you said he's a pitcher with a good eye. How many pitchers have a batting average anywhere near Castillo's? Castillo isn't a great player these days, but he's better than you make him out to be.
He's got no power. He's never had any power. His career ISO is .064! He ranks 161st out of 162 qualifying players in ISO this year. With Reyes' tail spin in the 2nd half he'd actually be a serviceable leadoff hitter on the Mets but he stinks in the 2 hole.
Alright, I admit I hate when he does that, but I think batting near .300 is adequate from any spot in the order.
The Mets biggest offensive problem this year has been a lack of power. There's been alot of talk about the Mets lack of "clutchness" this year at the plate but what it really is is that it's really hard to string 3 and 4 hits together to create runs even if you've got good hitters. With Castillo, Lo Duca and the pitcher you've got 1/3 of the lineup with little to no extra base hit potential. Castillo is a passable player due to his OBP and the position he plays overall, but when he hits one of those stretches where his hits aren't falling for whatever reason he brings nothing to the table.
I can't put Wright ahead of Rollins or Byrnes. I guess that fat father hater from Milwaukee does deserve votes.
Wright should be the clear favorite for MVP. He's 2nd in the league in VORP(behind Hanley Ramirez) and first in WARP. Byrnes doesn't even belong in the discussion, I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that he was even a candidate. Rollins isnt even the most valuable player on his team so I'm not exactly sure why so many people seem to be hyping him either. Prince would've won if the Brewers made the playoffs with those HR and RBI numbers but he's got no shot now. Holliday will get some votes too thanks to playing at Coors Field. Despite being a pitcher Peavy is a guy that deserves some consideration for MVP as well.
I think Fielder will get a pretty decent amount of votes due to the fact that the Brewers have been a hopeless and abandoned franchise for years. I still don't think it's enough to win it because the NL field does have deserving candidates on playoff bound teams. How about Brandon Webb? edit: As awesome as Webb was this year, Peavy was that much better.
VORP and WARP? The average voter isn't familiar with those acronyms. How is Wright a clear favorite? That's bizarre. Wright sucked at the beginning of the year. He started to play well when the Mets started to blow. He's sucked this past week when it was time when an MVP would step up. The MVP award is not only about numbers. That's where Byrnes comes into the picture.
Webb actually went through some struggles after that awesome stretch. peavy deserves top 10 consideration. I honestly think Wright deserves the MVP, whether the Mets make the playoffs or not. I'd put Holliday second.
If it were just about numbers Hanley Ramirez would be the slam dunk choice. Regardless, Byrnes sucks. He will not get a single vote for MVP nor should he. Holliday would actually be my choice were he not a complete fraud skating by on Coors' dimensions and altitude. Fielder is a pretty worthy candidate and he has been raking in September even if his team sucks. But I'm pretty sure that the MVP is going to come from a team that makes the playoffs in the NL this year. Also, Wright has not sucked the past week, he hasn't been great but a .406/.457/.469 line the last week is hardly enough to jeopardize his chances, especially with a .340/.422/.610 for September.
Dude is OPSing .757 since the AS Break. That's 25 points higher then Luis Castillo. And 75 points lower then Shawn Green. I'm begining to think this is another one of those "Cakes is joking even though no one can tell" things.
