/Castillo dilemma is that the offensive hitters who are suppose to “HIT” are choking and squeezing that bat handle just a little too tight right now and ‘Amplifying” the short comings of the second base position.
Reyes was actually hitting ok when playing regularly….I’m prejudiced as I get no pleasure, in fact I feel annoyed watching Castillo play.
That and if 1 of Reyes or Wright can up big in the clutch.
Why is it that most fans cannot stand the sight of Castillo in the lineup?
Why is it that Jerry Manuel finally did start Reyes over Castillo as he probably wanted to all along, but gave slappy enough rope to show his game?
A reyes is like a grandson to Delgado
I have a suspicion Manuel has been reading this blog and finally realized the wins/losses record with Castillo out of the line-up Vs with him in the line-up! LOL Even in his comments, he did mentioned that when Reyes plays they seemed to win, that’s a direct and underhanded snipe implying that when Castillo plays they lose!
Yesterday I did spot Manuel at Starbucks logging on to Metsblog from his laptop.