The Astros have released Zach Duke and Jack Cust, according to Alyson Footer.
Honestly, it was easy to see this coming. I texted my cousin, a Braves fan, on Sunday afternoon and said that the Braves should be charged with murdering Zach Duke's career. In the previous post, we looked at Duke's stats, and his outing on Sunday sent his ERA up to 11.30 - and judging from Sunday's start (which I watched), he was lucky that's as high as it went.
Cust had one hit - a single - in 25 ABs this Spring. That's pretty much all you needed to know. Cust signed a two-year contract with the Astros - $600,000 (not-guaranteed) for 2012, and a guaranteed $1m option, if it was exercised.
Duke's contract was a minor-league deal, so there should be no major financial impact.
Also, it appears as though Jon Gaston has been released, as well. Gaston was the Astros' 7th Round pick in 2008, and busted out in 2009 - his 2nd year of pro ball - with Lancaster, hitting .278/.367/.598, with 35HR (tied for minor-league lead) and 100RBI. 81 of his 144 hits in '09 were for extra-bases. In the last two seasons - both with Corpus - he posted OPSeses of .720, and .646, respectively, striking out 212 times to 74 walks (he drew 71 walks in 2009 alone).
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
Showing posts with label Jack Cust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Cust. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Contract Details
Brian McTaggart has the contract details for Jack Cust and Chris Snyder. Give it a look.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
At least someone is excited about the possibility of a Cust/Lee outfield
Over at the Platoon Advantage, they tackle the possibility of history and the 2012 Astros - namely in just how terrible a defensive outfield would be if it included Carlos Lee and Jack Cust.
Craig Tatum DFA'd
In order to make room for Jack Cust on the 40-man roster, the Astros designated Craig Tatum for assignment.
Tatum was claimed off waivers from the Orioles at the end of October.
Tatum was claimed off waivers from the Orioles at the end of October.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Jack Cust: Clutch?
So The Examiner's Stephen Goff likes the Jack Cust signing, which is totally fine. For $600,000 of Maybe Money, it could pan-out.
But Goff says this:
The BA isn't great, but he hits for power, produces in the clutch and can get on base
Let's see if he's right - how "Clutchy" is Jack Cust?
For his career, Cust is a .242/.374/.439 hitter, for an .813 OPS, with 819K:444BB (1.84 K:BB ratio). With that in mind, some career splits:
Two outs, runners in scoring position: .198/.371/.391 (.762 OPS)
Late & close: .220/.358/.414 (.772 OPS)
Tie Game: .228/.373/.426 (.799 OPS)
Innings 7-9: .234/.360/.430 (.790 OPS)
That doesn't fully unpack what it means to be Clutch, so let's look at High-Leverage situations (according to Baseball-Reference): .229/.376/.386 (.762 OPS), 18 homers in 534 PAs.
OPS' in High-Leverage situations in the following years:
2011: .709
2010: .544
2009: .699
2008: .747
2007: 1.150
Alright. It's been four seasons since he had an OPS over .750 in high-leverage situations. It's been since 2008 that his SLG was higher than his OBP in high-leverage situations.
Looking strictly at his home run log, Cust has hit 105 homers. 33 of those have been in Innings 7-End. 18 of those homers have been in high-leverage situations. 35 have been go-ahead homers, 11 have been game-tying homers, and one has been a walk-off. So you're looking at 46 of his 105 homers either tied the game up, or sent his team ahead. Impressive, right? But you're still only talking about 105 homers in 2581 PAs, one every 24.6 plate appearances.
Whatever. You can define clutch however you want, but I'm not sure Cust is "clutch." Feel free to disagree, and tell me I'm wrong.
But Goff says this:
The BA isn't great, but he hits for power, produces in the clutch and can get on base
Let's see if he's right - how "Clutchy" is Jack Cust?
For his career, Cust is a .242/.374/.439 hitter, for an .813 OPS, with 819K:444BB (1.84 K:BB ratio). With that in mind, some career splits:
Two outs, runners in scoring position: .198/.371/.391 (.762 OPS)
Late & close: .220/.358/.414 (.772 OPS)
Tie Game: .228/.373/.426 (.799 OPS)
Innings 7-9: .234/.360/.430 (.790 OPS)
That doesn't fully unpack what it means to be Clutch, so let's look at High-Leverage situations (according to Baseball-Reference): .229/.376/.386 (.762 OPS), 18 homers in 534 PAs.
OPS' in High-Leverage situations in the following years:
2011: .709
2010: .544
2009: .699
2008: .747
2007: 1.150
Alright. It's been four seasons since he had an OPS over .750 in high-leverage situations. It's been since 2008 that his SLG was higher than his OBP in high-leverage situations.
Looking strictly at his home run log, Cust has hit 105 homers. 33 of those have been in Innings 7-End. 18 of those homers have been in high-leverage situations. 35 have been go-ahead homers, 11 have been game-tying homers, and one has been a walk-off. So you're looking at 46 of his 105 homers either tied the game up, or sent his team ahead. Impressive, right? But you're still only talking about 105 homers in 2581 PAs, one every 24.6 plate appearances.
Whatever. You can define clutch however you want, but I'm not sure Cust is "clutch." Feel free to disagree, and tell me I'm wrong.
Quick note on Cust
Buried in a links post over at Fangraphs, Carson Cistulli gives us this first hand account of Jack Cust during a minor league game:
I once saw Cust, playing in a Sacramento River Cats game, see 17 pitches over three plate appearances and swing only once.
Also in that post is a link to an analysis of the signing from a fantasy perspective from Rotographs, the fantasy arm of Fangraphs.
If Cust is able to meet the Bill James projections for 2012, he should end up worth roughly .5 WAR, which would place his value around $2-3 million.
Until we know the dollar amount of the contract and what moves the Astros need to make to the 40 man roster to make room for Cust, I'm going to withhold judgement on this deal.
*Edit: So now we know the deal is a non-guaranteed $600k with a club option for 2013. Almost no risk for the Astros. You can find a little info about non-guaranteed deals here.
So. Jack Cust, huh?
Late-ish last night, the Astros made as much of a splash as the Astros can make by signing 33-year old Jack Cust to a 1-year deal with a club option for a 2nd year.
The immediate question was: What the hell? (Note: This was written prior to me seeing Powling's post for SB Nation).
Currently on the 40-man roster, the Astros have Brian Bogusevic, Jason Bourgeois, Carlos Lee, Fernando Martinez, J.D. Martinez, Jordan Schafer, and J.B. Shuck. Seven outfielders. Well, eight, now. What the hell is going on? Is Cust going to play Rover?
The way it looks now, Carlos Lee is probably going to at least begin the year at 1B, so that leaves J.D. Martinez, Jordan Schafer, and Brian Bogusevic as your potential outfielder, though there's room for someone coming up and killing the ball in Spring Training and beginning the year with some starts. Also, if Brett Wallace has figured out how to hit a fastball inside, it could push Carlos Lee back to LF, which would mean OUTFIELDER APOCALYPSE.
The question on my mind is, "Where does Cust fit in?" He had a miserable 2011, playing in 67 games for the Mariners, and hitting .213/.344/.329, the lowest OPS of his career since he got 78 PAs for the Rockies in 2002. He's been a DH-type player since 2007, hitting 25+ HRs from 2007-09 (also leading the AL in strikeouts with 164, 197, 185, respectively).
Like most everyone else, he could be the Bat Off the Bench - Jason Michaels 2.0. You can't look at his history as a pinch-hitter, as he's spent the overwhelming majority of his career in the American League, only getting a circus performer's handful of Pinch-Hit PAs.
For his career against RHPs, Cust has a .247/.383/.466 line, with 86 of his 105 career homers coming off righties.
Does it make senes? Not really. So, should you get upset about the signing? Probably not. Bogusevic, Shuck, and both Martinez' all have options left. As the Juvenile Court Clerk so deftly put it, they could have announced a Pudge signing instead. Click the SBN link above for further analysis...
Update: Cust has signed for $600,000. Compared to you and I, that's a huge amount of money. It's also $300,000 less than Jason Michaels made in 2011, so keep that in mind.
Updated Update: Cust's contract is a non-guaranteed contract. And if that doesn't help you out, the JCC posted this link from McTaggart (when he worked at the Chronicle) on the difference between Guaranteed and Non-Guaranteed Contracts. Hint: one of them is not guaranteed.
Ed Wade:
“Any player released after April 1 would receive full termination pay. So in other words, all non-guaranteed contracts would become guaranteed past the April 1 deadline."
So if Cust makes it through Spring Training, he gets his $600,000.
The immediate question was: What the hell? (Note: This was written prior to me seeing Powling's post for SB Nation).
Currently on the 40-man roster, the Astros have Brian Bogusevic, Jason Bourgeois, Carlos Lee, Fernando Martinez, J.D. Martinez, Jordan Schafer, and J.B. Shuck. Seven outfielders. Well, eight, now. What the hell is going on? Is Cust going to play Rover?
The way it looks now, Carlos Lee is probably going to at least begin the year at 1B, so that leaves J.D. Martinez, Jordan Schafer, and Brian Bogusevic as your potential outfielder, though there's room for someone coming up and killing the ball in Spring Training and beginning the year with some starts. Also, if Brett Wallace has figured out how to hit a fastball inside, it could push Carlos Lee back to LF, which would mean OUTFIELDER APOCALYPSE.
The question on my mind is, "Where does Cust fit in?" He had a miserable 2011, playing in 67 games for the Mariners, and hitting .213/.344/.329, the lowest OPS of his career since he got 78 PAs for the Rockies in 2002. He's been a DH-type player since 2007, hitting 25+ HRs from 2007-09 (also leading the AL in strikeouts with 164, 197, 185, respectively).
Like most everyone else, he could be the Bat Off the Bench - Jason Michaels 2.0. You can't look at his history as a pinch-hitter, as he's spent the overwhelming majority of his career in the American League, only getting a circus performer's handful of Pinch-Hit PAs.
For his career against RHPs, Cust has a .247/.383/.466 line, with 86 of his 105 career homers coming off righties.
Does it make senes? Not really. So, should you get upset about the signing? Probably not. Bogusevic, Shuck, and both Martinez' all have options left. As the Juvenile Court Clerk so deftly put it, they could have announced a Pudge signing instead. Click the SBN link above for further analysis...
Update: Cust has signed for $600,000. Compared to you and I, that's a huge amount of money. It's also $300,000 less than Jason Michaels made in 2011, so keep that in mind.
Updated Update: Cust's contract is a non-guaranteed contract. And if that doesn't help you out, the JCC posted this link from McTaggart (when he worked at the Chronicle) on the difference between Guaranteed and Non-Guaranteed Contracts. Hint: one of them is not guaranteed.
Ed Wade:
“Any player released after April 1 would receive full termination pay. So in other words, all non-guaranteed contracts would become guaranteed past the April 1 deadline."
So if Cust makes it through Spring Training, he gets his $600,000.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesdays Rumored Rumors
The flu knocked He Who Was In Charge of the Updates down yesterday, and today is a little iffy, but let's go through the rumors and topics of the day for Day Two of the Winter Meetings:
Somehow, the Astros were interested in Ty Wigginton, before he mercifully signed with Colorado.
Wandy Rodriguez changed agents, from Barry Praver to Adam Katz. Adam Katz also represents Carlos Lee.
The Astros are interested in Jack Cust, as are the Mariners.
Ed Wade confirmed they have been active in trade talks, but that's as far as it went:
“We’ve exchanged some trade proposals with teams today and we were prepared to move forward if they were embraced, and they weren’t.”
One possible area the Astros could upgrade at 2B is with former Brewer/Red Sock(x) Bill Hall, and had conversations with Hall's agent.
The Astros are interested in Ryan Rowland-Smith.
Expect the Astros to be active in tomorrow's Rule 5 draft.
Somehow, the Astros were interested in Ty Wigginton, before he mercifully signed with Colorado.
Wandy Rodriguez changed agents, from Barry Praver to Adam Katz. Adam Katz also represents Carlos Lee.
The Astros are interested in Jack Cust, as are the Mariners.
Ed Wade confirmed they have been active in trade talks, but that's as far as it went:
“We’ve exchanged some trade proposals with teams today and we were prepared to move forward if they were embraced, and they weren’t.”
One possible area the Astros could upgrade at 2B is with former Brewer/Red Sock(x) Bill Hall, and had conversations with Hall's agent.
The Astros are interested in Ryan Rowland-Smith.
Expect the Astros to be active in tomorrow's Rule 5 draft.
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