After some talk about Bobby V's criticism of Castro's focus last year, the Hobbiton Press has some quotes from Castro about the new hitting coach and whether he'll change his approach.
"I don't have to change," he said. "The walks and those kinds of things, they're coming. I try to be more patient, but right now, the pitchers are throwing strikes. That's all I can do, swing the bat. If the pitcher doesn't throw strikes, I don't swing. A lot of guys are (first-pitch hitters), and the hitting coach, he likes that. He said if you know your pitch, swing, even if it's the first pitch."
All right, I’m convinced. Castro is the new bad guy. BURN HIM BURN HIM BURN HIM!
Seems like what he’s saying is that he’ll adjust when the pitcher adjust. No big deal. Of course Sullivan wrote it up salaciously, because he’s a piece of shit. Anyone got Castro’s out-of-zone swing % handy?
It’s 41%,up from his past two years of 33%. He’s swinging more overall and making contact less frequently, both in and out of the strike zone, so there is definitely some adjustments he can make to at least get back to his normal.
@ josh:
Yeah, he clearly needs to alter his approach. It’s too bad Sullivan’s calling out the pitchfork brigade for him already.
Yeah, the fact his O-Swing% is much higher than the previous 2 years leads me to believe that Castro does need to change.
o-swing, and the fact that his bb% is down to 2.2%. no one gets thrown that many strikes, kid.
i hate to validate any piece of shit sports “journalist”, but you have to at least wonder if there isn’t a bit of an attitude problem here. he’s still just 22, and i’m sure does not lack confidence. i don’t mean to suggest that he’s ty cobb, just that some intransigence would be typical for the age and the early success.
@ gaius marius:
Agreed. I think it’s typical of that age, but when you add in how good he is at that age you’re going to get someone who is a little cocky.
The pitchers have adjusted to him and he’s not yet made a necessary adjustment. I expect he will at some point, but I refuse to believe he doesn’t have to change anything. I guess I don’t expect him to change, but I do expect him to work on getting better so maybe what he was saying was lost in translation. Maybe he was asked if he needs to change and said this. I wouldn’t expect any person at the MLB level to change. They got there doing what they did so why change? I do expect them to try to improve and work at their deficiencies. To Castro’s credit, his defense has sure looked better to my lying eyes this season. Sounds like he’s worked hard at that.
It’s so obvious that this team would be amazingly awesome if Castro would just take a walk. His not walking is totally the reason the bullpen sucks, Sori’s knees are hurt, and Hill started multiple games on this team. What a selfish jerk. I hope they nip this in the bud before it goes on to ruin other teams the way Sosa and Ramirez ruined those playoff teams I remember.
Just realized I never linked the original article (dying laughing)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0615-bits-cubs-tigers-chicago–20120615,0,4809054.story?track=rss