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.
A Hill DFA warrants its own thread, does it not?
@ Mish:
Absolutely. We have an extensive rundown of his career posting later on. It’s a huge day for Cubs fan. Very emotional about this one.
Never Forget
His career was so good that they cut it short.
/oh snap
@ Rice Cube:
Just like his fingers.
@ mb21:
I’m thinking all next week should be Koyie Hill Appreciation week, with a daily piece about his greatness.
Apparently Jeff Garlin just made a funny. Wish I had TV in lab.
FIP not too kind to Travis Wood today, but damage limited.
@ Mish:
It will have to get in line behind the Homer Simpson Memorial Mononucleosis Awareness Week For The Cure
Whoever the fuck this douche is in the booth should never have another fucking job doing anything. What a fucking idiot.
@ Mish:
That’s a wonderful idea.
We’ve already decided that in July we’ll write a post about each hit he had in his career.
@ mb21:
He only had 31? Somehow I thought there were more.
I like the little Cubbie facepalm bullets on the front page of your blog BTW. It’s a nice touch and good for quicky reports.
@ mb21:
Jeff Garlin. He’s good on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I’ve always found him to be abrasive when he does the interviews with the Cubs guys.
@ Rice Cube:
More than 31, but we figured on a couple days we’d just double up on the posts. Exciting month ahead here at OV.
Maybe he can chase the dream of teaching wood shop now?
@ josh:
He’s annoying as fuck. I wanted to throw things at him. Things that would hurt.
@ mb21:
@ Gregg Tomlinson:
Great idea. He could also host some batting clinics for the youngsters who want to meet someone famous.
@ Gregg Tomlinson:
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.
@ Rice Cube:
Boy is my face red
@ 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
Who wants to bet Koyie takes an assignment at AAA as a super reserve backup catcher?
Same thing at GAB and the handful of games I’ve been to at Bank One or whatever the hell they call it now (Chase Field?).
@ josh:
I’ll bet he does too.
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.
Jo Spitball is on.
@ 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.
Rice Cube wrote:
Somebody must have been watching a different Jeff Garlin than I was.
Goats ——> Being blow.
I was at least hoping we’d be the kind of team that won consistently at home.
@ ACT:
He did yell ‘Screw you Tigers fans,” which elicited a chuckle from me.
Carlos Pena is now at: .188/.338/.339. They should rename the Mendoza Line the Pena Line.
@ josh:
Actually, what he said was “Tigers fans suck.”
@ ACT:
Thanks for the supp pick, Carlos! That OBP split is pretty impressive though.
Rice Cube wrote:
Starlin’s just the opposite: .295/.308.
@ ACT:
My bad.
@ ACT:
What’s his BB rate? 2%?
@ Rice Cube:
2.2. He’s striking out more, as well.
I’m sure you guys have looked at his O-swing numbers too. He hasn’t had a day off in forever, maybe they should give him one.
@ 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.
@ ACT:
Y’know, when I see BJax’s box score lines, I think of Carlos Pena. A ton of strikeouts with impressive OBP.
@ Pezcore:
Hope he develops Pena Power (TM) then.
Dude needs a day off.
@ 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.
Happy Flag Day, folks!
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
mb21 wrote:
To quote Kevin Goldstein, who seems annoyed at Cub fans lately:
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.
Doogolas wrote:
Just lately?
@ 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.
http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2012/06/cubs-officially-sign-4th-round-pick-josh-conway-3-other-picks/
Pretty good breakdown of 1st round picks and signing money.
Dunn just caught up to Hamilton in homers. He’s also doubled his total from last year.
Speaking of, any good games on?
@ josh:
Not really imo, so I’m watching OKC-MIA
Depends on what you mean by “good” and “on.” The Brewers and Royals are tied in the 8th, for what it’s worth.
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
WTF? Those later picks actually signed for just $10K? Wow.
@ Rice Cube:
College seniors. They’re other option was to go start using their degrees.
@ ACT:
on MLB.com, I guess. I could listen to the radio, but I’m busy playing Gemini Rue.
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
Yeah, that’s what I figured, but only ten grand…is that the minimum a team is allowed to give out?
KC won with a walkoff, looks like. That’s always fun.
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.
DJ, your new family portrait is really tasteful:
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
That definitely looks like a dude that spends a lot of time in his basement listening to minor league baseball.
Day baseball today. It’ll be nice to get the Cubs loss out of the way early today.
It appears your Soriano trade value blog made the cut at MLBTR. Nicely done
new shit up