Thoughts on Castro

[bklynbrewcrew]

Shouldnt Bill Castro get some blame for this awful pitching staff. I dont see one guy on this staff that has improved since last year and several most notably Manny Parra and Carlos Villanueva have taken major steps backwards. Meanwhile Mike Maddux has done wonders with a Texas pitching staff that wasnt particularly good last year. I think we really miss Maddux and it shows.

[logan82]

Castro is doing a good job. We have bad pitchers.

[Thurston Fluff]

I have always been a fan of his. He is a true blue brewer. I do not know how good he is as a pitching coach. It may very well be the pitchers but there are no pitchers doing better than we thought and several doing worse. That could simply be the small amount of time/players he has worked with or he might not be very good. I wish I could say for sure it had nothing to do with him but i can't. I am not willing to say he is at fault nor that he should be relieved of his duties after this year but he better show us something as a coach. Unless there is some underlying reason we don't see he should get a shot at proving himself one way other.

[MessiahRp]

Castro is doing a good job. We have bad pitchers.

I agree. Anybody who was living off the kool-aid before the season and thought the Brewers really could compete with this staff has to be getting a cold dose of reality right about now. I remember people saying this rotation was going to be better than last year's and that Gallardo was better than Sheets and Parra was going to improve and basically we wouldn't really miss Sheets or even CC who apparently didn't count because he was a late season acquisition.

 

The reality was we didn't know how Parra would respond after he burned out last year and Gallardo has never been stretched out for a full season. Looper is an average pitcher at best and Suppan is pretty much done. We knew all of that yet many here ignored most of that because their Brewers' Rose Colored Glasses sort of led them to believe the bats would be able to overcome mediocre pitching. I think we now know this not to be the case. We have a decent number of talented position players coming through the system but we are pretty much pitching poor down there. Jeffress is looking to be a bust and there aren't really any AAA, Major-League ready guys to look towards.

 

I think we're at a point where we need to Sell Now and acquire some serious top level pitching prospects. And I am willing to sell on Hart, Hardy and Prince to do this. Prince has been amazing but we can't afford to keep him all that much longer and the longer we go without serious young, talented, affordable pitching the more we are in a spot where we need to talk about CC or Halladay and overpaying for them every year.

 

Stockpile some good young arms now and let's bring up Gamel and Escobar to play out the year and learn major league pitching.

 

I don't see it so much as giving up on this year as I do consider it contending for the next 5.

 

Rp

[Thurston Fluff]

I agree. Anybody who was living off the kool-aid before the season and thought the Brewers really could compete with this staff has to be getting a cold dose of reality right about now. I remember people saying this rotation was going to be better than last year's and that Gallardo was better than Sheets and Parra was going to improve and basically we wouldn't really miss Sheets or even CC who apparently didn't count because he was a late season acquisition.

 

I was one of those people to an extent. I thought the rotation would be worse but not so bad that the core of offensive players coming into their own couldn't make up for it. I don't known of anyone that thought it would be as good. I don't recall anyone who thought pitching was going to be a problem thought Parra would flop as badly as he did nor that Bush would be out as long as he is. I knew we had no depth but thought we had enough serviceable guys to make the team competitive barring injuries. I know there are some who thought Parra wouldn't' improve but none who thought he would fail so badly that he had to be sent to the minors. Looking forward he seems to be figuring it out. Even this last game where he struggled badly to begin with he managed six innings and kept the team within shouting distance.

 

Looper is an average pitcher at best and Suppan is pretty much done.

 

Is Suppan any more done than he has been the last several years? He seems to be about the same #5 pitcher he has always been to me.

[DougJones43]

Is Suppan any more done than he has been the last several years? He seems to be about the same #5 pitcher he has always been to me.

 

It's magnified this year. He started opening day, and has been left in too long on several occasions due to the rest of the starting rotation being unable to eat up innings. And I do think he is actually worse than in 2007 as well.

[brewmann04]

I don't think any Pitching coach would do well with this Pitching staff and Pen.

Castro has done well with the Pitchers he has and i pass judgement when we have a beeter group of pitchers

[TooLiveBrew]

Anybody who was living off the kool-aid before the season and thought the Brewers really could compete with this staff has to be getting a cold dose of reality right about now

 

"This pitching staff" included a healthy Bush and Parra taking a step forward (which, btw, there is still plenty of time for). So to try to throw that line in people's faces isn't entirely fair.

 

And of course, once again people ignore the reality that the Brewers were in locked-&-loaded mode on Peavy, Bedard, & Halladay, right as all 3 went down with injuries in one of the weirdest bits of bad luck this franchise has had in this frustrating season.

 

Bill Castro is not the problem. I would hate to see him turned into a lightning rod.

[jhart05]

You can bring in the greatest chef in the world.

 

But, if you give him rotten food to start out with, it's still going to make you want to throw up in the end.

[Fatter than Joey]

Bill Castro is not the problem.

 

Amen. Bill Castro 4 Life!

[Diskono]

I dont see one guy on this staff that has improved since last year

 

Coffey, DiFelice, Stetter, Hoffman, and to some extent, Gallardo? Everyone else is right around where they should have been expected to be.

[Jay Zahn]

I've posted this before, but other than Gallardo, the four remaining starters plus the two long relievers and starter candidates have ALL pitched below what could be expected OF THEM. Look up their stats from the last few years, then look at this years stats. Six for six.

 

Remember Gallardo only started four games last year. He is essentially replacing Sheets in terms of number of starts and production. We were not going to get the same quality from Looper replacing CC, but CC only started 17 games for us last year, and Looper gave us some flexibility since he would be available for more than 17 starts. The problem has been all six of the big inning pitchers other than Gallardo have disappointed to varying degrees BY THEIR OWN STANDARD. There is not really any disputing this if you look at the stats at all. This business that we knew we had a crappy staff going into the season isn't accurate.

 

It's true the short relievers have probably been better than expected. Hoffman's been better than I thought and Coffey's having the best year of his career. This is the first full season for Stetter and DiFelice, but they've still pitched well.

 

On balance we've lost more than we've gained, since starters are more important than short relievers. No idea what Castro's role in it is, but the pitching has been a disappointment based on what we might have expected.

[dlk9s]

I've posted this before, but other than Gallardo, the four remaining starters plus the two long relievers and starter candidates have ALL pitched below what could be expected OF THEM. Look up their stats from the last few years, then look at this years stats. Six for six.

Bush was doing fine until he got hurt.

[The Ignitor]

Count me in the minority, but I don't like the job Castro has done. I know he was not given the greatest tools, but I've got to agree that aside from Gallardo (which should have been expected coming off an injury season), most of the starters we have had are pitching below expectations.

 

I'm hoping that we can find a way to get Dave Duncan here next year. He's clearly unhappy with the Cards after they traded his son away. There contracts are expiring. I know he's loyal to LaRussa, but you never know given what has happened.

[Jay Zahn]

I've posted this before, but other than Gallardo, the four remaining starters plus the two long relievers and starter candidates have ALL pitched below what could be expected OF THEM. Look up their stats from the last few years, then look at this years stats. Six for six.

Bush was doing fine until he got hurt.

His ERA is 5.67 in 14 starts. Unfortunately he still pitched for a while after he got hurt, and those stats count too.

[bklynbrewcrew]

I hate to bring this thread up again but almost every pitcher on this staff has regressed while Mike Maddux has done wonders with the Texas pitching staff. I realize many of these pitchers are just flat out terrible but has Castro really gotten the most out of this staff. Yes Castro has been part of the organization for a long time and Im sure he is a likeable guy but as of now I dont think he is an effective pitching coach.

 

Melvin really needs to rectify his errors and fire this entire staff after the season. Bring in Bobby Valentine and let him find a good pitching coach.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

I became worried about Bill Castro when it seemed our pitching staff wasn't ready to start the season, and this after an extra week of spring training. Since that time I haven't been able to decide if he is the problem or if someone else is the problem, or we just have bad pitchers. Who sets up the scouting report? Does Kendall call whatever pitches he wants, or does he have a game plan that he has to follow? I don't know the answer to that. I just know that we really are nibbling this year.

[DonMoney4Mgr]

All the players Melvin has traded over the past several years, where's the young pitching in return?

 

Inman

Garrison

C. Lee

Overbay

Brantley

La Porta

De LaRosa

D Davis

N. Cruz

(and others)

 

Pitching in return on the team right now?

Bush

Villa

 

And because of this, Castro takes the hit.

[brewmann04]

Seems like castro has been made the Scapegoat the Staff he was dealt with are Horrible expect for YO. He was Givien a bunch of 500 Pitchers at best and told to do a good Job. Maybe Melvin should come under question for getting a Dud Like Looper who if didn't have all this Run support would have a 500 Record at the Best. Why didn't they Fire the 3rd base coach he been horrible and should have never been put in that postion