Castro

[sontensei]

its the mental errors and gaffed routine plays. add in the ground ball machine factor and lack of hustle on most grounders and he is a loser. not a winner.

[Derwood]

its the mental errors and gaffed routine plays. add in the ground ball machine factor and lack of hustle on most grounders and he is a loser. not a winner.

 

There it is

[Splendid Splinter]

The next thing you know... sontensei will be saying Jack Morris is better than Bert Blyleven.

[Bruno7481]

It's hard to watch Castro right now. It's more than just not getting hits. It seems of late that in situations where he just needs to make some contact, like the 8th inning against St. Louis Wednesday night, he just can't do it (a few walk off wins not withstanding).

 

His is dangerously approaching a sub .600 OPS for the year. If you want to get really depressed look up Theriot's time in Chicago, his OPS was never that bad. It's frustrating because he is much better than that, but really isn't showing a single sign of it this year.

 

Hopefully he can turn it around after the ASB. They are going to need some productivity from that spot.

[nolanwood]

If you want to get really depressed look up Theriot's time in Chicago, his OPS was never that bad.

 

I wish I didn't just look that up...

[seanimal]

People might be overstating the difference defensively just a wee bit.

 

javy's defense is very good

[Sammy Sofa]

People might be overstating the difference defensively just a wee bit.

 

javy's defense is very good

 

I know.

[seanimal]

People might be overstating the difference defensively just a wee bit.

 

javy's defense is very good

 

I know.

 

castro's is not

[JennieGarthAlgar]

It seems of late that in situations where he just needs to make some contact, like the 8th inning against St. Louis Wednesday night, he just can't do it (a few walk off wins not withstanding).

 

"The problem is, is he's not clutch! If you excuse the few times he's been clutch, of course.."

 

 

Im as frustrated with Castro as anyone and am ready to bench him for other options, but that sentence is pretty ridiculous.

[UMFan83]

If you want to get really depressed look up Theriot's time in Chicago, his OPS was never that bad.

 

I wish I didn't just look that up...

 

Castro's OPS+ is almost exactly the same as Theriots worst 2 seasons.

[Gilby]

People might be overstating the difference defensively just a wee bit.

 

javy's defense is very good

 

Is it?

 

The metrics didn't like him in the Majors last year. He made 9 errors in 15 games at SS in AAA this season. That many errors isn't sustainable, but neither were Castro's problems earlier this season (and he's been much better on defense lately). I dunno, I've seen multiple people reference Javy's good defense, but we haven't really seen it yet, despite the tools. The numbers and the eye-test tell me that he's not in Russell's class, at second base, at least.

[seanimal]

russell is in another world. baez does seem to be prone to lapses, but errors are a poor measure of one's defensive prowess. scouts consider him a plus fielder and the cubs are really high on his defense

[Sammy Sofa]

The likely difference between Castro and Baez defensively would probably be pretty negligible. It basically all comes down to how much better offensively Baez should be. Edited July 11, 2015 by Sammy Sofa

[Gilby]

russell is in another world. baez does seem to be prone to lapses, but errors are a poor measure of one's defensive prowess. scouts consider him a plus fielder and the cubs are really high on his defense

 

Errors do matter some, and that stat is particularly lol-worthy. He might be better than Castro, but like Sofa said, it's probably negligible. Plus, Castro could be a kick-ass second baseman for all we know.

[Bruno7481]

It seems of late that in situations where he just needs to make some contact, like the 8th inning against St. Louis Wednesday night, he just can't do it (a few walk off wins not withstanding).

 

"The problem is, is he's not clutch! If you excuse the few times he's been clutch, of course.."

 

 

Im as frustrated with Castro as anyone and am ready to bench him for other options, but that sentence is pretty ridiculous.

 

I just mentioned it because it is honestly the only highlights I could think of for him this year. It wasn't a reference to however you want to define "clutch." He's been bad, maybe I should have just left it at that. I was just trying to think of something positive that he has done this year.

[BigSlick]

i sincerely don't care about his attitude and not running out fly balls like, at all. I just notice he hits below a replacement level player and plays poor defense at short stop so you might as well plug a replacement level player there that can play *good* defense.

 

Whether such a player exists on this team, well, I dunno. These are feelings of a fan and not like, a general manager who's serious.

[Clem Fandango]

its the mental errors and gaffed routine plays. add in the ground ball machine factor and lack of hustle on most grounders and he is a loser. not a winner.

 

There it is

 

[apete6]

When Javy is ready, just bench his ass. Can't have a negative WAR player in the lineup. SorrY, but PTR is going to be eating that contract.

[Sammy Sofa]

When Javy is ready, just bench his ass. Can't have a negative WAR player in the lineup.

 

Yeah, good thing there's no chance Baez can be that bad.

[seanimal]

russell is in another world. baez does seem to be prone to lapses, but errors are a poor measure of one's defensive prowess. scouts consider him a plus fielder and the cubs are really high on his defense

 

Errors do matter some, and that stat is particularly lol-worthy. He might be better than Castro, but like Sofa said, it's probably negligible. Plus, Castro could be a kick-ass second baseman for all we know.

 

the only thing lol-worthy is citing an 11 game sample size as evidence of anything

[Gilby]

russell is in another world. baez does seem to be prone to lapses, but errors are a poor measure of one's defensive prowess. scouts consider him a plus fielder and the cubs are really high on his defense

 

Errors do matter some, and that stat is particularly lol-worthy. He might be better than Castro, but like Sofa said, it's probably negligible. Plus, Castro could be a kick-ass second baseman for all we know.

 

the only thing lol-worthy is citing an 11 game sample size as evidence of anything

 

I mentioned his 52 games in the Majors last year as well. Not huge samples, but we might need to back off on the "very good defender" stuff until he shows us he is one, that's all.

[apete6]

When Javy is ready, just bench his ass. Can't have a negative WAR player in the lineup.

 

Yeah, good thing there's no chance Baez can be that bad.

 

Maybe, maybe not. At least it will be different. Better D and more power is almost guaranteed.

[Sammy Sofa]

When Javy is ready, just bench his ass. Can't have a negative WAR player in the lineup.

 

Yeah, good thing there's no chance Baez can be that bad.

 

Maybe, maybe not. At least it will be different. Better D and more power is almost guaranteed.

 

Hopefully he's an improvement offensively, though I think some people are too hung up on the idea of him being so much better defensively. The bat is ideally what separates the two of them.

 

Plus wouldn't/shouldn't he be more likely to actually end up at 2B between him and Russell?

[Guest]

Baez was a good bit worse than 2015 Castro offensively. Definitely not close enough to be made up by any defensive difference(which I agree with others that we have to assume is not significant atm).

 

With that in mind, it's a bit confusing that several people want to run to Baez as an alternative to Castro. Baez looks like he made some strides in his brief AAA time this year, but that comes with a few catches:

 

- Those strides might not be enough to make a difference at the MLB level

- Baez went a month without any real baseball activity and is just now swinging a bat. Expecting him to get back to where he left off on June 8th is still several weeks away as a conservative guesstimate

 

On top of that, there's other implications:

 

- The logic that would dictate that Baez could be an okay MLB hitter also applies to Castro, probably moreso given his substantial MLB background. Unless there's something fundamentally insurmountable about Castro's struggles(3000+ MLB PA and his 2013 to 2014 improvement suggest no), then Castro is a decent bet to bounce back in the second half. He's always been a better hitter then anyway

- Promoting Baez to play with Russell over Castro torpedoes both Castro's trade value and the likelihood of Castro bouncing back in the short term. This would be less of a concern if Baez were a surer bet to be better(because 2015 wins count a lot), but we're placing that bet on the guy with a .169/.227/.324 MLB line with a 41% K rate, who missed several weeks this year when his sister died and then a couple more months with a broken finger.

 

Instead, the more logical course of action would be to continue to play Castro and work on his swing/approach to get him back on track. He's been able to adjust to these struggles before and that remains the best odds of getting solid production from the non-Russell middle infielder. Baez can then rehab until he's healthy and he's had the chance to actually play in some games for a while, which would time itself pretty well for him to get a callup when Iowa's season ends(or sooner if his performance really demands it). You then have the 3 man logjam to resolve, but it's September then so 1) it's less obvious that Castro is being replaced (if he really is at all) 2) If Baez doesn't play it's not a waste (since MiLB is done) which gives Maddon some more wiggle room to earn his money by best allocating PT for all 3.

[apete6]

At the very least, move Castro to 9th in the order. He's absolute trash at this point.