All of the defensive numbers have him as being a solid defensive catcher. He has allowed 10 past balls, but thats really not a big problem considering how few extra that is over a full season. His CS% is 26% which is exactly league average. You also have to factor in the extremely young pitching staff he is working with. I think he is playing a little over his head right now, I think he settles with an OPS down around .800, which is spectacular for a catcher, but only above average for a 1B. If he does prove able to maintain this OPS, then I think you have to start platooning him at other positions because his bat becomes too valuable to ever have out of the lineup.
He's been okay. His defensive flaws aren't a lack of ability. Early in the year he was blocking everything, but since he's fallen into the habit of trying to glove everything.
When he was first drafted, he was all about defense and his CS% was way up there. Maybe it's his knee that's keeping him from being 100% defensively?
While he's a very good offensive catcher, he'd be a fairly average 1B - I'm not sure this would help the team in the long run.
He's also having the month of his life and some of his peripheral stats suggest he's getting really lucky in some ways. Most months of his career have been closer to mid-to-upper 0.700's OPS. Time will tell if he's just having a crazy hot streak or he's improving, but let's remember that last year, people were talking about Altuve and JD Martinez as the next Biggio and Bagwell.
LOL what? I have never heard anyone ever say anything close to that on any television broadcast or print story.
I'm talking about people on here. People tend to look at players at their worst and underrate them, and look at hot streaks and overrate them. Based on his minor league career and most of his major league career, I think people are overrating Castro based on a crazy hot month. Hopefully he really is improving, but his history doesn't suggest an 0.850ish OPS.
What history? His abbreviated minor league career? His adjustment to both the majors, along with his intermittent play post injury? With the promotion from the minors, and his abbreviated work load last season coming off the injury, this is actually his first full MLB season with a full complement of expected AB's. I think he's shown a natural progression... improved each and every year as you would expect for a player who is finally playing his first full season, and his 3rd year of being a pro overall. He had a pretty high ceiling coming out of Stanford, where he was considered an elite hitting prospect. Its not like we're talking about a fringe guy that was picked as a flyer in the late rounds... he was a legit first round pick.
Yes. He didn't have an 0.800 OPS in AA or AAA, and until a week ago, he was sub-0.800 in the majors too, though he has floated around that level all season. His OPS has jumped 0.050 points in a matter of a week. I am not going to assume he's suddenly an 0.850 OPS guy based on one crazy week. He may turn out to be that, which would be fantastic. But it seems pretty silly to assume it and project out based on that.
Castro had 1000 at bats in the minors with an OPS of 800 (760 if you take out his Lancaster numbers).... He has had roughly 1000 at bats in the big leagues with an OPS of 755.... He has an OPS of 865 this season, with an babip of over 351... Which is way above what it normally has.... This reeks of an outlier... I hope I am wrong, but if I had to bet. I would guess a future OPS of 750 and would be very happy with 800.
Sure. He's had a hot month... But most good seasons possess an outlier month both ways. Also he had a combined .826 OPS at high A and AA. He didn't spend much time in corpus or in AAA (63 and 57 games). I've seen improvement in his approach, and his ability to hit with power to all fields. If last season was basically an extension of his rookie season as he was coming off the injury, he's should continue to still be in the improvement curve...and his numbers are going to reflect that (may
That BABIP is not that high. He would rank 15th in the league, with all the players above him having much "better" seasons (and better players overall... Except for Chris Johnson...the overall leader). I'm not putting much stock into a fast tracked minor league career (where he was promoted less on production and more on maturity) and a MLB career that featured a 67 game debut, an acl injury, last season's minimalized schedule (only 87 games) and now. Even then, you presume he can only match his minor league ops, and not exceed it. Not sure anybody can make a conclusion on the player now based on his career to this point... Might as well take into account his college years. He likely will regress some, but I don't think this season ends up as a major outlier either. Certainly not while a player is still on the natural course of improvement given his lost season and a half due to injury.
Castro's numbers make him a top 5 offensive catcher in baseball. Is he that good? I sure hope so but I tend to doubt it.
And Molina was a career sub .750 ops till 2 years ago. He probably could end up close to top 5 overall...but I agree his current months production won't last.
