I voted that way and consider myself to be as optimistic as anyone. But you have to be realstic and not just drink the kool-aid.
Castillo’s dwindling abilites are completely predicated on the luck of seeing eye singles reaching the outfield. Throw in his lack of range, his lack of being able to advance runners and there is a great chance he falls off a cliff this year.
The only thing worse then Castillo starting for us was there being a far superior player on the FA block just 3 days ago. It’s embarassing Felipe Lopez wasn’t brought in.
people who accuse others of “drinking the kool-aid” in response to their reasoned opinions are also the type of people i hate.
i know this game, too. i know that when a guy is a career .292 hitter, and hit .302 last year, and has hit .296 or better 4 of the last 5 seasons, i have no reason to believe that he cant hit around .300 again. considering the modest production we’re referring to as a good season LAST year, i see no reason to say “no way” he can hit around .300 again this year and have another “good season”. if you want to argue that last years season wasnt very good despite the .302 average, we could do that. but i see no reason to expect a precipitous fall off from what he did last year. there are just no signs of it in the numbers. the .245 in 2008 seems like the much flukier year than the .302 in 2009. and if you recall, he was plagued with injuries in 08, and only played 87 games.
there is just NO reason to predict a significant fall off.
Lol it’s a good thing I can care less about which people you hate.
Ok…here’s my arguments on Castillo. He’s a player who’s game is solely based on his speed and his hits getting bouncing past the infield. He’s a year older on paper and if his declining range in the field starts catching up to him on running to first, he can be in serious trouble. He hits with so little authority, the lack of advancement he gives to hitters IS a big deal. Singling teams to death is not a productive way to play. His BABIP was 60 points different between 2008 and 2009. You want to say his 2008 season was bad luck, then fine, his 2009 season was extremely good luck. If you split the difference he may only be a .270 hitter this season.
Throw in his hideous defense, and I just don’t see why people are such ardent supporters of him. If he has a nice season, fantastic, we dodged a bullet. More likely we will be looking for a 2b in July.
If you call being one of the worst fielding second basemen in baseball as having a “good season” you may have a point. The cost to the starting rotation of having this incompetent behind them is beyond calculation.
Sorry for the OT post but I need to apologize to Chakrabs and the old thread was closed.
Read your note:
“lol no Deloid, SN means screenname. You said you were in sports medicine and I was wondering if you’d missed the “t” in deltoid, as in deltoid muscle.”
My gut says same OBP and based on his “drive” I think improved fielding range as well. I think he’s got a good attitude and i love the way he publicly dismissed the trade talks and negative comments. I’m sure it hurts but he seems like a tough professional that will get the job done. My money is on him this year guys.
This season, oddly enough, has so much potential it’s getting exciting again. Sorry for the upbeat attitude :)
so much potential, but lets keep it in perspective. alot of things have to go right. if ALL of them do, this is a team that could win more than 90 games. if none of them do this team might not win 80. if the breaks are about average, tho, i think this is a team that wins like 85-88 games and will at least be in the hunt down the stretch.
so its exciting at least in the respect that hopefully it wont be 2009. i think you gotta check your enthusiasm a little bit tho, at least until we see how the our starting pitchers look. cant wait for spring training games. just a couple days now – im very pumped.
Besides, those were pretty hollow numbers. And I doubt he will make the 142 games this year. But 12 doubles in that many PAs? Horrible. And the defense was weak (and not just that pop up) since he had little range, and couldn’t even charge a slow hit ball.
For fallon, I don’t understand why you said this makes me a fan you hate. Just because I think one particular player is not very good, and I don’t think he will perform as well as last year (which is what the question in the poll asked)?
well, i think if you’re saying last year wasnt a good year either, then thats a discussion we can have. and if thats the case, i take it back. but if were gonna say last year was a decent year, and youre gonna say he cant have a decent year THIS year, then yeah, youre just the bandwagon mets love/hater type that just KILLS me.
the question was phrased “do you think luis can repeat his 2009 performance. so it kind of presumes that we can call last year a good year. so, again, if you’re saying no way he can, then i dont have any respect for that, because theres NO reason to say it. anybody who says that is just a bandwagon castillo hater cause beating on luis is like the thing to do among mets fans these days.
The simple answer is…YES.. Luis Castillo can have a good enough year at 2B for the Mets to be ok in that position. 2B will not ultimately win it or lose it for the Mets in 2010. It’s all about their staring pitching.
I’m excited about Ollie bouncing back. I might be in the minority, but I believe that it’s all mental with Ollie, and he has his head on straight this year. His career and legacy will depend on his performance THIS year, as he will only has one more year on his deal to prove he’s a worthy MLB pitcher. I think he realizes that. He took last year for granted. He’s mentally prepared this year.
The Mets will go as far as their starting pitchers will take tham in 2010.. Castillo will not make or break them at 2B, but he’s a proud enough professional to be ready to compete in 2010, and ultimately not cost the Mets at 2B.
That’s a crazy way to think about things. The Mets lost out on the playoffs 2 years in a row by 1 game. Everything matters when you are talking about weak players
Only the Skankees can have an all-star at every position. If the Mets do not make the playoffs this year, do you think anyone will be saying, “If we only had Lopez “? … or Kennedy or Hudson?
Clearly there are better 2B than Castillo. But this isn’t fantasy baseball. Sometime you have to stick with a player that you have (i.e., 2 years left at $6M per).
Obviously Castillo was not the reason the Mets lost last year. In the two prior seasons, did you look as Castillo as one of the major reasons the Mets didn’t make the playoffs?
Well said and I totally agree.
But the Mets fans will never, never, never, never get it.
I attribute their hate for Castillo to ‘Group Think’.
A mass of people all shouting for one thing, then it picks up steam to another mass of people, pretty soon everyone is complaining like a lynch mob; but no one is really stopping to take to see if the problem is really a big deal.
(I felt the same way about the Tony Bernazard situtation, but that is a story for another day.)
of course this is what it is. because, as in any mass of people, the large majority of them dont know their ass from their elbow. whether its bashing castillo, or saying bays power is gonna fall off, or talking about how no free agents want to sign here… most people dont actually do any thinking for themselves. they just repeat what everyone around them is saying. and this, more than anything else, is why i hate the new york media who START the nonsense talk that developes into popular wisdom, and end up costing good people like willie randolph their jobs, and making talk radio just a constant whinefest…
haha i love the fantasy comment. i think alot of people really do thinka bout it that way, and they forget that there are 10-12 teams in their fantasy league, but theirs 30 teams in the majors. everybody cant have a roster full of studs. just the yankees.
im sorry, Mets fans wanting Felipe Lopez or Orlando Hudson, is not the same thing as having an all star at every position. Neither one of those guys is considered to be an all star player, so people are being unfair in that case. Of course there are a lot of fans who jumped on the hate Castillo train, but a lot of them actually have reasons to dislike him. The bad contract he has may not be his fault, but showing up overweight and out of shape the season right after he signed a 4 year deal is, and that I cant forgive him for.
The fact that he had to work himself back after he wasted a whole season, which by the way was in a season we missed the playoffs by one game, and that bothers me. It may not be only his fault, but you never know if he was able to play at his normal level some of you speak of, maybe we win a couple of more games, instead of having to play Ramon Martinez down the stretch.
And the poll says can Luis Castillo have a repeat of 2009, not will his batting average be the same as 2009. You know what fans I dont like, the ones who only recognize only one part of a players game as being important or not. His defense last year was horrid, but since he hit over .300 thats fine. And I am not even talking about the infamous dropped pop up, range was one of the worst I have ever seen a 2B have. So in that regards no I dont want him to have a repeat of last year, its not all about the offense people. Everyone ONLY brings up Avg and OBP, when they defend Castillo, what about the rest of his game? thats right there isnt one
“if you want to argue that last years season wasnt very good despite the .302 average, we could do that.”
which i wrote in an above comment, before i ever wrote this one. throughtout this discussion ive been very clear in saying, “im not calling last year a good year necessarily, but if the question is can he be as good as he was last year, of course he can, you cant say theres no chance”
and when we talk about why he was good, we basically ARE talking about his batting average. dude didnt drive in runs, didnt score a whole lot of them either. theres no WAY he could hit .300 again and not see gains in those categories considering he was in a AAA lineup last year and actually has talent around him this year. so i didnt think i had to discuss much more than his average.
and for the record, i am in NO way a castillo fan. i would have LOVED to bring in lopez, i think his defense alone is more valuable than castillos entire package. i am not defending castillo, im defending REASON. and its unreasonable to say that he cant have a year like last year.
The point is not whether he hurt the team 3 years ago.
The point is when you have such a horrible all around player,you take the chance that it can cost you game(s) that you cannot afford to lose. I am not saying the Mets should have an all star at every position. There is no reason in the world (other than cheapness,or an idio tic gm) that the Mets should not have at least an AVERAGE player at each position. Castillo with his pathetic slugging and worse defense is among the worst 2b in baseball
Among the worst? Oh come on now… Once again, Castillo will not make or break them in 2010. If you only look at negative stats, then ANY player can be a loser.
There were countless games the two years prior to last (when they barely missed the playoffs) that you can point fingers at ANY individual player at not coming through in the clutch. I guess they should just get rid of everyone, right?
Kranepool…your point of view is not logical, with all due respect. It’s a long season, and 2B will NOT make or break the Mets this year…their starting pitching will be the key…
I was going to answer but just read felix the cat’s comments. he answers for me very well.
And by the way,just becasue the Mets have even BIGGER questions
(esp starting pitching) doesn’t mean you don’t have a big problem at 2b.
Mikey-counting his fielding range and slugging,please tell me how many are worse at 2b and how they are
You’re kidding right? Maybe you don’t actually watch the team play but only look at the stats?
First of all, Castillo was possibly the worst defensive second baseman in baseball last year. The guy essentially has the range of a fire hydrant.
And while his OBP is very good, it is the emptiest OBP and BA in baseball. He doesn’t have the ability to hit the ball out of the field and is unable to drive the ball when necessary with runners on.
Luis Castillo is an awful baseball player at this point in his career and pretending that a repeat of last year is a really good thing makes no sense.
Harsh, but yeah hes not that good. I’m sure he can repeat, if not slightly exceed last years numbers but that isn’t saying a whole lot. He’s not horrible though, if he played solid defense he’d actually be pretty good. I think he’ll play better defense this year but his defense will always be mediocre if not bad. I hope we can trade for a second baseman at the trade deadline especially if Castillo is doing poorly.
Some of you guys are really not considering just how bad he is defensively. Watch him play and see how many balls get by him on the right side? Factor in Murphy at first base and it’s clearly the worst right side of the infield in baseball. I feel for Mike Pelfrey when the guys has to watch groundball after groundball sneak by those two.
I don’t want to defend Castillo or bash him but the facts are the facts. I watched most Mets games last year as awful and painful as they were. It was just sooooooooo frustrating to watch him at bat with a runner on third or runners in scoring position and less than 2 outs. He just can’t DRIVE the ball anywhere to get the runner or runners in. And if he does get a hit in that situation, the 2nd runner is unable to score as the OF’ers are playing too shallow. Another observation was in some big spots, Gary Cohen would mention how Castillo is 1 of the toughest to strike out in baseball. Needless to say, he’d then proceed to strikeout either by swinging at a bad pitch or taking a fastball right down broadway. As for his D, ’cause of injury and age he simply is not the player he was when he used to kill the Mets with the Marlins. I’m not trying to bash the guy and I’m not even going to count that awful Yanks game. But he is what he is at his age and in this present day. Even though the Mets pitching is a much greater concern, they can’t afford to be rolling the dice and hoping to contend with a 2nd baseman who is literally on his last legs. And for those on here who keep rolling out the stats or numbers, remember this; stats and numbers are very deceiving!!!!!! How many of you wanted to see Kevin McReynolds come up to bat with the game on the line??? Great numbers but he NEVER got it done in the clutch!!!
Out of the 21 2b in the majors last year who had enough at bats,only 3 had a lower obs than castillo. And that was a good year !! Let’s not even go into 2008.
Now add in his statue like defense and where does anyone think he will fall?
The differences are I used regular NL only 2Bmen and looked at OPS+ for the following reasons:
1) NL only isolates league differences. This is debatable.
2) OPS+ neutralizes park effects so no free OPS from band boxes
3) Regular 2Bmen since these form the replacement universe for Castillo; again debatable.
Quantifying:
1) Eckstein and Matsui are behind Castillo on both
2) Barnes has a higher OPS (.734 vs. .732) , but a lower OPS+ (84 vs. 98)
3) Fox uses batting title qualifiers (i.e. 502 PA) I used regulars so included are:
Roberts 110G / 351 PA / .783 / 100
Sanchez 111G / 489PA / .742 / 96
Young 124G / 388 PA / .707 / 89
Fontenot 135G / 419 PA / .677 / 72
Johnson 106G / 346 PA .692 / 83
Hernandez 123G / 404 PA / .621 / 73
All were at least 3.10 PA / G with all but Sanchez between 3.10 and 3.28. Sanchez was 4.41 PA / G. I would gather most of these are platoons, had some injuries, were pinch-hit for, … But, for example, Johnson was debated as a replacement for Castillo on Metsblog. This is one of the reasons I included this group.
When you include this group and look at OPS+ Castillo is about the average regular 2Bman.
Try and twist it anyway you want. Among STARTERS at 2b,502 ab he is 18th out of 21 in On base/slugging.
10 of them had obs of over .800 (10 and a half would be midwayof the 21 secondbasemen that qualified,castillo was .733
Even with the great numbers he put up in 2009, it’s that dropped popup against the Yankees of all teams that haunts Mets fans like myself. When you play against the Yankees, you have to display a fiery edge, a motivated desire to want to beat the hated crosstown rivals. But when you drop a popup as he did with 2 outs and 2 strikes on Alex Rodriguez, it tells me he cannot handle the pressure and is therfore not suited to play in New York City against the greatest franchise in baseball history. As a fan, I feel Castillo sent the Mets back to 1962 when he dropped the popup. He is not suited for this city and the pressure. I forgive Luis Castillo. But I can’t forget that moment. It still hurts. It would’ve been in everyone’s best interest if he would just go play somewhere else.
Then what does that called third strike ending Game 7 against the Cards in the 2006 NLCS tell you about Beltran? By you’re logic he should have been run out of town.
I do not think he will have a season like last year and to me, last year was average, not great.
Yes he hit 300 and got on base but he add nothing but on base percentage. He dosent even have power to get the ball to the outfield and is a horrible fielder….which is not what we need with Murphy over there.
I would of preferred to eat the contract and sign Hudson. He may only hit 270 but will have a little power and play a gold glove second base, which is even more important for our pitching staff.
Confidence Rating
Standings
W
L
BG
Phillies
80
60
--
Braves
79
60
0.5
Marlins
70
68
9.0
Mets
68
71
11.5
Nationals
60
79
19.5
Upcoming Games
at NationalsDickey vs. HernandezWed. Sept 8 / 12:35 pm
vs. PhilliesHalladay vs. MejiaFri. Sept 10 / 7:10 pm
if you voted “no way he has a good season” you’re the type of mets fan i hate.
I voted that way and consider myself to be as optimistic as anyone. But you have to be realstic and not just drink the kool-aid.
Castillo’s dwindling abilites are completely predicated on the luck of seeing eye singles reaching the outfield. Throw in his lack of range, his lack of being able to advance runners and there is a great chance he falls off a cliff this year.
The only thing worse then Castillo starting for us was there being a far superior player on the FA block just 3 days ago. It’s embarassing Felipe Lopez wasn’t brought in.
With that being said – I will never root against my own players and will root him on each at bat.
people who accuse others of “drinking the kool-aid” in response to their reasoned opinions are also the type of people i hate.
i know this game, too. i know that when a guy is a career .292 hitter, and hit .302 last year, and has hit .296 or better 4 of the last 5 seasons, i have no reason to believe that he cant hit around .300 again. considering the modest production we’re referring to as a good season LAST year, i see no reason to say “no way” he can hit around .300 again this year and have another “good season”. if you want to argue that last years season wasnt very good despite the .302 average, we could do that. but i see no reason to expect a precipitous fall off from what he did last year. there are just no signs of it in the numbers. the .245 in 2008 seems like the much flukier year than the .302 in 2009. and if you recall, he was plagued with injuries in 08, and only played 87 games.
there is just NO reason to predict a significant fall off.
Lol it’s a good thing I can care less about which people you hate.
Ok…here’s my arguments on Castillo. He’s a player who’s game is solely based on his speed and his hits getting bouncing past the infield. He’s a year older on paper and if his declining range in the field starts catching up to him on running to first, he can be in serious trouble. He hits with so little authority, the lack of advancement he gives to hitters IS a big deal. Singling teams to death is not a productive way to play. His BABIP was 60 points different between 2008 and 2009. You want to say his 2008 season was bad luck, then fine, his 2009 season was extremely good luck. If you split the difference he may only be a .270 hitter this season.
Throw in his hideous defense, and I just don’t see why people are such ardent supporters of him. If he has a nice season, fantastic, we dodged a bullet. More likely we will be looking for a 2b in July.
If you call being one of the worst fielding second basemen in baseball as having a “good season” you may have a point. The cost to the starting rotation of having this incompetent behind them is beyond calculation.
Sorry for the OT post but I need to apologize to Chakrabs and the old thread was closed.
Read your note:
“lol no Deloid, SN means screenname. You said you were in sports medicine and I was wondering if you’d missed the “t” in deltoid, as in deltoid muscle.”
I can’t believe I missed that!
That poll implies that he had a good season last year.
When you look at his slugging and his pathetic range at 2b, I don’t think you can say that.
ON topic:
My gut says same OBP and based on his “drive” I think improved fielding range as well. I think he’s got a good attitude and i love the way he publicly dismissed the trade talks and negative comments. I’m sure it hurts but he seems like a tough professional that will get the job done. My money is on him this year guys.
This season, oddly enough, has so much potential it’s getting exciting again. Sorry for the upbeat attitude :)
so much potential, but lets keep it in perspective. alot of things have to go right. if ALL of them do, this is a team that could win more than 90 games. if none of them do this team might not win 80. if the breaks are about average, tho, i think this is a team that wins like 85-88 games and will at least be in the hunt down the stretch.
so its exciting at least in the respect that hopefully it wont be 2009. i think you gotta check your enthusiasm a little bit tho, at least until we see how the our starting pitchers look. cant wait for spring training games. just a couple days now – im very pumped.
I voted for no way.
Besides, those were pretty hollow numbers. And I doubt he will make the 142 games this year. But 12 doubles in that many PAs? Horrible. And the defense was weak (and not just that pop up) since he had little range, and couldn’t even charge a slow hit ball.
For fallon, I don’t understand why you said this makes me a fan you hate. Just because I think one particular player is not very good, and I don’t think he will perform as well as last year (which is what the question in the poll asked)?
well, i think if you’re saying last year wasnt a good year either, then thats a discussion we can have. and if thats the case, i take it back. but if were gonna say last year was a decent year, and youre gonna say he cant have a decent year THIS year, then yeah, youre just the bandwagon mets love/hater type that just KILLS me.
the question was phrased “do you think luis can repeat his 2009 performance. so it kind of presumes that we can call last year a good year. so, again, if you’re saying no way he can, then i dont have any respect for that, because theres NO reason to say it. anybody who says that is just a bandwagon castillo hater cause beating on luis is like the thing to do among mets fans these days.
The simple answer is…YES.. Luis Castillo can have a good enough year at 2B for the Mets to be ok in that position. 2B will not ultimately win it or lose it for the Mets in 2010. It’s all about their staring pitching.
I’m excited about Ollie bouncing back. I might be in the minority, but I believe that it’s all mental with Ollie, and he has his head on straight this year. His career and legacy will depend on his performance THIS year, as he will only has one more year on his deal to prove he’s a worthy MLB pitcher. I think he realizes that. He took last year for granted. He’s mentally prepared this year.
The Mets will go as far as their starting pitchers will take tham in 2010.. Castillo will not make or break them at 2B, but he’s a proud enough professional to be ready to compete in 2010, and ultimately not cost the Mets at 2B.
That’s a crazy way to think about things. The Mets lost out on the playoffs 2 years in a row by 1 game. Everything matters when you are talking about weak players
Only the Skankees can have an all-star at every position. If the Mets do not make the playoffs this year, do you think anyone will be saying, “If we only had Lopez “? … or Kennedy or Hudson?
Clearly there are better 2B than Castillo. But this isn’t fantasy baseball. Sometime you have to stick with a player that you have (i.e., 2 years left at $6M per).
Obviously Castillo was not the reason the Mets lost last year. In the two prior seasons, did you look as Castillo as one of the major reasons the Mets didn’t make the playoffs?
Well said and I totally agree.
But the Mets fans will never, never, never, never get it.
I attribute their hate for Castillo to ‘Group Think’.
A mass of people all shouting for one thing, then it picks up steam to another mass of people, pretty soon everyone is complaining like a lynch mob; but no one is really stopping to take to see if the problem is really a big deal.
(I felt the same way about the Tony Bernazard situtation, but that is a story for another day.)
of course this is what it is. because, as in any mass of people, the large majority of them dont know their ass from their elbow. whether its bashing castillo, or saying bays power is gonna fall off, or talking about how no free agents want to sign here… most people dont actually do any thinking for themselves. they just repeat what everyone around them is saying. and this, more than anything else, is why i hate the new york media who START the nonsense talk that developes into popular wisdom, and end up costing good people like willie randolph their jobs, and making talk radio just a constant whinefest…
sorry, ranting. hate this type of attitude.
haha i love the fantasy comment. i think alot of people really do thinka bout it that way, and they forget that there are 10-12 teams in their fantasy league, but theirs 30 teams in the majors. everybody cant have a roster full of studs. just the yankees.
im sorry, Mets fans wanting Felipe Lopez or Orlando Hudson, is not the same thing as having an all star at every position. Neither one of those guys is considered to be an all star player, so people are being unfair in that case. Of course there are a lot of fans who jumped on the hate Castillo train, but a lot of them actually have reasons to dislike him. The bad contract he has may not be his fault, but showing up overweight and out of shape the season right after he signed a 4 year deal is, and that I cant forgive him for.
The fact that he had to work himself back after he wasted a whole season, which by the way was in a season we missed the playoffs by one game, and that bothers me. It may not be only his fault, but you never know if he was able to play at his normal level some of you speak of, maybe we win a couple of more games, instead of having to play Ramon Martinez down the stretch.
And the poll says can Luis Castillo have a repeat of 2009, not will his batting average be the same as 2009. You know what fans I dont like, the ones who only recognize only one part of a players game as being important or not. His defense last year was horrid, but since he hit over .300 thats fine. And I am not even talking about the infamous dropped pop up, range was one of the worst I have ever seen a 2B have. So in that regards no I dont want him to have a repeat of last year, its not all about the offense people. Everyone ONLY brings up Avg and OBP, when they defend Castillo, what about the rest of his game? thats right there isnt one
Seems like the Phils usually seem to be able to have at least 7 average or better players. Somehow they do it.
“if you want to argue that last years season wasnt very good despite the .302 average, we could do that.”
which i wrote in an above comment, before i ever wrote this one. throughtout this discussion ive been very clear in saying, “im not calling last year a good year necessarily, but if the question is can he be as good as he was last year, of course he can, you cant say theres no chance”
and when we talk about why he was good, we basically ARE talking about his batting average. dude didnt drive in runs, didnt score a whole lot of them either. theres no WAY he could hit .300 again and not see gains in those categories considering he was in a AAA lineup last year and actually has talent around him this year. so i didnt think i had to discuss much more than his average.
satisfied?
and for the record, i am in NO way a castillo fan. i would have LOVED to bring in lopez, i think his defense alone is more valuable than castillos entire package. i am not defending castillo, im defending REASON. and its unreasonable to say that he cant have a year like last year.
The point is not whether he hurt the team 3 years ago.
The point is when you have such a horrible all around player,you take the chance that it can cost you game(s) that you cannot afford to lose. I am not saying the Mets should have an all star at every position. There is no reason in the world (other than cheapness,or an idio tic gm) that the Mets should not have at least an AVERAGE player at each position. Castillo with his pathetic slugging and worse defense is among the worst 2b in baseball
Among the worst? Oh come on now… Once again, Castillo will not make or break them in 2010. If you only look at negative stats, then ANY player can be a loser.
There were countless games the two years prior to last (when they barely missed the playoffs) that you can point fingers at ANY individual player at not coming through in the clutch. I guess they should just get rid of everyone, right?
Kranepool…your point of view is not logical, with all due respect. It’s a long season, and 2B will NOT make or break the Mets this year…their starting pitching will be the key…
I was going to answer but just read felix the cat’s comments. he answers for me very well.
And by the way,just becasue the Mets have even BIGGER questions
(esp starting pitching) doesn’t mean you don’t have a big problem at 2b.
Mikey-counting his fielding range and slugging,please tell me how many are worse at 2b and how they are
I ment who they are
Luis Castillo a good season? Team MVP?
You’re kidding right? Maybe you don’t actually watch the team play but only look at the stats?
First of all, Castillo was possibly the worst defensive second baseman in baseball last year. The guy essentially has the range of a fire hydrant.
And while his OBP is very good, it is the emptiest OBP and BA in baseball. He doesn’t have the ability to hit the ball out of the field and is unable to drive the ball when necessary with runners on.
Luis Castillo is an awful baseball player at this point in his career and pretending that a repeat of last year is a really good thing makes no sense.
Harsh, but yeah hes not that good. I’m sure he can repeat, if not slightly exceed last years numbers but that isn’t saying a whole lot. He’s not horrible though, if he played solid defense he’d actually be pretty good. I think he’ll play better defense this year but his defense will always be mediocre if not bad. I hope we can trade for a second baseman at the trade deadline especially if Castillo is doing poorly.
Some of you guys are really not considering just how bad he is defensively. Watch him play and see how many balls get by him on the right side? Factor in Murphy at first base and it’s clearly the worst right side of the infield in baseball. I feel for Mike Pelfrey when the guys has to watch groundball after groundball sneak by those two.
I do not believe Castillo will have a repeat of last year. I think he’ll either have a down year or simply be injury prone this year. Just a hunch!
just a hunch is the most honest thing anybody in any of these comments has said to defend bashing castillo. i applaud you at least for that.
I don’t want to defend Castillo or bash him but the facts are the facts. I watched most Mets games last year as awful and painful as they were. It was just sooooooooo frustrating to watch him at bat with a runner on third or runners in scoring position and less than 2 outs. He just can’t DRIVE the ball anywhere to get the runner or runners in. And if he does get a hit in that situation, the 2nd runner is unable to score as the OF’ers are playing too shallow. Another observation was in some big spots, Gary Cohen would mention how Castillo is 1 of the toughest to strike out in baseball. Needless to say, he’d then proceed to strikeout either by swinging at a bad pitch or taking a fastball right down broadway. As for his D, ’cause of injury and age he simply is not the player he was when he used to kill the Mets with the Marlins. I’m not trying to bash the guy and I’m not even going to count that awful Yanks game. But he is what he is at his age and in this present day. Even though the Mets pitching is a much greater concern, they can’t afford to be rolling the dice and hoping to contend with a 2nd baseman who is literally on his last legs. And for those on here who keep rolling out the stats or numbers, remember this; stats and numbers are very deceiving!!!!!! How many of you wanted to see Kevin McReynolds come up to bat with the game on the line??? Great numbers but he NEVER got it done in the clutch!!!
Out of the 21 2b in the majors last year who had enough at bats,only 3 had a lower obs than castillo. And that was a good year !! Let’s not even go into 2008.
Now add in his statue like defense and where does anyone think he will fall?
Where did you get this from? I compiled OPS+ for the 13 regular NL 2Bmen and Castillo’s OPS+ was NL average. Both were 98.
go to fox sports,then stats,then sort by 2b in major leagues
OK, thanks.
The differences are I used regular NL only 2Bmen and looked at OPS+ for the following reasons:
1) NL only isolates league differences. This is debatable.
2) OPS+ neutralizes park effects so no free OPS from band boxes
3) Regular 2Bmen since these form the replacement universe for Castillo; again debatable.
Quantifying:
1) Eckstein and Matsui are behind Castillo on both
2) Barnes has a higher OPS (.734 vs. .732) , but a lower OPS+ (84 vs. 98)
3) Fox uses batting title qualifiers (i.e. 502 PA) I used regulars so included are:
Roberts 110G / 351 PA / .783 / 100
Sanchez 111G / 489PA / .742 / 96
Young 124G / 388 PA / .707 / 89
Fontenot 135G / 419 PA / .677 / 72
Johnson 106G / 346 PA .692 / 83
Hernandez 123G / 404 PA / .621 / 73
All were at least 3.10 PA / G with all but Sanchez between 3.10 and 3.28. Sanchez was 4.41 PA / G. I would gather most of these are platoons, had some injuries, were pinch-hit for, … But, for example, Johnson was debated as a replacement for Castillo on Metsblog. This is one of the reasons I included this group.
When you include this group and look at OPS+ Castillo is about the average regular 2Bman.
Try and twist it anyway you want. Among STARTERS at 2b,502 ab he is 18th out of 21 in On base/slugging.
10 of them had obs of over .800 (10 and a half would be midwayof the 21 secondbasemen that qualified,castillo was .733
Even with the great numbers he put up in 2009, it’s that dropped popup against the Yankees of all teams that haunts Mets fans like myself. When you play against the Yankees, you have to display a fiery edge, a motivated desire to want to beat the hated crosstown rivals. But when you drop a popup as he did with 2 outs and 2 strikes on Alex Rodriguez, it tells me he cannot handle the pressure and is therfore not suited to play in New York City against the greatest franchise in baseball history. As a fan, I feel Castillo sent the Mets back to 1962 when he dropped the popup. He is not suited for this city and the pressure. I forgive Luis Castillo. But I can’t forget that moment. It still hurts. It would’ve been in everyone’s best interest if he would just go play somewhere else.
Then what does that called third strike ending Game 7 against the Cards in the 2006 NLCS tell you about Beltran? By you’re logic he should have been run out of town.
Selective outrage makes you look foolish
I do not think he will have a season like last year and to me, last year was average, not great.
Yes he hit 300 and got on base but he add nothing but on base percentage. He dosent even have power to get the ball to the outfield and is a horrible fielder….which is not what we need with Murphy over there.
I would of preferred to eat the contract and sign Hudson. He may only hit 270 but will have a little power and play a gold glove second base, which is even more important for our pitching staff.