Luis Castillo is finally off the Mets roster. Perhaps this move spells some sort of moving on from the disastrous previous brain trust or that the current organizational thinkers understand the meaning of "sunk cost." I do, however, feel somewhat badly for Castillo as he was unfairly labeled as a lazy and bad player. Sure, his range was about as lengthy as a seventy year old and hit the ball as far as a little leaguer but the man was still slightly above replacement. The issue with Castillo in my mind was his contract, and I have a very hard time blaming the player for a move that his superiors made. If my boss came to me and offered me a contract much higher than I'm worth I'm not going to go up to him and go "Hey man, I think you made a mistake I'm not worth this much you idiot."

Now, the twitterblogosphere has exploded in response to an asinine piece by Daily News writer Andy Martino. He wrote a piece the other day about how the celebration over Castillo's release may have more to do with race instead of his mediocre play on the field.

No, I'm not making this up.

Martino's ignorant, race-baiting article -- full of unsourced speculation and strawmen -- is an insult to everyone who cares about the Mets. He cites Castillo's ability to play while injured as something to be lauded when in the real world, if a player plays hurt and hurts his team (like Castillo arguably did a handful of times over the past couple of seasons), it's ridiculous to praise. Toughness doesn't replace stupidity, which is exactly what a player is if he runs the risk of injuring himself further or making a team worse by playing.

To assume race as a factor for why Castillo is disliked by Mets fans is simply insulting. I find it ironic that a man who chides the Mets faithful for calling out Castillo for being lazy writes such an unbelievably lazy sports article, one which I expect to see on Bleacher Report rather than the New York Daily News. It makes me long for the days of Mike Lupica, which says a lot about the quality of Martino's commentary.

What's lost in subtext is the fact that the Mets cut an overpriced veteran who, although hit over .300, had an excellent on-base percentage, had a disgustingly low slugging percentage, an unsustainable ground ball rate, and a hilariously low swing percentage. Castillo's peripherals predict an enormous regression but I am certain that level of thinking is substantially higher than where Martino is. Castillo did get a bad deal from Mets fans. Again, a slightly above replacement level player for his years with the Mets, Castillo will be remembered more for the plays that he didn't make (like the horrific pop fly against the Yankees) than for his decent on-base skills. Race, however, had nothing to do with it.

More importantly, Martino misses an obvious point in order to build a non-existent story. The average sports fan doesn't understand the game. They go "oh hey Castillo didn't hit any dingers or stole any bases he sucks boooo" instead of looking deeper. But no, it's not that -- Occam's Razor this Martino -- it's blatant racism from Mets fans, the same Mets fans who live, work, and play in the largest melting pot in the history of modern man.

It's not that Turner, Emmaus, and Murphy are better players going forward than Castillo is currently, it's that everyone who dislikes Castillo has a grudge against Latinos.

If it's a troll -- and I wouldn't be surprised -- it's an awful one and not even worth responding to. I personally hope that no one is so ignorant as to accuse an entire fanbase (that isn't the Red Sox or Cubs --- I kid, I kid) of flagrant racism.

It's amazing how considering how bad the Mets ownership is, their beat writers are even worse.