Castillo vs Ray Vs Gilbert

[Ruminator]

George Kirby is a hell of a nice #4 starter to have. He's starting to get me almost as excited as Castillo, Ray, and Gilbert. Sounds like he's added a two-seamer to his arsenal that allows him to flummox batters even more than before. Nice write-up on mlb.com:

Kirby proves mettle with clutch 3-pitch strikeout

 

[sutz]

Both Gilbert and Kirby have pitched more innings in a single season than ever before in their lives.

That's why they're being 'managed.' The future is bright for our pitching staff.

 

[Ruminator]

Posting here in light of yesterday's game and to make it easier to "monitor" Castillo and our other pitchers for the rest of this season.

Against White Sox at home in the third of a three-game series, Castillo set a record with 7 straight strikeouts to start things off. Looked like he was on his way to pitching at least 7 innings and completely shut them down. Then all of a sudden, he looked a bit more meh, including giving up a 2-run HR in the 4th, and Sox batters started to make contact and spray the ball around. And you know the of the story: three fielding errors led to Sox notching 6 unearned runs.

So the loss was, of course, more on that than on Castillo and the relievers. Nevertheless, all the contact the Sox started making after the 7 strikeouts was concerning, taking into account Castillo had "shaky" innings in two other games as a Mariner. Not expecting him to be perfect by any means, but we did pay dearly (Marte and Arroyo) to acquire him. Anyway, whatever -- baseball is baseball -- we'll see how he does for the rest of the season.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Strange game, I have ZERO worry about Castillo. The error by Suarez is not acceptable. Changed the entire game. He is a beast and should be signed to an extension. Now, not later.

 

[Hawker]

We are in a great position as we find ourselves asking, "who might our ace be?" and having 4 names to pick from, all of whom are or could soon be, deserving of the title - Castillo, Ray, Gilbert, *Kirby (If he continues his level of play)

 

[Ruminator]

Funny, I was just pondering that question myself earlier, but in the form of "If the final game of the year required a win to make the playoffs, all pitchers being in equal readiness condition, who would I want on the mound?" I found that not to be a question with an easy slam-dunk answer, but I think that would be Ray for me.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Great problem to have. 4 damn good starters at the top of the rotation. And Bipolar Marco.
But hey, it doesn't matter, because the Mariners are a ".500 team" and they are "mediocre"

 

[sutz]

Funny, I was just pondering that question myself earlier, but in the form of "If the final game of the year required a win to make the playoffs, all pitchers being in equal readiness condition, who would I want on the mound?" I found that not to be a question with an easy slam-dunk answer, but I think that would be Ray for me.

Personally, I would still go with Castillo, even after yesterday's bad outing. Also, the Astros haven't faced Castillo a lot since he came over from the Reds.

However, it might depend on the matchups, too. If we face a team with a lot of lefties in the lineup, Ray might make more sense.

Guess we'll see come the end of September if Servais starts playing with the rotation to set something up for the post season. Can't get too cute, though, as it looks like the endgame might be tight this season.

 

[TIMD]

George Kirby is looking like their second best SP. Robbie Ray is a head case & very streaky, you never know what you're going to get from him. But obviously Kirby will be slotted as 4 or 5 next year. Gilbert needs another "out" or "wipeout" pitch.

 

[Ruminator]

Might be time to edit the thread topic to include "vs Kirby". Heck of a performance last night. Hope they're currently drawing up contract papers to keep him in Seattle long term.

 

[Crizilla]

Castillo extended $108 mill 5 years

 

[sutz]

Castillo extended $108 mill 5 years

Here:

Mariners, Luis Castillo Agree To Extension

The Mariners and Luis Castillo are in agreement on a five-year, $108MM extension, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. There …

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