Starlin Castro Watch Thread

[Parade_Rain]

Not quite.

McThoyer are looking for the sabremetrics players, high OBPs, a lot of walks. A big reason Rizzo has a high OBP right now. Castro is not, has not, and will not ever be a player who takes walks. Castro takes many first pitch strikes, and that's what kills him. The kid's swing is that good, he doesn't need to take walks.

Thinking is added in because the cubs are trying to make him into a hitter he's not. Castro has always been aggressive, its his MO. After very hittable first pitches he takes in the zone, pitcher paint the corner till he Ks or becomes an easy out. **** taking first pitches, Castro sucks when he does. Let the kid hit.

Has nothing to do with "taking first pitches." Long term, successful hitters have a plan at the plate.

 

[patg006]

Has nothing to do with "taking first pitches." Long term, successful hitters have a plan at the plate.

Vladamir Guerrero and Hanley Ramirez say hello. Ichiro too.

Similar batting attitudes to Castro. Aggressive every at bat. Which is what I'm talking about.

What do you define as 'a plan at the plate?'

Getting on? Making contact? Advance runners? Congrats, everybody plans to do that.

Waiting for their pitches? Yeah, players do that too. Sometimes its the first pitch, sometimes its the 10th after fouling 9 off.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Ramirez walks at a slightly higher rate as has Guerrero. 8% for the latter. Castro is 5%. Chris Davis is taking off this season in part because of better plate discipline.

 

[patg006]

Ramirez walks at a slightly higher rate as has Guerrero. 8% for the latter. Castro is 5%. Chris Davis is taking off this season in part because of better plate discipline.

Good for Chris Davis. Castro is not the same kind of hitter he is.....and my point is that trying to make him like Chris Davis wont work. Let him swing like Vlad, thats when he's at his best.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Good for Chris Davis. Castro is not the same kind of hitter he is.....and my point is that trying to make him like Chris Davis wont work. Let him swing like Vlad, thats when he's at his best.

He hasn't ever "swung like Vlad". Even Vlad walked a little more.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[chibears55]

After very hittable first pitches he takes in the zone, pitcher paint the corner till he Ks or becomes an easy out. **** taking first pitches, Castro sucks when he does. Let the kid hit.

career first pitch 301 PA .298 AVG .469 SLG .774 OPS

career 1 and 0 count 163 PA .348 Avg .472 SLG .816 OPS

career 0 and 1 count 232 AB .358 AVG .470 SLG .830 OPS

1 and 1 count 207 AB .348 AVG .522 SLG .868 OPS

yes he good when he attacks that first pitch, but he also real good on 2nd and 3rd pitches too

the killer with castro like most hitters is the 1 and 2 , and 0 and 2 counts


the kid having a bad year to date, instead of writing him off, lets hope he can turn it around.. he came out like fire his first 2 yrs, last year he dropped a bit and this year he has sucked for 3 mos., lets see how he responds these last 3 months. he 7 for 24 in his last 5 games .291 since the benching, hopefully that benching was a start of a wake up call for the kid and he can stay close to a .300 AVG for the rest of the season.

hell ryno first 2 yrs he hit .271 ( 22 Yo ) and .261 ( 23 YO ) before his 1984 year, good thing they didnt trade him after he regressed

 

[KBisBack!]

Thinking is added in because the cubs are trying to make him into a hitter he's not.

Great point.

If they really are trying to make him more patient and take more walks they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and that is terrible, terrible management by the front office.

You want players to take advantage of their strengths and eliminate their weakness.

What they are trying to have Castro do is take advantage of his weakness and eliminate his strength. It clearly isn't working.

You can't force all players into the precious sabermetric mold. It just doesn't work for everyone.*




* = 100% baseball related content

 

[Boobaby1]

You can't force all players into the precious sabermetric mold. It just doesn't work for everyone.*

It worked for everyone in the movie "Moneyball". opcorn:

 

[mountsalami]

We all know this team is not serious about winning.....

So why the hell not have Rob Deer assist Castro in his plate approach like he has been ?

Castro has to do what's best for the team.

Sorry to see Marmol off the team too. He would have been able to continue to assist in this trainwreck for top draft positioning.

I guess Command Central milked the situation all they could.

Fans need to learn to be more patient. This is all carefully designed to happen so our "rewarding journey" can take place.

 

[Boobaby1]

Sorry to see Marmol off the team too. He would have been able to continue to assist in this trainwreck for top draft positioning.

I hope the Cubs don't have to check the bat boys medicals before this trade is done.

 

[mountsalami]

I hope the Cubs don't have to check the bat boys medicals before this trade is done.

I'm sure that Hemmoroidys is capable of helping them translate the medical terminology if there are any questions. :clap:

 

[patg006]

He hasn't ever "swung like Vlad". Even Vlad walked a little more.

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So we take things literally? Great. Another police officer from the semantics department.

Of course he doesn't swing like Vlad. Vlad had a funky, neanderthal swing.

I was citing the similarities in their aggression at the plate. Something that you have only countered with groundbreaking statements like "even Vlad walked a little more."

No way :dontsay: Vlad only played for 15 years, Starlin is in his 4th. Vlad's best year was 2002, when he was a silver slugger/30-30, 4th in MVP behind Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Berkman, and was an allstar with 39 HR and 84 BBs. Starlin will likely not take 84 walks in a year ever. But that was the highest amount of walks ever taken by Vlad in his career. He took 70 in 2007, but otherwise it was numbers predominantly in 50s, 30s, 40s once, and 60s once.

But lets be honest, is Vlad getting into the HOF because he took 84 walks in a season as an aggressive hitter? **** no. He's getting in because he was one of the best damn free swinging hitters in baseball during his era. The expos let him be him, the angels let him be him, neither fucked around with something that didn't need to be fixed.

I'm not saying Castro doesn't need to be fixed, but I would work on his attention span and defense before I would have his bat. The only thing I would have tried to add to his plate approach is muscle so he gets more power. I'd love if Starlin could pop 20+ home runs.

I'm not comparing Starlin to Vlad in player stats. I'm comparing personalities at the plate. Both are aggressive swingers from the Dominican Republic (I'm noting the trend of swingers from there tend to be this way.)

KB restated my point. You dont try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Starlin isnt a sabremetric player like Rizzo or Chris Davis. Let the kid be him, thats how he was a successful 200+ hit per year player. Dont make him something he is not, because then he puts up shit numbers like this year.

 

[Parade_Rain]

So we take things literally? Great. Another police officer from the semantics department.

Of course he doesn't swing like Vlad. Vlad had a funky, neanderthal swing.

I was citing the similarities in their aggression at the plate. Something that you have only countered with groundbreaking statements like "even Vlad walked a little more."

No way :dontsay: Vlad only played for 15 years, Starlin is in his 4th. Vlad's best year was 2002, when he was a silver slugger/30-30, 4th in MVP behind Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Berkman, and was an allstar with 39 HR and 84 BBs. Starlin will likely not take 84 walks in a year ever. But that was the highest amount of walks ever taken by Vlad in his career. He took 70 in 2007, but otherwise it was numbers predominantly in 50s, 30s, 40s once, and 60s once.

But lets be honest, is Vlad getting into the HOF because he took 84 walks in a season as an aggressive hitter? **** no. He's getting in because he was one of the best damn free swinging hitters in baseball during his era. The expos let him be him, the angels let him be him, neither fucked around with something that didn't need to be fixed.

I'm not saying Castro doesn't need to be fixed, but I would work on his attention span and defense before I would have his bat. The only thing I would have tried to add to his plate approach is muscle so he gets more power. I'd love if Starlin could pop 20+ home runs.

I'm not comparing Starlin to Vlad in player stats. I'm comparing personalities at the plate. Both are aggressive swingers from the Dominican Republic (I'm noting the trend of swingers from there tend to be this way.)

KB restated my point. You dont try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Starlin isnt a sabremetric player like Rizzo or Chris Davis. Let the kid be him, thats how he was a successful 200+ hit per year player. Dont make him something he is not, because then he puts up shit numbers like this year.

There was nothing in my post that was discussing the similarities or differences in Guerrero's and Castro's pre-swing style or core swing movements.

 

[Mr. Cub]

So we take things literally? Great. Another police officer from the semantics department.

Of course he doesn't swing like Vlad. Vlad had a funky, neanderthal swing.

I was citing the similarities in their aggression at the plate. Something that you have only countered with groundbreaking statements like "even Vlad walked a little more."

No way :dontsay: Vlad only played for 15 years, Starlin is in his 4th. Vlad's best year was 2002, when he was a silver slugger/30-30, 4th in MVP behind Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Berkman, and was an allstar with 39 HR and 84 BBs. Starlin will likely not take 84 walks in a year ever. But that was the highest amount of walks ever taken by Vlad in his career. He took 70 in 2007, but otherwise it was numbers predominantly in 50s, 30s, 40s once, and 60s once.

But lets be honest, is Vlad getting into the HOF because he took 84 walks in a season as an aggressive hitter? **** no. He's getting in because he was one of the best damn free swinging hitters in baseball during his era. The expos let him be him, the angels let him be him, neither fucked around with something that didn't need to be fixed.

I'm not saying Castro doesn't need to be fixed, but I would work on his attention span and defense before I would have his bat. The only thing I would have tried to add to his plate approach is muscle so he gets more power. I'd love if Starlin could pop 20+ home runs.

I'm not comparing Starlin to Vlad in player stats. I'm comparing personalities at the plate. Both are aggressive swingers from the Dominican Republic (I'm noting the trend of swingers from there tend to be this way.)

KB restated my point. You dont try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Starlin isnt a sabremetric player like Rizzo or Chris Davis. Let the kid be him, thats how he was a successful 200+ hit per year player. Dont make him something he is not, because then he puts up shit numbers like this year.

Just like Aramis was too. Another aggressive Dominican hitter. He is a consistent .290ish hitter who doesn't strike out much or walk a ton. I think in 2011 he even led the league in first pitch HR's or something close to that. They need to just let him hit the way he knows how and was successful at. I believe them trying to "fix" him and make him more patient is what's probably ruining him.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Just like Aramis was too. Another aggressive Dominican hitter. He is a consistent .290ish hitter who doesn't strike out much or walk a ton. I think in 2011 he even led the league in first pitch HR's or something close to that. They need to just let him hit the way he knows how and was successful at. I believe them trying to "fix" him and make him more patient is what's probably ruining him.

Ramirez BB% for his career is almost 2x better than what Castro is doing this season. Castro has expanded his zone with 2 strikes, which accounts for the increase in K%, too. Don't forget that Ramirez regularly had better offensive players with him in the Cubs lineup, too. I believe that is partly the reason for both Castro's and Rizzo's current struggles, too.

 

[The Bandit]

Vladamir Guerrero and Hanley Ramirez say hello. Ichiro too.

Similar batting attitudes to Castro. Aggressive every at bat. Which is what I'm talking about.

What do you define as 'a plan at the plate?'

Getting on? Making contact? Advance runners? Congrats, everybody plans to do that.

Waiting for their pitches? Yeah, players do that too. Sometimes its the first pitch, sometimes its the 10th after fouling 9 off.

Vlad especially, that dude could hit off his shoe tops. Castro needs to revert back to what he was before and stop trying to be more patient.

 

[patg006]

There was nothing in my post that was discussing the similarities or differences in Guerrero's and Castro's pre-swing style or core swing movements.

You nitpicked my relation to Starlin swinging the way he was, IE free like Vlad did/Starlin did before sabremetrics. Not the greatest wording in world history I admit, but we understand each other.

 

[Parade_Rain]

You nitpicked my relation to Starlin swinging the way he was, IE free like Vlad did/Starlin did before sabremetrics. Not the greatest wording in world history I admit, but we understand each other.

I didn't "nitpick" it at all. I pointed out that Guerrero historically took more walks than Castro. So does Ramirez, etc. Castro does have room for improvement. He swings at too many pitches out of the zone right now, particularly with 2 strikes. This was the reference to Davis. Right now he is only swinging at 26% of pitches out of the zone. Last year he was at a 36% clip. If Castro tightens up his zone a bit, he's going to be a much better hitter again.

 

[mountsalami]

**** Castro.

He's been a worthless pile of shit and only has himself to blame for it.

There is no one in this Cubs line-up that the opposing pitchers need to fear.

That's on the owner and McThoyer.

With that being said. The Cubs record doesn't tell the whole story. :fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap::fap:

 

[nwfisch]

http://worldseriesdreaming.com/2013/07/04/throw-castro-under-the-bus/

Throw Castro under the bus after getting thrown out at home?

In games decided by one run it takes just one mistake to change the outcome. In the Fourth of July game against the A’s, the Cubs came close to scoring a run in the fourth inning with Starlin Castro on second base.