Castillo is now a Mariner

[chibears55]

Starting to think their leaving Baez down now to get and keep his value back up for a trade at some point

 

[beckdawg]

What made me disappointed was bringing Baxter up instead of Andreoli. All it shows me is they are going to stick it out with Cog's in LF vs trying to add speed to the line up. Cog's give very little value to the line up. Sure he has hit a few HR's but right now he is a 1 trick pony at that. Adding a element like speed to the 9 spot could have more impact on the line up.

But Baxter is the classic filler bat. Looking over his stats he is a clone of Cogs. Lacks power for a corner OF. That was a wasted move.

I don't agree with every decision they make. That is for sure. The way they have been handling LF this year is a joke. They could have trying to commit to Alcantara. Maybe he would have had better results with constant play vs being jumbled around. So I don't agree with that. Baez needed to fix his approach. Seems like he has. Why they are not bumping him up? Well seems like they are committed to Castro/Russell as their MI now. Why they are not trying to move Baez to another spots keeping him at 2B/SS? Again a head scratchier.

In view of this removing a 3rd string catcher? To be honest Ross is better. Sure he is older but back up catchers are always easy to obtain in the off season and a whole bunch cheaper than Castillo's arb price.

Over all this move did not bother me. The return was not exciting but we are talking about a 3rd string guy that has suspect catching skills.

In ref to Cogs, he's arguably been "unlucky." He has the 13th lowest soft contact rate and has a .213 BABIP. Both would suggest a player who's hit a lot of balls at people. I'm not going to defend him to the death or anything because he's obviously a transitional player. As for Ross being "better," that's a pretty nebulous term. He's not a better hitter. Think that's pretty safe to say. As far as framing, I'd be curious to see his stats when he's not catching Lester. While he could be a superior framer it's also possible that Lester is a pitcher who is given more calls. And outside of a few PH situations I don't really recall Ross catching anyone else off the top of my head. I'd also imagine a lot of his time in Boston he was also just catching Lester. I would also point out that thus far this season while Castillo hasn't been amazing he's been middle of the pack in framing so the difference isn't as drastic as some would have you believe. Castillo is making $2.1 mil this year and I doubt his arbitration would be more than $2.5 mil next year.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not what Ross gives you in framing out weighs the difference in their offense. You're welcome to your opinion but for me personally I have a tough time believing someone who plays maybe 40-50 games will do enough defensively. Last year he supposedly was worth +79 calls. However, he hit .184/.260/.368 over 171 PAs. So, there's a cost to him. Last year Castillo was apparently fairly horrible with framing. But if he's closer to an average this year the discussion changes.

I don't really have a huge issue with them trading Castillo because I feel he's a decent player but neither bad nor good. I just don't feel that Ross is so vastly superior and he is considerably older(38) which leads to questions of durability and him just being done in terms of hitting. Castillo's framing issue is largely an instructional issue and he appears to have made progress. And given Montero's injury history I'm not entirely comfortable putting Ross' bat into the line up every day if he gets hurt.

 

[Zvbxrpl]

You can say over and over that he was valuable. But the facts have shown otherwise. Nobody wanted him.

:fap:

...........wait a minute we agree?

 

[CSF77]

Starting to think their leaving Baez down now to get and keep his value back up for a trade at some point

Castro is batting .266. His SO% has gone up. He is still making errors at a high pace. Right now I'm wondering if they are going to finally trade Castro.

The thing with Baez is he is taking BB's now. That and his power makes him the one with the highest top end of the 3. Russell is the best D SS of the 3. Castro right now just looks bad at the plate. He makes flashy plays but 7 errors after 2 months. That is a 21 error pace. Which is his norm. So Same D and worse BA going on.

Maybe it is the time to sell him before his value drops and his ticket starts to go up.

The thing that makes Castro valuable is his BA. He rarely takes BB's. His D has always been suspect. So the 1 thing that has made him valuable was his ability to hit near .300. Him hitting .266 takes away from the only reason to want him over Russell and Baez.

I think they should look into centering a deal around Castro to get a SP. They would have to add a few pieces around him but he is still young and is proven. I just believe he has capped out as a player and the Cubs have better options now.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

The wildly shifting views on Starlin Castro are nutty. I don't think there's any question that he is what he is but despite that it seems to be in constant debate depending on the day. He's slumping right now but he'll pick it back up at some point. In the end his slash is going to be about what everyone thought .285/.330/.430 . Defensively he's average or a bit below, he makes the spectacular play but misses some easy ones. Some parts of his game will improve, he is only 25, but for the most part you know what he is and that's a valuable piece. Trade him, keep him or whatever those are decisions for people making money to make them but this handwringing has to stop over this guy. He's not the devil and he ain't the savior. He's also worth more than just a piece in a trade for a starting pitcher. He's probably an even swap with a throw in added for a Syndergaard or a Matz. The Cubs thought he was worth two of those guys, and he probably should be, but that ain't happening. Baez won't get you that without another guy thrown in. Decisions, decisions.

 

[SilenceS]

Castro is batting .266. His SO% has gone up. He is still making errors at a high pace. Right now I'm wondering if they are going to finally trade Castro.

The thing with Baez is he is taking BB's now. That and his power makes him the one with the highest top end of the 3. Russell is the best D SS of the 3. Castro right now just looks bad at the plate. He makes flashy plays but 7 errors after 2 months. That is a 21 error pace. Which is his norm. So Same D and worse BA going on.

Maybe it is the time to sell him before his value drops and his ticket starts to go up.

The thing that makes Castro valuable is his BA. He rarely takes BB's. His D has always been suspect. So the 1 thing that has made him valuable was his ability to hit near .300. Him hitting .266 takes away from the only reason to want him over Russell and Baez.

I think they should look into centering a deal around Castro to get a SP. They would have to add a few pieces around him but he is still young and is proven. I just believe he has capped out as a player and the Cubs have better options now.

Castro is batting .197 this month. Its a bad a month. His defense is actually a plus 1.2 WAR. Its his stick in the negative. He will get going again. His BABIP dropped over 40 points this month and he keeps a higher then average at bat. He has struck out more but not a huge increase. This is an over reaction and not going to happen.

Addison Russell is still K'ing over 30 % this month. He has a ridiculous high BABIP of .384 and I watched him just drop a routine pop up. He isnt a lock by any stretch. Maybe they do trade Castro one day, but this isnt the year.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Castro will get it going again. As fans, we have perhaps not been in this situation in a long time where the Cubs can be competitive and also have prospects trying to push from AAA. Every day the scenario changes from trade Baez to trade Castro. The season really has to play out.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Castro will get it going again. As fans, we have perhaps not been in this situation in a long time where the Cubs can be competitive and also have prospects trying to push from AAA. Every day the scenario changes from trade Baez to trade Castro. The season really has to play out.

I would be OK if you posted this same thing everyday. I wish people would come to this understanding.

 

[Boobaby1]

Castro is batting .197 this month. Its a bad a month. His defense is actually a plus 1.2 WAR. Its his stick in the negative. He will get going again. His BABIP dropped over 40 points this month and he keeps a higher then average at bat. He has struck out more but not a huge increase. This is an over reaction and not going to happen.

Addison Russell is still K'ing over 30 % this month. He has a ridiculous high BABIP of .384 and I watched him just drop a routine pop up. He isnt a lock by any stretch. Maybe they do trade Castro one day, but this isnt the year.

That pop-up you said he dropped (if it's the one I saw), the former baseball players on Baseball tonight said that that was Castro's ball to get. He is the SS, and he is suppose to get everything he can get his glove on that is remotely close to his territory.

Just sayin....Not my words. It was theirs.

 

[CSF77]

Castro is batting .197 this month. Its a bad a month. His defense is actually a plus 1.2 WAR. Its his stick in the negative. He will get going again. His BABIP dropped over 40 points this month and he keeps a higher then average at bat. He has struck out more but not a huge increase. This is an over reaction and not going to happen.

Addison Russell is still K'ing over 30 % this month. He has a ridiculous high BABIP of .384 and I watched him just drop a routine pop up. He isnt a lock by any stretch. Maybe they do trade Castro one day, but this isnt the year.

Starlin Castro ss
7 years/$60M (2013-19), plus 2020 option

7 years/$60M (2013-19), plus 2020 club option
signed extension with Chicago Cubs 8/28/12
$6M signing bonus
13:$5M, 14:$5M, 15:$6M, 16:$7M, 17:$9M, 18:$10M, 19:$11M, 20:$16M club option ($1M buyout)

So he has 4+ an option going on. He has strong trade value going right now.

Russell does have a .384 BABIP going right now. And he did drop a fly ball. But he is a rookie and you have to expect wild swings like this.

As far as Castro goes: He is in a major slump right now. But ask your self this: would ha give more to the team than Baez right now? We know they are not going to move Russell. They fast tracked him and just the fact they traded for him makes you think that he would take over SS at one point. The fact they have not moved Baez out of the MI is another hint.

My personal opinion: I hate seeing him bat 4th. I really hate seeing him batting 4th batting .266 more. He gives Rizzo no protection at all. I'm almost as worked up about Soler but I give him the rookie free pass.

End of the day: Soler, Baez and Russell have some maturing to do. Castro doesn't. Castro on a 21 error pace (again) just means he is that guy. This doesn't even explain why his SO rate is at a career high this year. He is not taking walks like usual. I'm kinda over it with him. I would have expected him to be more rounded as a player by this point but he is still the same error prone free swinger and is getting worse vs better with age.