The Phillies released second baseman Luis Castillo, tweets Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. It was a brief trial for Castillo, who was picked up nine days ago after the Mets released him on March 18th. All along, the understanding was that Castillo would make the Phillies out of Spring Training or be released.
Phillies second baseman Chase Utley is dealing with chronic knee pain, and hasn't offered a timetable aside from saying he aims to be back before the All-Star break. GM Ruben Amaro Jr. currently isn't thinking about putting Utley on the 60-day DL. While he's out, the Phillies will apparently go with Wilson Valdez and some combination of Michael Martinez, Pete Orr, and Delwyn Young. The Phillies opened a spot on the 40-man roster yesterday by outrighting Matt Rizzotti, which according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer means a spot is open for either Young or Mike Stutes (Twitter link).
Well that was fast.
Frandsen starting??
Well, there goes the playoff hope of the Phillies this year.
Valdez take it from here!
I think (hope) this means utleys injury is healing and it won’t belong til he plays again
Harold Garcia!
Castillo should just retire
Maybe the Nationals get him lol. They picked up Perez, now how about Castillo!
Does Julio Lugo have a team? His career should be a nice thing for Castillo to look at.
Isn’t Castillo the Met equivalent of Jeter? The only thing is that the fans love Jeter and the fans hated Castillo.
Certainly, both of them are old, slow with little power.
I’m not even a Jeter fan, but this statement is so ridiculous, I cried.
A bit hyperbolic, but I liked it 😀
Cut your hair
1000 interweb points
That’s gotta be worth more than that.
Eh i’m a Met fan and there is no comparison. aside from them both being middle infielders. Also I hate Jeter for being overpaid, he still has ML value though, unlike Castillo.
dude, jeter is a carrer yankee, castillo just like 3 years a met…sonso!!
Yep, three things in common must mean that EVERYTHING is the same. Brilliant!
“Well, that was a complete waste of time”
-Kip Dynamite
Boom. Outta here.
Luis, we hardly knew ye.
thats to bad, i hope he to sign with another team hes a good palyer, u dont need to be smart to know that he has a couples good years left…
Actually, the smart folks can tell he’s shot. Sorry to burst the bubble.
u know who castillo is?
I agree?
And most of the dumb folks can tell too.
lol
Lol at your Mets being another 400k deeper in the hole.
right, cause thats going to make such a huge difference…
could be a difference between signing a tough-sign draftee and losing him to college.
Mets should get in on this guy.
Castillo gets 6 million from the Mets this year, so don’t cry for him. He made 24 million off of those poor idiots because Omar thought Castillo was worth it.
If he couldn’t make the Phillies who are desperate to have someone decent 2b, it says all you need to know about who he is as a player at this point.
As for him being blamed for all the Mets recent failures, I think Oliver Perez, Omar, the Wilpons, Reyes, Beltran, etc. all get their fair share of blame.
That whole organization is a pock mark on baseball. Getting rid of Castillo, Oliver Perez is a big step in fixing the clubhouse. Once Reyes, Beltran and the Wilpons are gone, the team can start to rebuild itself again.
And for the record, the guy who did the most damage to clubhouse was Carlos Delgado. He’s a clubhouse cancer.
Reyes and Beltran were injured. They both tried to suit up and wanted to play. How are you lumping them with the likes of Ollie and Minaya?
And Delgado was never a “clubhouse cancer.”
.265/.361/.548 “Cancer” >>> “strong clubhouse presence” no production.
Intangibles = overblown myth.
Hey Jermaine Dye needs a golf partner…
lol maybe the mets sign him lol
lol no lol…lol lol lol
Valdez? Heh….
If he wanted to stick with the Phils, he probably shouldn’t have taken his sweet old time showing up to their camp. Great first impression.
Rotten Phillies, never even gave Castillo a chance.
they did but he didnt show up the first day and made it late to the ballpark the next day and missed his ST game.
Now thats dedication…
Apparently the phillies didn’t give him a chance either 😛
Tadahito Iguchi is lookin for a job!
It’s because he dropped a pop-up during infield drills.
a bad rap? the guy is a washed up ball player. you would think that a guy who has been playing with the mets for the past 3 years, meaning that they did not have a good shot at winning anything, would actually show up on time to the phils camp knowign that if he made the team there is a good chance to make the playoffs? he is old, slow, cant field, singles hitter offer something? any indiciation of his ability he would have made the phils and not have been released by the mets.
Your delusional my friend. He hasn’t lost some range, he has lost all of his range. Im a die hard Mets fan trust me I know. Guy is a shell of his former gold glove self, and can no longer beat out his slap and bunt hits which makes him useless. Not reporting to camp on time when everyone expects you to also doesnt help either. Hang em up slappy!
i agree i didnt think he played that bad for the phillies got on base, scored runs moved runners up and even stole a base , i think the fact that he is one dimensional , only a second baseman ,hurt his chances with the phillies all the other guys mentioned can play multiple positions and when your team is as old as the phillies are i guess you need that kinda stuff , Hammers Vs Man U this weekend we need a victory to escape relegation , so go easy on us rooney
Are you his agent or something? He’s awful with the glove and has zero power. His only skill is to provide an empty OBP to a lineup. Castillo is trash at this point.
i would take a draw , too but i think olympic stadiums is as good as theirs ,
DEMBA BA!
Why would the Pirates need Castillo? Neil Walker is a lock at 2B, and they don’t need another backup.
Castillo has no use. Yes, he still has a good eye, but you can have a guy move runners over with actual hits that go beyond the infield dirt. He can’t hit, he can’t field, his legs are brittle, and he has a defeatist attitude (every reporter says he’s a sulker in the clubhouse). He simply doesn’t provide enough to warrant a spot on a 25-man roster.
I don’t understand where the hostility comes from. I don’t think it racial, but I can see why some writers have spit balled at that, because there has been an anomisty towards him that just seems way over blown. I mean I’ve heard people complaining that he doesn’t smile and things far more ridiculous and nasty. I met him at an outdoor fundraiser in midtown a few years back and he was humble, soft-spoken, and an absolute gentleman. I think people just forget themselves sometimes and spout-off at the mouth or keyboard. I think it’s just a case of a career sputtering out unfortunetly and instead of feeling compasion for him, people hate on him. At least just look at it as a cautionary tale of quiting while your ahead, or more specificaly to baseball, if your agent gets you a contract way beyond what you can deliver, the money might not be worth making a pariah out of yourself.
Why would anyone want a backup infielder who can’t play any position other than 2b and who has no speed on the base paths and no power? Nothing about Castillo’s game should give him a roster spot over anyone who has at least 2 out of 3 of those.
2008: -9.5 UZR/150
2009: -12.7 UZR/150
2010: +6.7 UZR/150
2010 is the outlier, he’s well below average defensively.
He also trips on stairs and has great feet.
“If Castillo is trash the Phillies would never have considered him” Logical fallacy. Just because a team employs a player doesn’t mean he isn’t trash. By your logic, no player who ever played for a team would ever be trash.
No, that just tells me that the voters are idiots.
Proven once again in 2010 with Jeter.
But Dan McCutchen doesn’t play CF :confused:
Because I don’t write about baseball? Would writing about baseball improve my intelligence?
How many logical fallacies are you going to employ today?
Clearly I’m feeding a troll… but…
I’ve watched every inning of every Mets game for the past three years that Castillo was on the team. I am a Mets fan, but I am also one of the few that seems to separate emotion from reality. I don’t hate Castillo because he’s fat, or hispanic, or because he dropped that pop-up against the Yankees. I dislike him because he’s a bad baseball player and has been since the Mets traded for him.
truth. if a player plays a full 162 game season and puts up a +50 UZR (yeah i know, dream on) but falters at the plate and can’t put up a .700 OPS, he will get no consideration for the GOLD GLOVE AWARD.
No one said he was a strong positive presence….. 😛
Yeah, thats weird, cause the mets were a good team whenever Carlos Delgado was healthy for them.
Not to mention he absolutely carried them in 08 and was the only reason they were in it at the end. Without him, that bullpen would have put them out of contention before the last week of September.
*facepalm*
Andrew mccutchen not dan mccutchin
Is that you Rex?
I don’t understand why anyone would think the Pirates would trade Andrew McCutchen, and put a 35 year old player who can’t hit in his place. After years of mismanagement and half-ass attempts, the current Pirates GM and front office bit the bullet and committed to a ground-up rebuilding, the kind of youth movement not seen in Pittsburgh since 1987 or so.
As with any youth movement, you’d expect all veteran players with any value to get traded, while building a core of younger players. The Pirates of the late 1980s/early 1990s were built around Barry Bonds, while the current Pirates team is clearly built around Andrew McCutchen. It would make no sense to trade him.
IT WAS A JOKE
lol
Not defending LC but there are a lot of guys that had the dubious distinction of being worse or just as bad than LC both defensively and offensively last year.
LC had a 2.8 UZR, a eye sore of an ISO of 0.33 and a wOBA of .285
Julio Lugo
Elvis Andrus (upside….youth)
Ryan Theriot
Chone Figgins (upside…SB)
Josh Wilson
Asdrubal Cabrera (upside….still relatively young)
Christian Guzman
Skip Schumaker
Pedro Feliz
Eric Aybar
Adam LaRoche
To his credit, LC had a decent UZR last year and he had the 3rd highest BB% of any SS/2B with at least 200 AB.
Intangibles of course!
Damn you and your logic… Just kidding, good post as always putting things in perspective.
Lol, for a second there I thought yanksfansince78 just responded to himself
I figured it must have been an attempt at humor… not much of a punchline, though. :shrug: