Kevin Towers’ Trades of 1999
Thu, Jul 12, 2007
by Geoff Young
In the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual, we examined Kevin Towers’ best and worst trades. As it happens, two of his five best and two more “honorable mentions” were made in 1999. Here’s a quick review of Towers’ trades from that year:
February 2, 1999
Traded Mark Sweeney and Greg Vaughn to the Cincinnati Reds for Damian Jackson, Reggie Sanders, and Josh Harris
| Player | Win Shares | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | Total | |
| Sweeney | 2 | - | - | 2 |
| Vaughn | 24 | - | - | 24 |
| Cin total | 26 | |||
| Jackson | 11 | 15 | 11 | 37 |
| Sanders | 19 | - | - | 19 |
| SD total | 56 | |||
| Difference | +30 | |||
Jackson was infuriating to watch at times, but he also provided more value than you might remember. Sanders, for all of his flaws, has been a productive player for the better part of the past 15 years. He also was part of the package that brought Ryan Klesko to San Diego.
March 29, 1999
Traded Andy Sheets and Gus Kennedy to the Anaheim Angels for Phil Nevin and Keith Volkman
| Player | Win Shares | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | Total | |
| Sheets | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Nevin | 19 | 22 | 31 | 12 | 9 | 21 | 8 | 122 |
| Difference | +121 | |||||||
Pure genius. The best deal not involving Kevin Brown (or possibly Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young — too soon to call just yet) that Towers has made.
July 8, 1999
Traded Juan Melo to the Toronto Blue Jays for Isabel Giron
The most interesting aspect of this trade is that “Isabel” turned out to be the younger sister of the pitcher acquired. Neither player made any impact at the big-league level.
July 26, 1999
Traded Greg Myers to the Atlanta Braves for Received Doug Dent
| Player | Win Shares | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Total | |
| Myers | 3 | 3 |
| Dent | - | 0 |
| Difference | -3 | |
I wonder if Dent wore #42?
July 31, 1999
Traded Jim Leyritz to the New York Yankees for Geraldo Padua
| Player | Win Shares | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Total | |
| Leyritz | 1 | 1 |
| Padua | - | 0 |
| Difference | -1 | |
Leyritz may not have been the most charming individual, but he certainly provided some great moments in ‘98. I’ll never forget the home run he hit off Billy Wagner — one of my favorite Padres moments ever.
November 10, 1999
Traded Andy Ashby to the Philadelphia Phillies for Adam Eaton, Carlton Loewer, and Steve Montgomery
| Player | Win Shares | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | Total | |
| Ashby | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| Phi total | 2 | ||||||
| Eaton | 9 | 5 | - | 7 | 6 | 5 | 32 |
| Loewer | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | |
| Montgomery | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | |
| SD total | 32 | ||||||
| Difference | +30 | ||||||
Very good trade that had the potential to be great. Ashby did nothing in Philly, while Eaton perpetually teased with his talents before being shipped to Texas in what I expect to become Towers’ best deal when all is said and done.
November 15, 1999
Traded Dan Miceli to the Florida Marlins for Brian Meadows
| Player | Win Shares | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Total | |
| Miceli | 5 | 0 |
| Meadows | 2 | 0 |
| Difference | -3 | |
Mark Smith and Hal Garret begat Trey Beamon and Angelo Encarnacion; Beamon and Tim Worrell begat Miceli, Donne Wall, and Ryan Balfe; Miceli begat Meadows; Meadows begat Jay Witasick; Witasick begat D’Angelo Jimenez; Jimenez begat Humberto Quintero and Alex Fernandez; Quintero begat Tim Redding; Redding and Darrell May begat Paul Quantrill; Quantrill retired, thus breaking the cycle of mediocrity.
December 22, 1999
Traded Brandon Pernell to the Chicago Cubs for Dan Serafini
Whoopie!
December 22, 1999
Traded Wally Joyner, Reggie Sanders, and Quilvio Veras to the Atlanta Braves for Bret Boone, Ryan Klesko, and Jason Shiell
| Player | Win Shares | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Total | |
| Joyner | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | 7 | |
| Sanders | 6 | - | - | - | - | 6 | ||
| Veras | 13 | 6 | - | - | - | 19 | ||
| Atl total | 32 | |||||||
| Boone | 15 | - | - | - | - | - | 15 | |
| Klesko | 23 | 29 | 30 | 13 | 19 | 17 | 1 | 132 |
| Shiell | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | |
| SD total | 147 | |||||||
| Difference | +115 | |||||||
Just think of how great this deal could have been if the Padres hadn’t blown giant wads of cash on the useless Randy Myers and were able to re-sign Boone (who became an MVP caliber player in Seattle) after the 2000 season. Now stop thinking about that, because this was still an absolute steal.
The Padres may have been pretty lousy from 1999 to 2003, but in one respect, ‘99 has to be considered a success (two respects, actually; Jake Peavy was drafted in the 15th round that year). Two franchise players (Klesko and Nevin) were brought onboard, and another (Eaton) eventually was flipped for two more.
A guy could do worse…
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
July 12, 2007 at 7:56 am
Wow, talk about names you never thought you would see again huh? There were only like 100 people in this post that I had forgotten even existed!
I don’t know what was going on with the minor league rosters yesterday but Antonelli and Huffman were on the SA roster when I looked at it too.
July 12, 2007 at 8:15 am
1. They were both promoted. Sean Kazmar was sent down from SA and Peter Ciofrone was promoted to Portland
July 12, 2007 at 8:43 am
Re: 2 when will Antonelli and Huffman start with SA they both played for LE last night, also any word on Freese?
July 12, 2007 at 8:52 am
Another name from the past: Ed Whitson. Here’s an article from today’s NY Times about the 1985 fight: Whitson vs. Billy Martin. It’s pretty funny.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07.....agers.html
KT’s moves in 1999 look very good in retrospect (the Nevin move was great), but it was an excruciating year to be a Padre fan, for two reasons:
1. Brown goes to doggers for obscene amount of money
2. That 13 game win streak around the all star break that teased us into believing the Pads were a playoff team
July 12, 2007 at 9:42 am
Snakes fire their hitting coach. Hopefully it works as well for them as firing Magadan did for us.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....NHeadlines
July 12, 2007 at 10:12 am
Looks like we might finally have an answer for why Hensley has been so bad this year. The UT mentioned in passing that he is suffering from shoulder tendonitis. How about we shut him down if thats the case and not do further damage to it?
July 12, 2007 at 10:24 am
6: I couldn’t agree more. Running him out there is just ruining his value, either to us or as trade bait. He did pitch better in his last outing-maybe he’s getting over the tendinitis.
Freese is staying in Elsinore, probably because the Padres want him to keep playing 3B and Headlley will stay at SA (although I wouldn’t be surprised if he was promoted after the trade deadline (maybe to the big club in September?)
I’m really excited to see how Antonelli and Huffman fare in AA. That’s a pretty prospect laden roster now. Leblanc, Headley, Huffman, Antonelli, Venable?. Ramos?
The future looks bright.
July 12, 2007 at 10:27 am
Re: 7 im sure Headley will be up in sept now that he is on the 40 man roster.
July 12, 2007 at 10:45 am
8: I agree. I’m interested to see if they’re just going to leave him at AA to enhance his trade value before the deadline and then bring him up to AAA or if they want him to have a full year at AA this season with teh exception of the September call up
July 12, 2007 at 10:50 am
I’ve been suggesting for over a month that Hensley might be injured.
July 12, 2007 at 11:09 am
Totally off-topic, but I just saw something that infuriates me to the core:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289103,00.html
Let me preface this by saying I’m a total liberal Democrat. I read O’Reilly on a daily basis to affirm why I believe in acceptance and tolerance and logic. For him to take a shot at our beloved franchise on his TV program just about seals him as the worst person in the media for me. What’s truly sickening about this is that there are PLENTY of people out there who will read his rant and consider it to be gospel. Someone should really point out that Sunday was not “GAY DAY!” at Petco. The Gay Men’s Chorus sang the National Anthem. That’s it. There were no flying rainbows. There were no same-sex displays of affection. It was a group of people acting out their patriotism by singing the National Anthem! Simply disgusting. I hope that the Padres don’t take a PR hit from this.
July 12, 2007 at 11:20 am
12.
Phantom, I agree with you 100%. I was so angry at this story when I first heard about I wanted to go to the park and protest the protesters! My wife talked me out of it but it still pisses me off beyond belief.
July 12, 2007 at 11:24 am
I sent him an email, of course I’ll never get a response since he is misreporting the story.
It seems the only way out of the situation for the organization was to not allow a gay rights group to purchase tickets on any Sunday home game. Oh wait….that’s illegal.
Seriously I can see some people complaining about the choir, but making it out to be a whole event is crazy and not even close to accurate.
July 12, 2007 at 11:25 am
12: I was already in the stadium by the time I realized what was going on. My fiance had to talk me into staying inside the Park and not going out to confront them. I’m incensed that this is now “National News” when so much of it is based on a lie.
July 12, 2007 at 11:28 am
I really think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion, San Diego Pride bought a block of tickets to the game just like Ducksnorts did a few weeks ago so they are entitled to the same benefits that everyone else is, a discounted rate and a scoreboard welcome, the padres in no way advertised it as Gay Pride day. Somehow the church got wind that San Diego Pride was going to attend the day and brought their bigoted attitude like always and put more attention to the subject than there should have been.
The Padres in no way promoted homosexuality they just sold tickets to a group of fans.
This also has nothing to do with political beliefs because I’m as conservative as there is, there are bigots on both sides of the fence.
July 12, 2007 at 11:31 am
15: I’m in complete agrement with you. I’ve e-mailed Media Matters to see if they’ll get any traction with this story, but it’s really an issue of blatant lying. I’d be really curious to get Sandy Alderson’s take on this nonsense.
July 12, 2007 at 11:33 am
The thing that pisses me off is that people are acting like the Padres were trying to lure unsuspecting kids to the park so they could exspose them to a gay epidemic or something.
July 12, 2007 at 11:35 am
slow newsday + highly charged politicaly issue = “enhansed” story lines, if anything the media is to blame.
its San Diego Prides right to attend the games
its the church’s right to protest however small minded it is
July 12, 2007 at 11:36 am
11: Does anyone know if there were really any over the top displays? I really had no idea any of this was going on if it even was. All i know is that the Gay Choir sang the anthem. I didnt really notice anything else.
July 12, 2007 at 11:41 am
Re: 11 there was about 70 protesters, yelling nothing really earth shattering, the national news just picked up on it because it is controversial and that always sells.
The Gay Choir auditioned like every other group to sing the anthem, and I would imagine that San Diego Pride picked to go to the game because they were singing.
July 12, 2007 at 11:44 am
3. I think Freese is going to end up staying in LE, because they don’t want to promote Headley to the sort of mess they have in Portland - but you never know.
I’m sure they will both be in the lineup as soon as possible - and its really a pretty good team for prospects as some have mentioned already - Headley, Antonelli, Huffman, Venable, Hundley, LeBlanc and Ayala.
July 12, 2007 at 11:45 am
I’m a “Staunch” conservative (isn’t it great how sports bring opposing sides together) and while I didn’t like that the GLBT group decided to buy their block of tickets on the same day that the Padres were promoting a children’s give-away, I do recognize that the group has every right to buy their tickets in mass like any other group. This story is bigger than it needs to be. If the protesters really want to do something, they need to buy as big of a block of tickets so they too can negotiate to get their group’s choir to sing the national anthem to get additional exposure.
July 12, 2007 at 11:49 am
Re:22 I think the Men’s Gay Choir was scheduled to perform before San Diego Pride Bought the Tix, I think that’s why they chose that day to buy the tix, I could be wrong though.
July 12, 2007 at 11:49 am
18: Exactly. I dont remember looking on the Padres Promotional Schedule and seeing Sunday vs the Braves “GAY DAY!”
The choir happened to be sining, so San Diego pride bought group tickets. They have the right to buy tickets and if people really want to they have the right to protest. This was in no part a Padres planned event.
July 12, 2007 at 11:50 am
Phantom, dude, you know I like you, but if, “believ[ing] in acceptance and tolerance and logic” applies to O’Rielly, that’s one thing. But I don’t think you can make that arguement regarding “conservatives” in mass…
July 12, 2007 at 11:52 am
The thing that caused the uproar, was that the GLBT group promoted it internally as “Out at the Park.” And they did so in such a way as to suggest the Padres supported it and these fliers got out (no pun intended). In fact, they just bought a group-ticket thing.
July 12, 2007 at 11:56 am
25: I definitely should have clarified that I don’t feel that way about conservatives. Most of that sentiment was aimed squarely at O’Reilly.
July 12, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Peter, the national anthem singers are picked well before any specific game is scheduled for national tv.
If the evangelicals want to complain about the chorus thats fine…I just find it interesting that this is a story this year when Pride intentionally attended a Sunday game(instead of a Fri/Sat night like they have in the past) so that they would present a more family friendly face(ie not having people go to the game before going to the biggest club night of the year for the gay community in San Diego) I know 2 years ago a number of people complained about some of the antics during the game, without going into graphic details the behavior was far from appropriate.
I can understand that both groups are frustrated with the outcome…but only one of them is calling the media to garner more attention no matter who it hurts in the process.
It’s just sad considering these protests have gotten more press then some of the events last year associated with Pride.
A lot of us who know and respect people on both sides were hoping there would be more understanding this year after the violence last year, doesn’t seem to have happened. I can’t believe there is more tension now then ever before.
July 12, 2007 at 12:13 pm
“…The national anthem singers are picked well before any specific game is scheduled for national tv.”
If you buy a big enough block of tickets to a game, you can negotiate to have your group sing the anthem (whether on Nat. TV or otherwise - of course you have to try out as well)…
Again, my beef is minor, the group had EVERY right to do a group ballpark event and negotiate to get the choir. I only wish it had not coinsided w/ the children’s giveaway. Homosexuality is a mature topic, I want to bring that topic up with my kids when I think they are ready not have them ask me questions and force the issue. I never mentioned Nat. TV and I did not support the boycott.
July 12, 2007 at 12:15 pm
How ’bout dem Bears?
July 12, 2007 at 12:57 pm
To break the ice a bit, SI.com thinks the most imporant person for the Padres for the rest of the year is KT. I personally would say it’s A-Gon, but what do I know? I just watch all of the games. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....index.html
July 12, 2007 at 1:03 pm
XX reporting that wells has been suspended for 7 days, from his ejection last sat.
July 12, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Just a reminder, BP is free this week … here’s a link to the UTK column to get you started …
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=6445
July 12, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Pretty impressive pitching numbers from the Eugene game last night:
Perez 4.0 2 2 2 0 6 1 3.14
Luebke 3.0 2 1 0 0 5 0 1.00
Woodard (W, 2-0) 2.0 1 0 0 0 4 0 0.00
5 Hits, 0 walks and 15 K’s. That’ll work no matter where you’re playing.
July 12, 2007 at 1:59 pm
29.
It’s not as if kids only come to the ball park on floppy cap night. Homosexuality is a part of society just like religion and race. Kids ask questions it’s what they do, you don’t have to go into great sexual detail to answer a kids question aporiate for their age. I really don’t want to get into a beliefs discussion here but seriously, it’s just some gay people at a baseball game mello out it’s not freaking disco night at the drag bar!
July 12, 2007 at 2:00 pm
So are we a better team while Wells sits out his suspension?
July 12, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I bet Black will probably not let Wells pitch for 8 or 9 games instead of just the 7 game suspension, because Buddy always leaves Wells out too long.
July 12, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Re: 35 no disco night at a drag bar was May 11th against StL
July 12, 2007 at 2:03 pm
So wait… Derek Lee physically asaults someone on the field and gets 5 games while David Wells throws a ball at the backstop and he gets 7? There is something seriously wrong with the powers that be at the mlb offices to look at the Wells replay and say he needs 7 games!
July 12, 2007 at 2:08 pm
7 games to a pitcher is far less than 5 to an every day player.
July 12, 2007 at 2:17 pm
40.
I understand that. But it’s still hard to swollow. 7 games is still most likely only 1 start. I peresonally don’t really think suspensions should be based on a players position.
July 12, 2007 at 2:26 pm
37 … very funny … actually, let’s hope so, call it win-win (because I tend to agree with the spirit behind comment #36) …
July 12, 2007 at 2:27 pm
With all due respect, I think I’m incredibly mellow about the whole situation. I did NOT agree with the protesters, I did NOT support the boycott, I do NOT think the Padres did ANYTHING wrong, I DO think the group was ENTIRELY within their rights to have good time at a ballgame…
…to baseball…
re: 34
Huge night. Luebke is impressing me… In the same way that I wasn’t excited about the Leblanc pick in ‘06, Luebke is looking solid this year.
And actually, what I’ve heard, is that Luebke is a collegiate who wasn’t great in college, but some things the Padres want to correct - they see some upside in him.
July 12, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Re: 36 they are worse because they will send down Bocachica to call up Hampson to make the start due to the “there must be 12 pitchers in a Padres uni at all times” rule
July 12, 2007 at 2:33 pm
re: Wells suspension; I am starting to hate the umps. I am a pretty left dude, but can get frustrated with unions in general, but the MLB umps have to face that it is a new day. A generation ago, when they structured how they advance umps, fans had almost no way to know whether an ump is good or not. Now the MLB EI package + Tivo, I get watch almost every game, and play and replay plays that catch my interest. This season I have been struck with the general poor quality of the umpiring regarding balls and strikes. Inconsistent strike zones, inconsistent calls. I know this is not easy, but with technology now, you can do a pretty good job of assessing how well umpires are calling balls and strikes, so you can rate them reasonably fairly. Once you do that, you can create performance incentives which will lead to better umps getting more time behind the dish.
I think it is not fair to change the rules on some of these guys who have been working for years to get their shot, but they should track the numbers over a reasonable amount of time, show the umps their ratings, and let them decide whether they want to stay in or not. The ones that want out, give them a really generous severance package. The good ones will make more money, the bad ones will leave.
The system we have now, based vaguely on seniority and rotation, is awful.
I still think that a bunch of them still subscribe to the idea that a strike is not a strike until they say it is. No, a strike is a strike and your job is to call it so consistently. Borderline pitches, call as you wish, but call them consistently. Not everyone will have the skill to do that, but a merit system will get much better skill behind the plate.
July 12, 2007 at 2:36 pm
43.
The last time I heard Fuson on the radio he said something (I can’t remember exactly what) that made me think he REALLY liked Luebuke. So maybe they really do know something! Haha
July 12, 2007 at 3:04 pm
In order to not be accused of distorting the facts, the Padres apparently did have a “promotion” for this event on their Web site:
However, the Padres used the same practice for the Pride event as they do for other group events, as evidenced here: http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com.....events.jsp I would even argue that other groups potentiall get announced “Welcome to Stitch and Pitch Night at Petco Park”. Even though the Padres advertised this group event, I still believe that O’Reilly took the facts of the situation out of context. Nobody is going to be up in arms over “Jewish Heritage Night”.
Regardless, I just wanted to put this out there. My previous statement was inaccurate and I was unaware of this promotion. My general sentiment stands.
July 12, 2007 at 3:04 pm
By the way, this is the Pride Night link: http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com....._night.jsp
July 12, 2007 at 3:26 pm
48: That kind of changes things i guess. So does your group have to be a certain size to get a “Your Group Night?
July 12, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I think any group with like 1000 tix or more gets that attention. If we had managed that many people for ducksnorts, we could have had a “ducksnorts night”. By the way, that should be the new goal of the blog.
July 12, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Anyone check out the Matt Bush front page article over at http://www.baseballamerica.com ?
July 12, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I’m older today …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....;type=lgns
… Mets cut Julio Franco … and now no one in MLB is older than me
July 12, 2007 at 4:23 pm
When I first saw the O’Reilly piece, I sat and wrote a lengthy entry about how frustrated I get when a baseball game, one of the great equalizers of cultural differences, was being used for O’Reilly’s propoganda to promote differences among us, rather than similarities. I then erased it without posting, thinking that I would stick with baseball on Ducksnorts. Jeez, judging from the entries today, I would have been right at home. That’s what we need in GY’s absence — some good old political discourse!
July 12, 2007 at 4:27 pm
47/48 … thanks for the followup, Phantom … “the whole story” is usually hard to know …
50 … RIGHT ON … what a *great* goal … a thousand Ducksnorters … Ducksnorts Night at Petco Park … WOW! Here’s a sketch for a plan on how to do this … we pick a date in 2008 and get folks to prepay for tix … a date I’d lobby for would be the date of 2008 Baseball Prospectus “Pizza Feed” … how might we get to 1000? Well, I’d be able to get 10 … might we have 99 others that could get 10 each? If not, we could shoot for 2008 to have a “Blogger Night at Petco Park” instead and try to do something the GasLampBall’ers and the BaseballProspectus folks …
This reminds me, when I was at a game recently, I was wearing my Ducksnorts shirt … and one of the workers at the stadium stop’d me and asked if I worked for Ducksnorts
… sounded like he’d heard of Ducksnorts from mentions on Ch4 … but had never checked it out … so I encouraged him to … but he didn’t look like he really would …
July 12, 2007 at 4:31 pm
54, LM, I like the idea of getting a Padre Blogger night together. Kind of a month end review, only with all participants of all the blogs. I’m not sure I can out drink the GS Ballers, though. If we tried to get together in ‘08, I’d better start getting in training, starting tonight.
July 12, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I personally think the Padres should respond to the Pride thing by wearing rainbow-colored uniforms once a year (a la the camos). Anyone who thinks that gay people are an affront to children/families should get his/her head examined. Gay people are our friends and neighbors, Republicans and Democrats, Padre fans and Dodger fans. Can we focus on stuff that really matters, like the war, the economy, our schools … and the Dodgers and Dbacks?
July 12, 2007 at 5:23 pm
51 … nice article at BA, thanks! Batt Mush also gets the “blast from the past” mention on the PHS …
http://www.baseballamerica.com.....64444.html
July 12, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Yefri (the Great) with 2 singles + 2 walks today …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....p;did=milb
… ya gotta love a farm team that gets it’s top hitters 6 PAs per game
July 12, 2007 at 5:36 pm
At AA San Antonio, Leblanc is pitching …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....x_mroaax_1
… and Antonelli is 1-for-1 so far in his AA debut … Huffman’s in the lineup also!
July 12, 2007 at 6:40 pm
51 excellent! Bush is throwing 98, and feels good throwing in the mid 90s. Wow. Wow. Again . . . wow.
Hope the kid can have some success. It seems like he’s been working pretty hard.
July 12, 2007 at 7:39 pm
59: He is now 2 for 2 with a double
July 13, 2007 at 4:21 am
I really like this piece on problems with the All-Star game. I think suggestion #3 is especially clever, but maybe I’m just bitter about LaRussa’s general idiocy.
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=6440
I personally find Boomer’s suspension a bit harsh, but I guess I can see why others don’t. It almost feels like a punishment for the Padres figuring out how to turn CY’s 5-day suspension into no missed starts. But at least losing Boomer is not nearly as bad as losing CY. Hopefully this will teach Wells to just shut up and take it in the future, even if the umps are out of line.
July 13, 2007 at 9:17 am
#54: Or we could just storm the castle.