But is he hurt? He was hit by pitch in hand trade deadline week. If he's healthy he would have been a great add. But you said he would have helped the Cubs win games over the last week. Not sure a .107 hitter would have helped.
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But is he hurt? He was hit by pitch in hand trade deadline week. If he's healthy he would have been a great add. But you said he would have helped the Cubs win games over the last week. Not sure a .107 hitter would have helped.
Like most power hitters, Suárez will have hot and cold stretches, but at least he hit a home run—unlike Castro. I don’t mind playing Shaw at third base; he has the potential to be a very good player. What I didn’t like was trading for Castro, a career .247 hitter with no power.
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Castro was a solid add. He's an upgrade over Berti & Brujan. He's wasn't a fallback when Cubs didn't get Suarez, he was a depth add.
IMO when Shaw got hot after All-Star break (.300+ BA & 5 HR's), Hoyer decided to ride a top prospect.
The Cubs struggles are about half the position players struggling over an extended period. It hasn't been about bats added or not added at the deadline.
Now the Soroko add can definitely be questioned if he's done for the year and Taillon or Assad don't return at prior levels.
If Castro was a replacement for Brujan and Berti, why has he played in so many games since he got traded? He is taking playing time away from Shaw and he hasn’t done anything.
Castro has played so many games because the Cubs picked him up to be an upgrade over Berti & Brujan as backups. Castro has started at 2B, 3B, CF & RF. Fact is he's only started in place of Shaw 2x.
And yesterday's game was because the Cardinal starter was a RH whose OBP is 70 points higher against lefties. So strictly a platoon decision by Counsell.
And your criticism of Castro for "not doing anything" (4-24) in a small sample size, is funny because you excuse Suarez .107 BA average with Seattle because he runs hot & cold.
Suarez is a power hitter who can carry a team for several games. Castro is a utility player with low average and below average power. He is a good player to have in the bench but is not an impact player like Suarez
happs not the only one who is not hitting. the big pca is not hitting, tucker is not, ss is not and dansby leaves them on base . the whole team is in a funk since the all star break. something happened at that time.
Don't disagree about Suarez.
IMO if Shaw struggled after the All-Star break the Cubs would have made a serious effort to add Suarez to be the starting 3B and Hoyer would have added Castro to be a utility guy. But Shaw got hot and Hoyer decided to ride his top prospect. And according to plan, Hoyer added his utility player.
Brujan & Berti started a total of 11 games during June & July. That means, not many games off for Hoerner, Swanson, Shaw, Happ, PCA, Tucker and Suzuki. Less than 1 game a month. So that's Castro's role, to prevent the core guys from wearing down. Not being a slugger.
But since you brought it up, Castro hit 10 HR's with the Twins this year. Last year he had 48 extra base hits, so he is a solid extra-base hits guy. Similar power to Swanson & Busch. Castro is the ideal utility guy- switch hitter, solid power and can play 2B, 3B and all OF spots.
Bottom line, Castro is a significant upgrade to the bench that plays multiple positions. We did not have a guy like that and would rather have him in that role than Brujan. Hes being used exactly the way he should be and was not acquired to replace or compete with Shaw. Not sure why you are so obsessed with him, he was one of the best adds we could get without giving up a ton. You should be more upset at the massive failure to acquire a starting pitcher and how bad the Sorka trade looks if he's damaged goods that you have to hope he's healthy enough to pitch again at some point.
I'm to the point that its time to bring Caissie up and see if he can jumpstart the offense. DFA Berti who hardly plays anymore and Castro plays the same positions he can. Just do something at this point even if its bringing Mo back up for another look.
I'm to the point that its time to bring Caissie up and see if he can jumpstart the offense. DFA Berti who hardly plays anymore and Castro plays the same positions he can. Just do something at this point even if its bringing Mo back up for another look.
He is a good utility player but not an impact player that we desperately need now. The Cubs management is and has been a cheapskate for decades. I had really high hopes for this team but now we will be lucky to make the playoff.
We have potential impact players in Iowa right now if they would give 1 of them a chance. Problem is they are blocked from playing everyday unless they commit to getting them 3-4 starts a week by using the DH and giving some of the regulars a day off. I don't know what else Caissie has left to do in his second year of AAA ball now and Mo Ball offensively is at that point too but he's still getting development work in behind the plate. It is what it is at this point, can't turn back the clock and trade for an impact bat now so it will have to come from within the organization. Alcantara is healthy again and starting to heat up as well lately. I said it earlier if they aren't willing to trade top prospects for other needs then they need to start making paths for them to play soon as they don't do any good sitting in Iowa or barely playing when they do get called up. The front office has not had a great vision for roster construction lately IMO.
It almost seems like the players gave up and started mailing it in when they saw the front office do nothing to significantly improve the team at the deadline. And yeah, at this point I don’t think I’d be interested in playing the Tucker sweepstakes game, he’s not worth that coin.
Good insight from a players perspective. I really think the front office doing basically nothing has collapsed the motivation in this team.
0:34 in. Watch.
So far, it’s a much better showing… 6-0 Cubs still in the top of the second!
