I always had high hopes for Gattis, but he has really shown me that he is an amazing talent. He is a catcher not a DH. He doesn't want to be a cold blooded hitman, he is a catcher with amazing offensive skills. He's a part of the club on the field and in the dugout. This year, I think the Astros would be well served if they called the shots on Castros contract to a team friendly deal, if not just let him walk. They should use all the resources available to shore up the other weak spots on the team. As far as I'm concerned, Gattis has taken the spot of #1 catcher away from Castro. With other defensive minded catchers in the minors, this is the likely path, Astros need to take.
He has certainly made himself more valuable. He was a meh DH. But as a C, his offense is more than acceptable. I'm not sure what that means for Castro. I'd like to have both but understand if Castro becomes too expensive for playing what would likely be less than half the games next year.
Yes. That isn't to say we shouldn't try and re-sign Castro, but there isn't the pressing need to do it or to bother chasing other catchers.
Yes. I like the idea of keeping Castro as a platoon mate, since he hits left handed, appears to fit in well with the pitchers and clubhouse, and has some upside evidenced in 2013. But for more than $7M I think fhey could spend that money better elsewhere and I wouldn't give Castro more than 2 years.
Maybe go with Gattis as primary C and Stassi secondary next year. Castro is my least favorite Astro right now, the strike out looking and whine to the ump routine got real old last year, and he's not like Ausmus where his calling and defense are so good you can around the bad hitting. Later dude.
I think you need them both unless Castro is way too expensive. The Astros paid Rasmus $15M this year. Surely they can afford 7M for a decent platoon catcher and that has strong defense and calling skills. Catchers get hurt too so I'd feel a lot better if Stassi was the 3rd catcher.
Gattis is a starting caliber catcher, but I do think physically he's best limited to ~80 games at that position. That means his "backup" needs to be good enough to play about 1/2 the games. I don't think the internal options (Stassi/Heineman/Pena) are quite good enough for that. Luckily there are quite a few free agents that would be great in that role.
This. 2013 was so good that you had to give him any and all chances to get back to that level, even though regression was universally predicted. And on that note, while regression was expected, the level of which he did so was decidedly not expected. Now his defense has shown signs of regressing... which has led to the front office/staff signing off on Gattis taking on a bulk of the catching. Gattis may not be a full time candidate either... but I don't think they can make a case for agreeing to pay Castro the $8-10 million/year he will likely demand.
If there is any possibility that Gattis can be your primary catcher, that has to be plan A. Baseball is not just about evaluating hitters in an absolute perspective - it's about trying to create value relative to position. Gattis is basically a top-3 offensive catcher and a mediocre DH. We're wasting his skills throwing him in at DH, but he immediately fills a massive lineup hole if he can catch. I don't know what he was at Atlanta and we didn't use him in that role last year, but he seems more than functional this year. If that's actually the case, he needs to be the catcher. And then you can get a cheap/young/defensive guy as the backup catcher. If you need to limit Gattis to 100 games or so, that's fine too. It's still better than paying lots of money for someone else when you have him already relatively cheap.
Every Astros blogger has assured me that Castro is among the best catchers in MLB because of his pitch framing.
i'd like to see gattis get a couple solid months of training before we crown him starting catcher. he has a lot to work on, defensively, but isn't far off from starting 80ish games at catcher. how he performs this offseason will decide this thread.
The average fan generally undervalues the ability to call a game/handle a staff, play defense, and lead...the nuances of being behind the dish. While I love the fact that Gattis is banging away, and hope he keeps it up.. I feel it is important that the Astros don't completely lose that National League perspective/winning formula...You have to be strong up the middle defensively. Yes, catcher is a position where offensive production is prized, but so often teams give away more on the other side when going this route.
What do the stats tell us, I'd like to know if 1) Our pitchers have been better or worse with Gattis 2) If Gattis is throwing out more runners 3) Passed Balls and Wild Pitches, who's better defensively 4) Hitting If Gattis is consistently better in 3 of 4 categories, then he can be my starter.
1) Our pitchers have been better or worse with Gattis CERA is a tricky stat...tell me what this means: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2016-fielding.shtml 2) If Gattis is throwing out more runners Much better 3) Passed Balls and Wild Pitches, who's better defensively Gattis is incredibly, painfully, terribly worse 4) Hitting Incredibly better. 5) People do laugh at it, but how is he as a receiver? Castro has him in spades on that. Gattis is shaky with his body and he jabs with his glove. Not saying he can't get better but he is not good now.
I don't know how reliable the rumor that Castro and management have bucked heads on numerous occasions. I get the impression that Luhnow is not going to tolerate dissent from the non stars.