O's claim 2B/SS Alexi Casilla from Twins

[Tony-OH]

I think Buck and DD view Casilla as utility guy, and hope that Flaherty can win the primary 2B role.

He certainly gives the O's more options and as a good glove, speed guy a different look than their current team construction bench and middle infield.

Honestly, Casilla has the exact type of skills (minus the below average bunting) that I would look for in a utility player. I love having a guy on the bench who can steal a base late in a game.

[CaptainRedbeard]

If you go into the "more stats" option in baseball reference you can find a bunch of interesting situational hitting and running stats.

I really don't disagree with anything you said here. It probably won't hurt for Flaherty to have to go to AAA and play second base every day, but they also may want to give him reps at third base since he could be the number one option there if Machado moves to shortstop (injury or trade of Hardy), at least in the near term. One thing that worries me about Casilla though was that he did not hit anything well last year. He fell off against fastballs as well as offspeed stuff last year. Looking at his spray charts for last year, he almost exclusively tries to go the other way on fastballs which tells me his bats slow. Having to guess due to a lack of bat speed could explains why he fell off on breaking pitches.

I really don't see anything in the numbers that tells me we should expect Casilla to be anything other than the kind of hitter he's been at the major league level the last few years. If he gets back to 2010-11 levels, he could be ok, or at least an upgrade over what Andino gave us last year, which of course doesn't take much. Flaherty of course gives us upside with the bat at least.

Great, thank you, I'll definitely check that out. A slower bat speed may also explain why his contact % dropped so much last year. That will definitely be something worth looking at in ST.

Casilla wasn't really hurt by a low BABIP last year, although it was slightly lower than his career average. If his 2012 season was indicative of his true level of skill, he's not going to be anything more than a pinch runner and defensive replacement, and about a ~1 win player as a starter over the course of the year. That's pretty underwhelming and at that point I'd rather give Flaherty the shot.

If Flaherty can play even a passably below-average 2B, he could be a great player there. His power is in the upper tiers of what you can get out of 2B.