Koyie Hill DFA'd, Ian Stewart to DL, Welington Castillo & Luis Valbuena re-called

In Commentary And Analysis, News And Rumors, Transactions by dmick8966 Comments

The Cubs have made a few transactions and one of them might spell the end to his career. Koyie Hill was let go by the Cubs this past offseason and after about a dozen catchers were injured on the team they were forced to bring him back. Now he's gone and he's probably not good enough to continue playing at the MLB level. We should take a minute to remember his career.

Hill owns a career .249 wOBA (42 wRC+). He hit .210/.271/.294 over 9 seasons. Six of them were in a Cubs uniform. 834 of his 966 career plate appearances came as a Cub and he hit .207/.266/.290. He hit 8 home runs and 7 of them were with the Cubs. The amount of time he spent wearing blue pinstripes and the overall numbers probably means he'll have his uniform retired. Expect a ceremony later this season.

It will be most difficult to replace Hill, but someone has to take his place and the unfortunate person who has to fill Hill's mitt is Welington Castillo. On May 19th Castillo was placed on the DL with a right knee sprain. He appeared in 5 rehab games with the Tennessee Smokies and went 4-11 with a couple home runs.

Ian Stewart was placed on the DL with a sore wrist, which has apparently been hurting for a year now. The best that can be said about Stewart's 2012 season is that he was better than Koyie Hill. Luis Valbuena takes his place on the roster. Hopefully the 26 year old can improve upon his career .278 wOBA. He was hitting well in AAA.

He hit .300/.376/.502 in just under 250 plate appearances with the Iowa Cubs. The .378 wOBA is nearly identical to the .376 wOBA he posted last season in AAA with the Indians. Valbuena has more than proven he can hit AAA pitching very well, but has yet to show he can do much at the big league level. On this team he'll probably get that chance.

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  1. SVB

    I guess the Tigers fans out-cheering the Cubs fans in Wrigley is payback for every Cubs game I ever attended at PNC park. The Cubs fans out-numbered Pirate fans 2-1 every time.

    Damn Rob Mackowiak.

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  2. Berselius

    @ SVB:

    Not to mention all the Wrigley North stuff at Miller Park (dying laughing). I went to a lot of Brewers games where Cubs fans outnumbered them at least 2:1

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  3. Edwin

    Koyie Hill is proof that no matter how shitty a player is, some fans will still argue for him to be an everyday player. Worse, because he was so overwhelming fuck awful at the plate, this somehow proves in some people’s minds that he must have been the greatest clubhouse leader/defensive catcher to ever live. Begging the question to the extreme.

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  4. mb21

    @ Edwin:
    Yeah, at ACB we talked a lot about that back in 2007 and 2008 when some were citing his W/L record when he started. It’s an odd world when Koyie Hill can have so many supporters yet many fans are calling Ramirez, Zambrano and Lee dogs and lazy and all that crap.

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  5. GW

    @ ACT:

    i’m still hoping that the royals leave luis mendoza in the rotation long enough for us to establish a unified theory of mendoza lines.

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  6. mb21

    @ Rice Cube:
    It’s early in the season, but his plate discipline numbers leave a lot to be desired. He was only a little below average in O-Swing% the first 2 years in his career, but he’s swinging at a lot more pitches out of the zone. He’s swinging and missing more too. He’s seeing as many 1st pitch strikes this year as he saw in his rookie season. I’m not sure that means much, but he really needs to at least get back to doing what he was doing in previous years. For the first time he’s swinging and missing at a higher rate than average.

    I do agree with what berselius said yesterday or the day before. Castro is never going to be an OBP guy. It doesn’t mean he’s not valuable. He plays SS and is healthy. He’s at least an average hitter overall and that’s valuable at that position.

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  7. Berselius

    Bet TribCo is kicking itself when it sees the rumored pricetag for the Padres (the Padres!) sale. Rumor is $800m, while the tricksy Rickettses paid ~$850m

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  8. Doogolas

    mb21 wrote:

    is never going to be an OBP guy. It doesn’t mean he’s not valuable. He plays SS and is healthy. He’s at least an average hitter overall and that’s valuable at that position.

    To quote Kevin Goldstein, who seems annoyed at Cub fans lately:

    Kevin Goldstein ‏@Kevin_Goldstein
    You realize he’s younger than Rizzo, Jackson and Szczur? RT @jepischke: @Kevin_Goldstein what exactly is Castro “great” at?

    Kevin Goldstein ‏@Kevin_Goldstein
    If you dislike Starlin Castro, but you’re all excited about Rizzo and other prospects, you have a horrible case of Shiny New Toy syndrome.

    Kevin Goldstein ‏@Kevin_Goldstein
    DOB; walks are not binary. RT @scrotos: @Kevin_Goldstein What if you are worried that he only hits singles and shows no plate discipline?

    Kevin Goldstein ‏@Kevin_Goldstein
    Just that people get stuck in this low walks = bad player mindset. Ridiculous. RT @scrotos: @Kevin_Goldstein What does that mean?

    I’m not saying Castro is ever going to be a great, great player. But despite the experience he has. He’s super young. Somebody needs to tell him to calm the **** down and quit being so swing-happy. And he does need to play better, but there’s no reason he can’t.

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  9. mb21

    @ Doogolas:
    To be clear, Doog, I’m not saying he’s bad. Not even close. He’s a very good player and I agree, there’s still far more reason to be excited about Castro than Rizzo. However, that does not mean he should be immune to criticism. KG seems to think he should be. I disagree. No player is immune to criticism as long as it’s backed up with a strong argument. The need to have better plate discipline, while not excluding someone from being good, is important and a strong argument in itself because he does have poor plate discipline.

    I’m not aware of people trashing on Castro. I don’t hang around those parts for good reason. But I get the feeling from some that because he’s young and good that he shouldn’t be criticized. That’s crazy. He’s young, good, and going to get better, but he’s not above simple criticism.

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  10. ACT

    Depends on what you mean by “good” and “on.” The Brewers and Royals are tied in the 8th, for what it’s worth.

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  11. josh

    Looked like Brayan Pena successfully baited Braun to throw to second with a runner on third after a basehit in the bottom of the 9th. Rickie Weeks fielded, saw the runner on third was breaking for home and spiked the throw home. Smart baserunning by KC.

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