Tonight's 2B--your choice is?

[bmfc1]

Suppose Jerry asked you who his starting second baseman should be tonight, Thursday, against Tim Redding (RHP). You have Argenis Reyes, who isn't hitting but is a good fielder and supplies "energy" according to Jerry, or Luis Castillo, who isn't hitting but potentially could because of his track record; however, he has range of one square foot. Some choice, eh?

[Frayed Knot]

I'd prefer Castillo if he's healthy but I'm not sure he is.

[TransMonk]

Castillo.

[HahnSolo]

I can't believe I'm saying it, but Castillo. He did get on base twice the other night, despite limping around like Fred Sanford.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Jerry today sez Castillo is not as healthy as he'd like. I mean, he did great job last night working the leadoff walk but he looked like a man in real pain upon going first to third.

Argenis Reyes pretty much sucks, but I wouldn;t know how he might compare to, say, Ramon Martinez as an alternative.

[metirish]

Castillo but apparently he is not healthy enough , I don't expect much from A Reyes but he does make the plays on defense which at times have been run saving.

[Frayed Knot]

I get the frustration with Met fans over Castillo: the contract, the injuries, the lack of any kind of punch, etc., even though I find much of it over the top. I think I heard yesterday that he's responsible for the Lehman Brothers collapse.

But I don't get how quick fans seem to be to embrace players like A-Rey, lauding light-hitting glove men - usually with non-descriptive terms like "gritty", "scrappy" or "throw-back". Some of it is merely because they're not the guy they replaced. There was a bout of this last year during the early days of Carlos Gomez as loads of fans were volunteering to drive Milledge to the airport because the next best thing had been found. I didn't get that one either.

Reyes now has around 1 month's worth of MLB ABs and has 4 walks and 1 extra base hit in that time.
Put another way, not only is he getting on base to the tune of .100 points less than Luis (aka: making outs A LOT more often) but in approx 1/3 the ABs he's got 1/11th the XBHs. When you're that far behind Castillo's weak point it doesn't say good things.

There's also not a lot in his minor league career that suggests this is an aberration or an adjustment, nor, unlike CarGo where you could dream about the future, is he all that young (turns 26 next week).

In short, I don't care how good your fielding is it can't possibly make up for the hole in the lineup.
He's a fill-in. Unfortunatley we kind of need that now.


P.S. He's 0 for his last 22

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, the best thing A. Reyes has going for him is his health compared to that of Easley and Castillo.

If Castillo is healthy tonight, I'd put him in the lineup. And if he's not, we have to go with Argenis.

What happens with second base will be one of the interesting storylines this winter.

[metirish]

From what was said last night by Kevin Burkhardt and what is in the paper today it seems Easley could well be out for a long while , right now he walks and feels his quad. I feel for the guy having never made the post-season.

[Frayed Knot]

And the thing about Easley is that Jerry had been saying for weeks how he shouldn't be playing everyday because of leg issues. But then even after Castillo was activated Damion pretty much did play everyday and now he's not available at all. A couple of Castillo starts here and there might have prevented that.

[Frayed Knot]

Argenis's last 30 plate appearences - dating back to Aug 18:

13 Regular Groundouts
2 GiDPs
2 infield liners/pops
5 Ks
3 outfield flies
2 singles
1 BB
1 HBP
1 Sac Bunt

So not only is that 2 for 27 (.074 BA & SLG) plus a walk, a HBP, and a Sac (.133 OBA) but only 4 balls even left the infield: 3 OF flyouts (two of which were described as "short") and a ground single up the middle (the other hit was an infield single).

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Castillo has his flaws, but he isn't a virtual automatic out as Argenis is.

After reading AReyes' lowlites as outlined by Knot, does someone wish to possibly reconsider their vote for AReyes?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

It's a matter of playing who's healthy. If you saw Castillo arrive at 3rd base last night you'd have to be concerned.

Given the situation I don't see why they wouldn't give Ramon Martinez a shot vs. LHP.

[HahnSolo]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Given the situation I don't see why they wouldn't give Ramon Martinez a shot vs. LHP.

But if he ever got a hit, we'd need to have someone there to point the way to first base.

[HahnSolo]

Also, wasn't Marlon Anderson a second baseman in another life?

Actually, wasn't he a professional hitter in a different life?

[Centerfield]

Good idea about Anderson. I'd give him the start.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe they can activate Tim Teufel. Or Wally Backman. Or Edgardo Alfonzo.

[Frayed Knot]

I suspect Jerry is fraidy-scared of Marlon's defense.


Thing about Castillo's running is that he always looks like he's hobbling even when he's not injured, something about one leg shorter than the other I read once.
He did look bad coming to a stop at 3rd last night but he scooted around 2nd real well so unless he aggravated things when hitting the brakes he may be OK.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Oh, and there's the issue of Marlon Anderson's ass-sucking.

[Valadius]

I'm going with R-Hey. Everybody else can step up offensively, but we need defense if we're going to pull this out.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Couldn't disagree more.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, I don't think defense has been the problem. (I mean fielding defense, of course. The bullpen is part of the defense, and that HAS been a problem.)

The Mets need to score early and often to compensate for the bullpen. I want as many bats as possible.

[metirish]

Agreed , during the game last night with the Mets leading 7-1 Keith called it a blow out and Gary warned him that no with this team it's not a blow out , keep scoring was his point.....

[bmfc1]

Jerry has ignored the poll results and is starting Argenis Reyes tonight.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, he knows more about Castillo's condition than we do.

Hopefully Santana goes 9 tonight with a comfy lead.

[G-Fafif]

Any chance we could borrow Anderson Hernandez for the evening?