Batista and Castro Redux

by Jon Marthaler on May 15, 2008 1:00 AM EDT in By the Numbers

The Twins have admitted mistakes on the left side of the infield before. In 2006, they signed Tony Batista to play third base, but gave up on him in mid-June. The same year, they sent Jason Bartlett back to the minors while Juan Castro started every day at shortstop; he lasted just one more day than Batista before being ditched unceremoniously.

Here's the undynamic duo's stats that year before being dropped:

Batista: 32 G, 108 AB; .231/.259/.287, 0 HR, 15 RBI; .524 RZR (3B)
Castro: 18 G, 56 AB; .196/.224/.321, 1 HR, 4 RBI; .848 RZR (SS)

No... wait a second, that's wrong. Those are Mike Lamb and Adam Everett's stats, going into Wednesday's game. Here's Batista and Castro in 2006:

Batista: 50 G, 178 AB; .236/.303/.388, 5 HR, 21 RBI; .602 RZR (3B)
Castro: 50 G, 156 AB; .231/.258/.308, 1 HR, 14 RBI; .833 RZR (SS)

There are some awful similarities in that group.

Now, this is also a Twins organization that played Nick Punto in 150 games in 2007 - 150! - despite Punto hitting .210/.291/.271 and posting slightly-above-average fielding numbers at three infield positions. Neither Lamb nor Everett qualifies as "scrappy," but indications thus far are that both will be treated with the same kid gloves that neither Batista or Castro benefited from.

Either way, both had better pick it up. Tony Batista's last game as a Twin was on June 11; Castro's came on June 13. Batista was designated for assignment on the 14th, Castro was traded the next day, and Minnesota was quickly shot of two mistakes on the left side of the infield. And now, we have a month to see what happens with Lamb and Everett.

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Slight Difference

Lamb has been hitting over .300 in May, and is hitting over .400 with RISP (according to GameDay), so I am defending a little here—if GameDay has it right.

Everyone tells me that Everett is an outstanding SS, but certainly his bat has been MIA. I think if you hit .200 without power and seemingly little ability to drive in runs, you had better be Mark Belanger or Ozzie. Since I haven’t seen him play, I can’t judge his fielding prowess.

"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. See, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it . . ."

by Skippy tastes better than Jiff on May 15, 2008 5:43 AM EDT 0 recs

Lamb in May...

Lamb is hitting .281/.324/.281 in May, which includes just two walks and zero extra-base hits. Miraculously, that’s better than his .205/.226/.282 line from April.

Lamb really hasn’t given us any reason to believe that his performance with RISP is anything other than a fluke.

w/r/t Everett’s fielding, it sounds like he’s still playing with a far below 100% shoulder. In the past, he’s been a Blanger/Smith-level elite defensive SS, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in his current state, which is a shame.

by ubelmann on May 15, 2008 1:16 PM EDT up 0 recs

Big difference

Yeah, Reusse brought up this comparison last Sunday on Max’s TV show, but he did not speculate that either would be cut, and for good reason. Tony Batista carried the better part of a huge contract back to the States when he prematurely returned from Japan, so he was a cheap sign. So was Castro. The Twins had about $2 million tied up in those two, and they ate only the remaining part of Batista’s contract – they traded Castro, so directly lost no salary there. They are into Everett and Lamb for more a little more tha $5 million this season, and Lamb is signed through ‘09. The Twins are not the Blue Jays, who ate Frank Thomas’ contract. It’s logical that the Twins regret signing Everett, given they have three other guys on that roster who can play shortstop. I don’t see either of these players getting cut. Everett could be a trade possibility in August, but all that would garner would be a shift of the salary commitment to another team – the Twins would not get much for him because he’s a free agent after this year.

by Johnny Safron on May 15, 2008 9:40 AM EDT 0 recs

I agree.

I also think Lamb has a much better shot of bouncing back and being more productive than Batista did. Batista just looked washed up, anytime he got off the bench in the dugout. Lamb’s been uncomfortable, or pressing, or had a bad start, or whatever…but he doesn’t look like he’s done.

But I’ve been known to be optimistic.

by Jesse on May 15, 2008 1:35 PM EDT up 0 recs

Everett

I’m not as concerned with his Castro-like bat. I’m more concerned with his Castro-like range. When he and Harris are up the middle, we give up a lot of GB hits.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on May 15, 2008 9:42 AM EDT 0 recs

How badly is Harris hurting the Twins?

I don’t watch the games, but it seems like Gordo says “Double play ground ball to short….Harris doesn’t make the turn” a lot.

by wcooley on May 15, 2008 1:46 PM EDT up 0 recs

Harris is costing runs

This is nothing we didn’t expect. I think Ubelmann predicted something like -20 runs for a whole year from his defense. I’ve personally witnessed five runs so far, so he’s on pave for the prediction. I didn’t mind so much when he was hitting. But he hasn’t been hitting of late. And he really struggles with footwork and stuff. I don’t know to what extent those factors even enter into ZR. You can’t assume a DP, for example. So he might even be worse than Ubelmann’s prediction defensively.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on May 15, 2008 2:00 PM EDT up 0 recs

Ideally, Harris would be a role player

As a low-cost bench option, I would even kind of like him.

I’m sure it’s partially a sample size thing, but Lamb’s RZR is ridiculously bad so far. I feel like I haven’t really noticed him being all that bad, but. he certainly hasn’t been good so far. If we had a better option at second base, for instance, Harris could platoon with Lamb at 3B (or Buscher when we decide that Lamb has fallen off the cliff and is dead weight) and on other days, he would serve as a decent pinch hitting option (to help limit Everett, Punto, and Casilla’s at-bats), especially since he can play a number of positions (even though he plays them poorly.) Harris doesn’t have a great arm, but at third base he wouldn’t have to worry about turning DPs. He seems to have decent reactions, but I haven’t been impressed with his speed, so 3B could fit him better that way, too.

The Twins think he’ll get better defensively, but I have my doubts. He’s been working on his defense for quite a few years now, and doesn’t have a whole lot to show for it.

by ubelmann on May 15, 2008 7:36 PM EDT up 0 recs