Orioles Officially sign Catcher Welington Castillo

[thezeroes]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The day Wieters called for those first pitch fastballs by Matusz to Raul Ibanez was the last day i could take him serious as game caller. It was also the day I started to count down to this day. Nothing against the guy personally, but I think the Orioles are better pitching staff when he's not behind the plate.

140 Games of truth here.  Poor Framing, Poor pitch selection, and the inability to get the most from struggling starters (Ubaldo/Yovani). 

[weams]

12 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The day Wieters called for those first pitch fastballs by Matusz to Raul Ibanez was the last day i could take him serious as game caller. It was also the day I started to count down to this day. Nothing against the guy personally, but I think the Orioles are better pitching staff when he's not behind the plate.

Wel said 

[crawjo]

Leaving aside everything else, this is a good move by the Orioles. They find a replacement at catcher for a fraction of what they paid Wieters last year. 

[Frobby]

15 minutes ago, weams said:

I won't miss the 0-2 calls from behind the plate. 

Pretty much no evidence that the O's did significantly worse at this than any other team.     The league batted .149/.157/.220 on 0-2, the O's gave up .139/.147/.243.    In my opinion, in 95% of the cases where a hit is allowed on 0-2, it's due to poor execution by the pitcher, not due to a bad pitch call.  

[weams]

7 minutes ago, twinedenter said:

I will give him credit. One of things not mentioned here so far in my reading is that Castillo MASHES lefties. Something this team is sorely lacking.

I like the deal. It is a small upgrade IMO, but the money and terms are right. Dan did well.

And Boston has four in their rotation. The Os Andrew Toney. The Boston Strangler 

[George Zuverink]

43 minutes ago, crawjo said:

I'm not convinced he's a worse defender than Wieters, who I think was overrated as a defender his entire time here. 

Off the topic of Castillo for a second, but I think people forget how good Matt was once at some of the most visible aspects of catching. Until his arm gave out, there were few better at gunning out runners attempting to steal second. Until they changed the rules, there were few  better at blocking the plate. I haven't looked up the numbers, but I suspect he had fewer passed balls and prevented more wild pitches than most catchers. That was then and I agree that at the money and current skill level, it's time to move on. I like the Castillo deal and hope that Chance can play the position adequately at some point. 

[Ruzious]

DD has his obvious plusses and minuses, but the fact that he waits out on free agents is generally a good thing.  It frees up opportunities like this - because he didn't rush to over-pay.

[nevadaO]

24 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

And I just learned how to spell wIEters right.  Now we're all going to have to realize how to spell weLington.  

Can we at least change the title of the thread to spell his name right.  haha

My mistake. I have fixed it.

[AZRon]

26 minutes ago, ArtVanDelay said:

.... What's payroll at now?

$155.34M

[FlipTheBird]

Will be strange, not having Wieters associated with the team. He and Jones were the two longest-tenured guys on the club, and no one else was close.

All for the best, though. He was not the catcher he once was, before the injuries.

[sportsfan8703]

17 minutes ago, weams said:

And Boston has four in their rotation. The Os Andrew Toney. The Boston Strangler 

The AL East is really RH at the moment.  Not too many LH hitters. 

Bal- Davis, Kim

Tor-Goins, Travis, Carrera

NYY- Ellsbury, Gardner,

TB- Dickerson, Kiermaeir, Morrison, Miller.  

Those four LH starters are going to be seeing lots of RH hitters.  

[sportsfan8703]

10 minutes ago, AZRon said:

$155.34M

So 175-180 after we sign Edwin Encarnacion.  

[billw76]

Very happy with this deal. Cheaper than Wieters, and for less years than it probably would have took to re-sign him, plus it doesn't block Sisco.

[billw76]

32 minutes ago, weams said:

Wel said 

I agree. I don't have the numbers to back it up, but it just seemed like the staff was better when Wieters wasn't behind the plate.

[Just Regular]

Remember how every medium good pitcher wanted to go to Petco for a big year.  We are that for HR/RBI guys, and he's another classic in that category.

I see him as the Goldilocks too in the Manny recruitment effort.  Even a 3/27 Wieters with a 8/9/10 structure would put another eight figure number on Manny's initial 2019 FA year, and I'm glad we avoided that.  But you can't punt the position either, because Manny can and should expect to play for a perennial contender.  Beef is just right.

Is Matt now a second-division starter?  Atlanta may be salivating at the deal they may hope to get now.  Where else might he fit?  Angels or Rockies look like other possibilities.  It'd be a quasi-challenge trade if Arizona signed him.

Would it make anyone nervous if the Red Sox decided not to push their Sandy Leon luck and jumped in on him?