As an indication of the sorry state of the Giants, one of the bigger controversies of the season is the Castillo vs. Feliz debate. Much to my delight, the Giants let Pedro Feliz go to the Phillies during the off-season. Much to my dismay, though, they then failed to sign a 3B free agent that could provide some pop to the line-up. Instead, the Giants claimed Jose Castillo off waivers (after he'd been cut by both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Florida Marlins - now there's a ringing endorsement).
Once you crunch the numbers, it appears that the players' stats are pretty similar, although Feliz does have the advantage on defense (Castillo's FPCT/RF/ZR is .931/2.35/.774; Feliz' is .960/3.05/.816). They've both grounded into a similar number of DPs (9 for Castillo, 8 for Feliz). Total bases are also close (57 to 53), as are RBIs (14 to 16).
Surprisingly, Castillo has more strike-outs - 20 to Feliz' 13. I say "surprisingly," since Feliz swings at all kinds of slop - high hard ones, balls in the dirt. Heck, I could imagine him swinging at a ball behind him if the game were on the line. Yet, Castillo manages to strike out more - he is impatient at the plate (but at least he's not swinging at pitches behind him - yet).
But despite all this, you'll never catch me wistfully wishing that we still had Happy Pete, though. I cringed every time he stepped up to the plate. At least with Castillo the expectations are extremely low, and he meets those low expectations nicely.
Unfortunately, the Giants don't have any third basemen in the minors that have any hopes of succeeding in the majors. So what are the Giants plans for the hot corner? Can we hope for a trade this season to bring a bat and defense to third base?
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