Luis Castillo vs MIL 5/2/18

[jordan5L]

Why would you recommend using Luis Castillo tonight after looking terrible this season thus far?

[Todd Zola]

I haven't given a blanket recommendation -- it's contextual to the league, format, alternatives, etc.

My general philosophy is do I trust the guy or not? If yes, I use him, I don't want to have the bad stuff on the bench. In this case, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Castillo struggled in the cold - we don't know for sure if that's the problem. What we saw last season was from June on, after coming up from a team in Florida so there's a possible "warm weather" narrative.

More importantly, the club found a change in his release point and worked with Castillo on it. The Brewers are dangerous, but they also fan a ton.

It comes down to how damning you feel another bad outing will be versus the whiffs and hopefully decent rations of this one.

Your team, your call.

[jordan5L]

Allow me to provide some context: NL only 12 tm keeper 5x5, As of this writing I have 90 pts, leader has 94. I have 50 points in Pitching, I am leading in Ks (have 60 more than 2nd), Ws (1 more than 2nd) and 4th in ERA (3.66) and 2nd in WHIP (1.17)

My other pitchers aside from Castillo are:

Derek Holland
Chase Anderson
Aaron Nola
Corey Knebel
Chris Stratton
Joey Luchessi
Mike Foltynewicz
Tony Watson
Jeremy Jeffress
Jacob Barnes
Josh Hader
Matt Albers
Matt Koch

Given this context, is it worth starting him? Is there much to gain?

[Todd Zola]

I'll repeat, your team, your call, I can only give you some things to think about.

If there's an innings maximum, I'm more prudent with starts. If there no innings max, I'm more aggressive, confident I can make up for a poor effort later in the season.

I don't worry about standings now; I try to surmise what they may look like at the end of the season. Right now, you're good with whiffs. Are you confident you can maintain that or is the lead precarious?

I assume it's a daily league since this is midweek. That means guys like Hader and the rest of the Brewers are probably active so it's not like choosing between Hader and Castillo.

It comes down to how confident you are that Castillo won't blow up, in tandem with your ability to make up for it if he does.