Angels sign Jason Castro (1 year, $6.85M)

[DMVol]

12 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

I would have preferred Chirinos.

 

12 hours ago, hangin n wangin said:

Would’ve rather had Chirinos but whatever. I just hope this guy doesn’t bat .200 because I could see.it happening.

I think I read that Chirinos had a multi year offer....seems odd at his age...we’ll see...

[Claude]

2 hours ago, Lou said:

he signed with Detroit 3 weeks ago. 

they were undoubtedly impressed with his career OBP of .281

Or maybe they liked his .281 BA last season and his career of clutch hitting. 

[totdprods]

I wonder if Jeremy Reed will be able to work some magic here. He’s had a bit of luck with left-handed hitters and increased power with Calhoun, La Stella, and Thaiss. 

I doubt he’ll replicate that age 26 season in Houston where he had an .800+ OPS, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was able to muster something .750 or better still.

Edited January 3, 2020 by totdprods

[Lou]

10 hours ago, Tank said:

Alright then. Invite me over to your house this weekend so we can address this egregious error. 

And guess what I’ll bring? That’s right, blueberry scones.

We're having a party on January 2nd. Looking forward to seeing you.

[floplag]

36 minutes ago, DMVol said:

 

I think I read that Chirinos had a multi year offer....seems odd at his age...we’ll see...

Yeah, this.
Well see what Chirinos signs but i would much rather take Castro on a 1 yr than Chrinos on a multiple, no question there. 
Lets not forget next years free agent class includes Realmuto so, just a thought.

[Stradling]

We should have signed some other dude because of one small sample size stat versus the guy with the longer track record of being successful, seems legit.  Checks notes, why yes, he did play for the Yankees, ok that makes sense in this context.  

[RallyMo]

5 hours ago, LAAMike said:

Good to see a Stanford Cardinal on the Angels.  At least he is not a dummy.  

 

2 hours ago, Lou said:

@RallyMo?

He's a dummy.

[RallyMo]

19 minutes ago, Lou said:

We're having a party on January 2nd. Looking forward to seeing you.

It's gonna be great.

[hangin n wangin]

57 minutes ago, DMVol said:

 

I think I read that Chirinos had a multi year offer....seems odd at his age...we’ll see...

I saw that too and if that ends up being the case, ok. If Chirinos gets similar money and one year, that’s who I wanted. But I still wasn’t upset with the Castro signing.

[eligrba]

22 minutes ago, Lou said:

We're having a party on January 2nd. Looking forward to seeing you.

[Dtwncbad]

5 hours ago, LAAMike said:

Good to see a Stanford Cardinal on the Angels.  At least he is not a dummy.  

“An advanced education is key to being successful with the Angels.”  —Brad Ausmus

Edited January 3, 2020 by Dtwncbad

[Stradling]

I wonder if he could have gotten into Hofstra.  

[RallyMo]

25 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

“An advanced education is key to being successful with the Angels.”  —Brad Ausmus

No success for Castro, then.

[floplag]

16 minutes ago, RBM said:

It was not reported that Chirinos is getting multi-year deals.

Not in that tweet, but in others it has. Well see if its true.

[eligrba4ever]

So I was watching Hot Stove Friday morning and it seemed the Angels still might be talking with Chirinos. If that's the case, Chirinos AND Castro might be a truly solid pairing. Then again, it's just a Hot Stove gossip at this point. Not holding breath.

[DMVol]

32 minutes ago, eligrba4ever said:

So I was watching Hot Stove Friday morning and it seemed the Angels still might be talking with Chirinos. If that's the case, Chirinos AND Castro might be a truly solid pairing. Then again, it's just a Hot Stove gossip at this point. Not holding breath.

Wouldn't be a bad plan at all......but it takes money away from more pitching, if that is still in the works...neither Castro or Chirinos is a guy who you'd expect to be a workhorse and catch most every game....might keep them both a little fresher....two good catchers is never a bad thing....

[Inside Pitch]

 

1 hour ago, RendZone said:

Or maybe they liked his .281 BA last season and his career of clutch hitting. 

You're pretending this is about performance but you're pimping a guy with a career bWAR of 0.1.    That's 8 years and 0.1 bWAR total.  

I too liked Romine as a cheap back up option, but the guy you were happy to see hired as manager said he was hoping for a veteran catcher to help the pitching staff.  The current GM that was there for all Romine's minor league career and the first four years of his MLB career clearly didn't see him as the guy who could fit whatever role Maddon wanted.  My guess is this is an indication they wanted a proven starter and the guy with the 12.0 bWAR (14.5 fWAR), made more sense to them.

Romine vs Castro is a non issue.  Quit pretending they missed out on anything special.

[totdprods]

Watch, we'll sign Romine next year haha.

[hangin n wangin]

What's with the Romine talk? Guy is nothing more than a hot turd.

Realistically, we were probably looking at 2 decent catching options as free agents that we could get on short term deals. Those players were Castro and Chirinos. Most people seemed to be ok with us acquiring one of those two and we did.

Granted, I do believe Castro is very capable of taking an absolute shit as a hitter and posting something along the lines of .210 average and .280 OBP. However, with the decent power and defense, it could still be ok. He was one of the better free agent catchers available and has had a respectable career up to this point. No sense in really whining about it when our main weakness is still our starting pitching.

[Torridd]

14 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

Better than a 70-win team. Baby steps.

Now let's see...what good pitchers will hit free agency next year?

Please stop.

[yk9001]

I think Chuck should give @mymerlincat one year premium subscription for the yeoman's work performed this winter.

[Glen]

21 minutes ago, hangin n wangin said:

What's with the Romine talk? Guy is nothing more than a hot turd.

Realistically, we were probably looking at 2 decent catching options as free agents that we could get on short term deals. Those players were Castro and Chirinos. Most people seemed to be ok with us acquiring one of those two and we did.

Granted, I do believe Castro is very capable of taking an absolute shit as a hitter and posting something along the lines of .210 average and .280 OBP. However, with the decent power and defense, it could still be ok. He was one of the better free agent catchers available and has had a respectable career up to this point. No sense in really whining about it when our main weakness is still our starting pitching.

The other guy, the one that we didn't sign, is always the better choice.

[Glen]

14 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

I think Chuck should give @mymerlincat one year premium subscription for the yeoman's work performed this winter.

Props for using "yeoman."

[hangin n wangin]

13 minutes ago, Glen said:

The other guy, the one that we didn't sign, is always the better choice.

I wanted Chirinos as well. I hope Castro is better.

[floplag]

1 hour ago, RBM said:

Show me.

It was never reported Chirinos is being offered multi-year deals.

Why dont we just wait and see rather than worrying about rumors?
Just a thought. 
Either way i think we made the right choice, does anything else really matter?