Cubs Avoid Arbitration With Koyie Hill

[sneakypower]

food for thought:

 

Josh Thole hit .277/.357/.366 (.327 wOBA) in the same amount of PA as Hill last year, with perfectly neutral defense and presented what would have been a 2-win upgrade over Koyie Hill's production

 

is it unreasonable to think Castillo could manage at least neutral defense and a .327 wOBA?

[Guest]

food for thought:

 

Josh Thole hit .277/.357/.366 (.327 wOBA) in the same amount of PA as Hill last year, with perfectly neutral defense and presented what would have been a 2-win upgrade over Koyie Hill's production

 

is it unreasonable to think Castillo could manage at least neutral defense and a .327 wOBA?

 

To be fair, Koyie Hill 2011 probably represents a 1 win upgrade over Koyie Hill 2010.

[sneakypower]

if he fields really well, and walks significantly more often

 

simply put, i'd actually be surprised if he were

[TruffleShuffle]

yeah koyie's positive presence has really made a huge difference, that's why last year's team was in the bottom third of MLB last year and the team played .400 baseball with him in the starting lineup.

 

hendry is a dumb douche and that quote pretty much sums up why he is unqualified to be the general manager of a team with world series aspirations.

[TruffleShuffle]

For $850,000, you've got a guy who does a lot of things you don't notice from the stands.

 

so you're talking about things other than being worse than a replacement player, because that was totally easy to notice from the stands.

 

You've got a guy, who up until last year, threw out about 40 baserunners in his career.

 

what does this mean? 40 total? he threw out 33 baserunners in his major league career before last year. if he meant 40 percent, then i guess it depends on your definition of "about" - he was at 33.3%, which is far enough below 40% that i'd consider it a significant difference. if you count last year - and why shouldn't you - he's thrown out 28%, which isn't really that good. probably about average. according to baseball-reference, welington castillo has thrown out 40% of would-be base stealers in his minor league career. robinson chirinos was at 31%.

 

Tremendous asset to the pitching staff. Great defender.

 

he is? the pitching staff was mediocre last year. bullpen was a joke and starters were all right. as for his defense, i don't see anything special there and i suspect that hendry could not back up this argument with a shred of statistical evidence.

 

Great leader for his position.

 

get better management in the dugout and better players who have leadership capabilities. don't sign a black hole on offense to be a cheerleader.

 

I would beg to differ that you could find a guy like that for the league minimum that would be better in his role.

 

about 90% of the backup catchers in the league, plus at least one of the cub minor leaguers, would be better in his role. he is terrible.

 

He was very good in Geo's progression.

 

so while soto was in AAA in 2007 with koyie hill as the backup, koyie taught him how to hit, even though koyie does not know how to hit himself. then while he was winning the rookie of the year for the chicago cubs, koyie really helped him in his progression while catching for the iowa cubs. koyie did come up in 2009 and help geo along to a very disappointing year.

 

i'm confident that if you asked soto who has been instrumental in his development, and he had to be honest, koyie hill would not be one of the first 5 or 10 people he named.

 

He's been very good in some of the younger pitchers' (progression) last year. When Mike (Quade) took over, he (Hill) was very good with Andrew Cashner, things that don't go noticed.

 

he was? most of the young pitchers were awful last year. did he teach schlitter and stevens and maine and mateo how to throw batting practice? samardzija how to miss his spots by 2 feet? cashner was good because he has a great arm; he was terrific in the minors and then much worse with the big club.

 

I'd like to think that we know enough about those kind of decisions that he's well worth it.

 

i'd like to think that too, but i'd be lying to myself, because we've all seen enough of your work to know that you aren't capable enough to make these types of decisions.