They rested John Lackey. They put him on DL to rest his injury. He wasn't hurt and it was a precautionary move that the Cubs could afford to do because of their lead in the division. Yes they had bad luck against the Dodgers twice. I think I know what I'm talking about as I've watched this team a lot more than you have.
^Can you two tone down your love fest? It's apparent in every subforum. We all get it by now. You two have some weird Chicago beef.
I'm just in his head. I guess the Bill O'Reilly comment must've really gotten to him because he's been extra sensitive as of late.
Interesting. It doesn't seem to be affecting their W-L or catcher ERA. Perhaps being offset by Gattis' hitting and throwing abilities?
Like I said, "for whatever it's worth". Catcher's ERA is a terrible stat, there has to be something better, right? I will say, and this is just me, but the guy that allows many times more balls to go to the backstop is not the guy you want your pitching staff of breaking-ball-throwers to pitch to regularly. Gattis needs to get better at that, pronto. As long as his knees can handle it, that would let him catch ~110 games next year.
Agreed. He isn't the long term answer. But the fact that he's catching as often as he is speaks volumes to what the front office and Hinch value in his skills. Forget the ERA...the team is winning games with him back there, and none of the pitching staff has suffered under the lack of Castro's presence. And it may just be anecdotal, but Castro has shown some regression as of late in terms of keeping balls in front of him. Teams also aren't running on Gattis as much. They still do run on Castro. Gattis' arm has probably been the most unexpected plus from this whole move. Having a place to put him other than DH (and having better DH options) was a key facet that needed improvement for this offense (especially with the Gomez debacle).
Impressive if we get the sweep. It's an A's team that has gotten 6 wins on the rangers. I have a feeling Altuve has a 4 hit game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> vs <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Athletics?src=hash">#Athletics</a> - Wed<br><br>Gurriel in LF...Springer gets half day...Gattis at C...Hernandez in RF <a href="https://t.co/6ZCuikQgLu">pic.twitter.com/6ZCuikQgLu</a></p>— Angel Verdejo Jr. (@ahverdejo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ahverdejo/status/771003277026537472">August 31, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Just saw this reply. That was NOT a terrible throw. A terrible throw gives the catcher no chance to make a play. The fact that the throw didn't bounce and had good velocity enabled Castro to make a good play.
It was a shallow hit ball though... in a ballpark where LF is naturally shallow. I would expect the average to above avg. OF to get it home on the fly. A more accurate throw has him out by several feet... the fact that Castro was able to go get the ball and slide back to tag the runner supports the shorter distance of a play. (just noticed that MLBN broke it down... 229 ft throw at 91 MPH... not bad but there have been better ones from Rasmus alone).
Terrible, no... but I'd say a good throw would have been on-line. That was more a tremendous play by Castro than a good throw by Rasmus.
The only thing I'll give Rasmus in terms of being on-line is that, from the spot he caught the ball (close to the foul line), and with the ball being relatively shallow (creating a lower arc on the throw), a throw directly to the catcher has a decent chance of hitting the runner. And even moreso if the runner veers inside the line at all. Therefore, I understand why Rasmus was aiming to the 1st base side of the plate slightly rather than directly to the plate or even towards the runner (where a RF or CF would aim). His throw sailed of course...but somewhat because he was already forced to push it that way. But yeah still expect better next time.
Not sure if it was my comment that prompted you and I am certainly not disagreeing with your data, but I have seen 2 balls get past Castro over the last week and both, IMO, were the result of him just trying glove breaking balls in the dirt as opposed to moving his body. Both were ruled wild pitches as well. Last night it resulted in a run. It is frustrating considering he is supposedly a defensive minded catcher.
He's better than Gattis... but he's not at the level that Ausmus was, even in the twilight of Ausmus' career. He's been caught flat-footed on those passed balls/WP's this year more and more as of late.
Agreed that he is better than Gattis, but at least Gattis would have moved his body to try and block the balls rather than just stick his glove out. Albeit, the ball would probably just go under his glove and through his legs, but still...
Gattis with 110 games at catcher sounds great, however, could be asking too much. He was injured both seasons in ATL with a max 93 GP at C. The injury earlier this season can't help. Eighty games could be his peak.
