OT: Castellanos to Cubs for two mid-tier pitching prospects
https://www.mlb.com/news/nicholas-castellanos-traded-to-cubs-from-tigers
The two pitchers are 22 and 23 respectively, so probably at least a year from the bigs, but both have velocity and some results to back it up.
So, shrug?
Greene traded as well. Glad they got something for Nick, who is a rental in a slump. Seems like four prospects with potential. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Demeritte called up to Detroit immediately.
I missed your reply and said same about Demeritte below.
OT... Rogers got called up with rep that he is excellent defensively, but not much at the plate.
So, of course, he drops a pop up at the plate(wasn't really his ball), gets a base stolen on him, BUT drove in a run last night. Not being critical, just sayin.
He homered today and scored 3 times. No errors.
Peeps want Tigers to be great now, but I'm enjoying seeing some of these youngsters break into the bigs.
The dropped popup was not his fault. Neither was the stolen base. When Drew VerHagen takes three days to deliver the ball to the plate, and the runner gets a 40 foot jump in the process, you're not going to shoot him out at 2nd with a cannon.
True. Stolen base wasn't his fault.
It's a SSS but get a kick out strengths and weaknesses and then debuts are opposite.
Hoping and expect he'll be our catcher for years to come.
VerHagen takes three days to deliver the ball to the plate because he knows what's going to happen when it gets there.
After every pitch, he should run run over and back up third. It would save time.
Have heard they didn't do so well in the Greene trade but fared better in the Castellanos deal. So I guess we will see as only time will tell. Either way it is going to be a rough few years.
I would’ve said the exact opposite lol
Same
Agreed. They got a bag of donuts for Nick. That’s fine because I don’t think much more was offered.
The Greene haul is a bit less than I hoped for, but at least contains actual prospects.
The best thing Avila did was hang onto Boyd & not get fleeced.
Yeah, shrug. In general, it seems that Avila has struggled to maximize our trade assets the last few deadlines.
The Athletic wrote a piece about this last week and concluded, "Avila’s history shows a few things: So far, the Tigers haven’t been able to trade for truly elite prospects — something that is harder and harder to do these days — and they also haven’t quite struck gold on second-tier prospects yet, either."
I understand prospects are risky and not enough time has passed to truly evaluate it all. But considering the talent we've traded — Verlander, JD Martinez, Upton — you'd hope to see more promise.
The Tigers real problem is twofold, I think.
First is that due to Verlander, Martinez and Upton (and two years ago Cabrera), they've been just good enough that a hot streak could get them within squinting range of the playoffs. Trading a star for prospects is potentially deal-breaking with your fans when they think you're in a different part of the cycle than you think you are, and while I think they should have gone for it, it's not a no-brainer. Only when those stars were at the end of their deals and the Tigers had minimal leverage did they get dealt.
Second is that can't-miss prospects simply don't get traded very often, and if they do they usually end up missing. Last really high-end prospect I remember getting traded was probably ... Moncado? Giolito? Neither of them has set the world on fire, although Giolito is looking like a good-to-great pitcher this year (three years and a major injury after the trade). It's tough to get an elite prospect no matter what you offer when everyone is hanging onto their prospects.
Heck, the Astros just dealt for Greinke (who's signed for as long as Verlander!) and gave up their 3rd, 4th, 5th best prospects - but not either of the guys who people think of as can't-miss. That's just the market these days - you can't buy if people won't sell.
Yeah, that sounds right.
When it comes to prospects, assuming you can't land a top guy, you just hope you can hit on one mid-tier guy occasionally, and he develops into a quality major leaguer. And then it's paramount develop your high draft picks. We seem to being doing okay in the latter area, with Mize, etc. And we should have the first pick in 2020. Time will tell when it comes to the guys we traded for, but I'm not seeing much right now.
Tatis was the last elite prospect moved, 6/4/16.
Tatis?
Surely you're not referring to the well-fed crafty left-hander Ramon Tatis, who years ago pitched for the Nippon Ham Fighters before brief stints with the Cubs and Tigers.
Or are you?
this is false. the cubs alone traded torres (and others) to the yankees for chapman in 2016, then jimenez and cease to the white sox for quintana in 2017.
Except Fernando Tatis Jr. wasn't considered anywhere close to a top prospect at the time when he got traded to SD. He was a lotto ticket that ended up being a winning ticket.
They should have traded Nick a year or two ago but at this point he had little value and Avila had 0 leverage. Take something or get nothing at the end of the year.
Upton and JD were in the same boat.
Greene gets traded for cash (that can only be used on Non-American players) which i never heard of before this trade
and
Nick gets traded for two more pitchers .We need hitters
Re: Greene
Not true. Greene drew an OF bat with a .950 OPS in AAA and a LHP.
We still need pitching, too. Have you SEEN this bullpen? It's also easier to buy a bat than an arm.
Yes and looking forward to seeing Demeritte… maybe even this week?
Wouldn't surprise me if we see him Friday night. There's an awful lot of smoke for there not to be a fire.
As a Braves fan I'm loving the Greene trade. Bullpens are a mess these days in general but the Braves has been shit and very much so lately...Greene, Chris Martin from Texas, and Melancon from SF, have been huge pickups
As a Cubs fan, I’m glad to take Nick at Wrigley. Defense won’t be a problem in the friendly confines and lord knows they can use some doubles or even singles! As a Tigers fan, one of these moves over the last few years has to pan out...right?!?!?
Yeah, one of the knocks on Nick is that he is essentially a homeless player insofar as his actual position goes - he is not great no matter where you put him. His bat should work out well enough at Wrigley though, I would think.
One of them is like 1-9 with a 7 plus era in high A ball
Sounds good to me!
FWIW MLB Pipeline already has the 3 pitching prospects listed and ranked/slotted into the TIgers farm system. Castellonos and Greene for....
#10 best prospect (6th best pitcher, 2nd best lefty) Joey Wentz
#19 best prospect Paul Richan
#29 best prospect Alex Lange
The deal for Greene was much, much better than the deal for Castellanos. MUCH better.
I haven’t seen much of this but I wish nothing but the best for Castellanos and give him thanks for his time in Detroit. I hope the Cubs end up winning their division, a pennant & a World Series.
August 1st, 2019 at 12:56 AM ^
Screw Nick. Shit on commerica park on his way out. Dude was abysmal on defense and an average hitter if that for almost his whole career. See ya
+1, even if a little harsh.
I agree with you, as Castellanos really never impressed me much. Too inconsistent offensively, poor defensively, and also seemed a little lackadaisical to me with the way he carried himself on the field for the Tigers.
As for his comments about Comerica, while he came off as sour grapes, it really is an awful ballpark for power hitters. I hope someday the fences are shortened, especially in left and center fields.
One thing that can't be changed, though is the crazy direction Comerica faces: while most ballparks from homeplate towards center field face north-northeast, Comerica faces south-southeast. Here's an article with a diagram showing how badly aligned Comerica is compared to every other MLB ballpark:
https://tht.fangraphs.com/lost-in-the-sun-the-physics-of-ballpark-orientation/
It's mediocre ballpark for watching a game, but even worse if you're a power hitter. When the Tigers rebuild reaches the stage where we might need to add a power hitter or two to make that final push to true contender, good luck attracting the free agent hitters.
August 1st, 2019 at 10:13 AM ^
Comerica is actually middle of the road as far as power hitting goes. Well, pretty much middle of the road in everything. It clearly isn't a power "friendly" ballpark, per se, but it is far from the worst place to hit. Yes, before the moved the bullpens it was absolutely ridiculous, but that's why they moved the pens. CoPa Park Factors since 2012, 1 year before Castellanos was around:
2019: Runs-16th, HR-17th, Hits-9th, 2B-18th, 3B-4th
2018: Runs-21st, HR-24th, Hits-17th, 2B-14th, 3B-7th
2017: Runs-4th, HR-8th, Hits-3rd, 2B-6th, 3B-5th
2016: Runs-11th, HR-8th, Hits-13th, 2B-24th, 3B-2nd
2015: Runs-26th, HR-26th, Hits-16th, 2B-15th, 3B-6th
2014: Runs-14th, HR-15th, Hits-19th, 2B-29th, 3B-4th
2013: Runs-3rd, HR-13th, Hits-6th, 2B-9th, 3B-3rd
2012: Runs-9th, HR-17th, Hits-10th, 2B-21st 3B-3rd
Certainly some variance year-to-year, but Comerica is a pretty average park to hit in, aside from triples, obviously. Again, not necessarily a hitter friendly place, but not always pitcher friendly either.
August 1st, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
Nick was always a prima donna in erie. he was one of the few players who wouldn't sign a lot of autographs for kids, always walked around with his nose in the air like he was something special. good ball player, but shitty attitude.
Al Avila is a joke. The dumpster fire continues.
The Tigers arent going anywhere this year, this next to guarantees the #1 pick, and the players would have been free agents anyway. Although i hoped they got more for Castellanos, i think they did well for Greene. Overall, nice moves. Plus frees up cap.
FIRE AVILA
just cuz no one else said so yet.
August 1st, 2019 at 10:06 AM ^
Hello from Atlanta:
If a red carpet were handy, we'd roll it out when Shane Greene steps off the airplane. The Braves' bullpen is an area of extreme need. Greene's super-low ERA might not hold up through September (and we hope October) but he's a helluva lot better than anything the Braves currently have that might pass for a front-line reliever or closer. Late-inning BB's, home runs, key base hits you name it have plagued the Braves all season. Yesterday in Washington the bullpen blew a lead that cost Mike Soroka his 11th win (Mike gave up one run and I believe 3 hits in 7 innings of work). A guy like Shane Greene can help out a lot in such situations. And shrewd GM Alex Anthopoulos did not give up much in the way of top-tier young talent to get him.
I grew up living and dying (mostly dying, it seems now) with the Tigers, but I've become a fan of the way the NL plays the game. Pinch hitters, double switches, pitchers hitting (hey, Max Fried is batting .194 with 3 RBIs!), but I'll always wish the Tigers the best.
August 1st, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
but what happened to Dean Green, the hitting machine? that's what he was know as in erie anyway.
last i heard he was a blue crab, in southern maryland