Odds and Ends: Castillo, Avila, Young

Wasn't this expected when signing Castillo. Look at 2006-2007. Injuries, dropping OPS, low SLG, etc. Only thing that looks too different from his Twins time was his BA. Omar knew what was coming.

Giants shouldn't trade for Delmon Young. He has great potential, but the Giants NEED INFIELD POWER. Delmon won't be playing the IF anytime soon.

"Mets GM Omar Minaya regrets the Luis Castillo contract."

Re-read it. He doesn't regret signing Castillo. He just wouldn't have given him a 4-year contract judging by how he played this year.

Minaya admitting he sucks....now lets go out and reward him with a contract extention for another 4 years like they did after choking and missing the playoffs the past 2 years.

I don't really see why the Giants are so hell bent on keeping Lewis around. He has tons of speed and can hit, but his defense is terrible and he is already nearly 28 years old. Also, I think the infield talent they have is decent, especially if they can play Sandoval at 3B. That would leave 2B as their only position of real need, as Ishikawa proved he can play.

An OF of Schierholtz, Rowand and Young would be a positive.

"And Delmon Young hit all of 10 homeruns this season, so I don't see how adding him is a big step up from Fred Lewis (9), Randy Winn (10) and Aaron Rowand (13)."

There is a big difference working there. Young is just 1 month removed from his 23rd birthday and had a lot of bad luck this year, especially earlier in the season.

"Don't forget Minyana giving Pedro a 4 year contract either. Who knows? castillo might turn out better."

Minaya has been bitten by injuries on both those contracts. Remember that Pedro was dominant in the first year of his contract. It was only later that he was hurt.

"Wasn't this expected when signing Castillo."

Not really....The belief was that the contract was 2 years too long, but that had little to no bearing on what people expected out of him in 2008-2009.

[quote]Look at 2006-2007. Injuries, dropping OPS, low SLG, etc.[/quote]

2006 142 G, 728 OPS
2007 135 G, 721 OPS
2008 87 G, 660 OPS

(He has a Career 722 OPS, and averaged 138 Games/Year since 1999 for comparisons sake)

Those aspects were not dropping off in the least.....and he always had a low SLG, so I'm not sure how that's relevant.

Unless your Nostradamus, that's a pretty hard drop-off to predict for 2008.

Giants fans neglect to give Nate a fair shot? Its not us that decides...

Giants fans have been calling for Winn's trade all season to get Nate in...

This might be a totally stupid idea, but hear me out....

Castillo won't get the Mets anything worthwhile in the trade market and eating his contract is just plain dumb IMO. Hudson is also coming off of injuries. Why don't we sign Hudson, and let both Castillo and him rehab during the off season? Next year, we can have them both platoon at 2nd base. Here's some potential outcomes:

Awesome: Both of them are productive = you have a decent trade chip for the trade deadline next year

Not too bad: One of them ends up sucking = you have one good 2nd baseman and a crappy trade chip at the deadline next year.

If this happened I would bang my head on the corner of my desk repeatedly: Both end up sucking, and Mets fans drink themselves to oblivion for a third straight year while struggling to come up with retorts to insults from Philly fans.

I love how people think Luis Castillo is somehow the reason the Mets didn't make the playoffs. It is a laughable theory. Sure, he stunk, but he hardly cost us anything. This can be said for any team, but the Mets gave away a ricidulous number of games, both bullpen and offense. A ton. Scrape one more win out of the 20 or so you gave away and you are in a play-in game. Scrape 2 and you are the NLE winner. Win a minsicule 5 out of 20 that you gave away, and we are not having this conversation.

I admit I exaggerated a bit above. However, while Castillo was not THE factor, he was definitely A factor in the lost race this year. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I know that the Mets winning percentage was way down during the periods of time this season that he was active. Coincidence? Maybe....but from what I saw from his at-bats, the (clutch?) double-plays he hit should make him an MVP contender for some of those opposing teams.

As for the bullpen, I think we've exhausted how much they blew it....not to mention the lack of late-game run production for a decent majority of the season.

Paulio, I wasn't even necesarrily singling you out. I have heard a lot of people blame Castillo for the whole season. It just annoys me, because it isn't really like you expect big production out of the second base position. The bullpen stunk, yeah, but I still think with some LF type production out of LF the Mets easily make the playoffs. Which is why I love signing Ramirez. I think that move alone makes the Mets the team to beat, even without making any bullpen moves. Some of the current Mets bullpen guys will rebound, some won't. Parnell or Kunz could step up. You could invite some guys to spring training and see who sticks. Look through the rule 5 draft. But I would rather sign Manny then K-Rod if I can only have one. Bring back the same group of guys plus a bunch of invitees and minor league pickups.

I am not saying that is the way to go, but I think doing that, along with signing Manny gets the Mets into the playoffs next year, which is all I want. There is no reason that they couldn't sign Manny and make some lower cost bullpen moves, I was just trying to make a point that Manny alone, in 2008, would have made the Mets a playoff team. Probably pretty easily too.

And as somebody already mentioned, the Mets got awful defense out of 2B all year, excpet for a handful of games Argenis Reyes played, but he canceled out that defense by providing nothing at all with the stick. If Daniel Murphy can play 2B at any kind of level that isn't just completely embarrasing, then I give him the job and live with his bat over there. I don't care about the rightside of the infield. We have a flyball staff anyway besides Pelfrey, and like I said, if Murphy can just field what he can get too, and make good throws, that is all I want if he can provide a .300/.370/.450 type of line. I know some people don't believe he can provide that. I do. This is not Shane Spencer, or another guy who came up and hit a ton of bombs off pitchers. He came up, had immediate success, and then faltered a bit. But after pitchers adjusted, Murphy did not do as most rookies do, and get down on himself and struggle. After a little while, he made the adjustments and got hot again. He has had some big hits. The one that comes to mind most is coming in and hitting a 2 run double off Brad Lidge as a pinch hitter.

Murphy has a great eye, and approaches every at bat like he is going to war. He is not a typical rookie hitter. He knows what he wants to do when he comes up, and he does not give in to the pitcher. He really battles through every at bat. In 151 PA, he saw 4.3 P/PA. People look at his BABIP of .382 and say he was lucky, but that can be explained by his insane 33.3 LD%. The guy hits a linedrive every 3 at bats. I have not seen a hitter with a better approach at a young age in my life. As a pure hitter, he reminds me of Kevin Youkilis. It is my honest opinion that during the time that Daniel Murphy was playing everyday (or atleast in a platoon with Evans), there was no Met who approached at bats better on a regular basis then Murphy. His only blemish all year is that weird instance where he tried to bunt with 2 strikes, which was certainly strange, but he should never have been nunting in the first place.

I think, as a Met fan, we can NOT trade Daniel Murphy. He is the exact type of hitter this team needs.

Believe me, after watching Delmon all year long for the Twins....he does NOT have a high ceiling. Yes, he is only 23 and will continue to evolve - but there are two main problems:
1) He has an old man's body. In the field he is like a late 30's outfielder, i.e. Ken Griffey or Jermaine Dye. He's stiff, not agile and misjudges balls. Brutal. And he will NOT get better in this regard. He has the frame and genetics (e.g. Dimitri) to get bigger and less agile. He will probably only get worse defensively.
2) Hitting. He is stubborn and has frustrated some of the best and easiest going coaches in MLB (Gardenhire, Vavra, etc). He is very undisciplined at the plate - which yes might improve as he ages. But he seems to purposely not hit for power. He is more influenced by his dad and brother who have encouraged him to hit inside out and hit the ball away. So, he has hit for .280-.290. However, that is inflated on the hard turf in the Metrodome and will change as the Twins go outside after next year. Plus, he was brought in as a power hitting corner outfielder to solve the Twins power problem. No way, maybe he'll hit .280 with 15 home runs and 90 RBI's some day....but most teams want more power out of a corner outfielder. Plus there is the fielding liability - which overall makes him a very average player and not a high potential guy at all.

The best thing the Twins could do is to trade him before other teams realize that his ceiling IS low. If the Twins could trade him for a power hitting, good fielding third basemen (Adrian Beltre - .265 with 25 home runs) it would be great ! I don't care if Adrian is only good for another 2-3 years, I'd pull the trigger today!!!!