If we dont sign a decent SP, it really doesnt matter how good Barmes, Hardy, Willingham or Castro are
Well Meyers/Wandy/Happ is a decent starting front 3, hopefully Norris can continue to improve, and Figurora was fine in the 5 slot last year.
agreed.....but if we could land a guy who would be our 1 or 2....and push Fig or Bud down to 5, we could win that division
Nelson Figueroa's career high in starts was 13 (2001, Phillies). While possible, it is highly unlikely that Figueroa will top that in 2011.
Cliff Lee my friend, their is no other pitcher that would do that. Greinke would cost us our only viable minor leaguers and they've already said they wouldn't do that. According to a few different sources, he wants 7 years and neither the Yanks or Rangers want to do that. Also more teams then those two are in on Lee and the Stros have been linked in the past soooo....I wouldn't hold your breath but if that is what you want then that's the guy.
Evaluating the draft pick is one conversation (and not every top-10 draft pick pans out in MLB). But is there anything in Castro's history that suggests he will improve to a .250 or better hitter? (I'm not asking rhetorically, either: I didn't follow Castro very closely, and I am actually asking because I don't know.)
Castro is a patient hitter. He hit for a decent average in the minors. He started slowly at every level and then started to improve. Wouldn't be surprising to see him do the same in the majors.
Well in the minor leagues he was an above average hitter. He had a few season of hitting for around .300. Plus his OBP was very good, around the .375 range.
Those holding out hope for Jason Barlett, it's expected he's going to be swapped with Nolan Reimold of the Orioles.
True but Castro is Wade/Heck's poster boy and for him to fail would be VERY bad. They chose him because we NEEDED a catcher in the system and rushed him up to the bigs because they believed he could do it. In the minors Castro was a .300 hitter at AA and .265 at AAA with high a OBP. He needs to get up to .250 with a strong OBP to have progressed IMHO.
