The Giants signed reliever Santiago Casilla to a minor league deal, reports Baseball America's Matt Eddy. He'd been released by the A's on December 10th to make room for Rule 5 pick Bobby Cassevah.
Casilla, 29, posted a 5.96 ERA, 6.5 K/9, and 4.7 BB/9 in 48.3 relief innings last year. He was hindered by calf and knee injuries. He dealt with a sore elbow throughout the '08 season.
I still think we should sign chan ho park…
I think you are right. The Tony Pena Jr. signing was really good I think he could be a steal. We will see what happens now since he is pitching.
meh Casilla could replace Merkin Valdez
How are his numbers any different from recently traded Merkin Valdez? At least Valdez still has potential to grow and become better with his mid-90s fastball.
Valdez will never be anything more than a long relief man it’s not like he’s a 20 year old he had his chance to prove himself
IMO Casilla=Valdez Casilla will probably be even cheaper
Casilla: 5.96 ERA, 6.5 K/9, and 4.7 BB/9 in 48.3 relief innings
Valdez: 5.66 ERA, 6.9 K/9, and 5.1 BB/9 in 49.1 relief innings
I put Valdez in a slight edge over Casilla. At least we know that Valdez is healthy after coming off Tommy John in 06. Their difference in salary might not even be more than 100k.
IMO they should have designated Fred Lewis instead so that we have some bullpen depth.
I understand where you’re coming from but I don’t think losing Merkin Valdez weakens our pen we have Still have Romo, Affeldt, Runzler, and Brian Wilson and Waldis Joaquin who is a younger version of Merkin Valdez with more pitches so our pen is fine
”At least we know that Valdez is healthy”
Well, I have to tell you. BOTH are pitching in the Dominican Winter League Finals for the same team: Escogido Lions. Casillas is the closer of that team and Valdez is like the 5th reliever in importance. What does that tell you? By the way, in that team is throwing Francisco Cordero as a Set up.
Casillas is healthy, you can be 100% sure about that, and he is WAY better than Valdez whose command is horrible. Casillas has control problems too, but not as bad as Valdez.
Not to mention the fact that Valdez was ALSO injury prone, and 2009 was his ONLY season NOT shortened by injury… And he was still pretty terrible, in my opinion. As pointed out, Joaquin and Romo are both better options than Valdez; I personally know nothing about Casilla, so we’ll see.
also Medders who is a nice long relief man
Chan Ho Park would be nice but I think the G-men are out of cash with the signing of Molina and arbitration for Timmy and Wilson. This minor league signing is barely newsworthy.
I think if we waited out we could steal him for one year – 2 mil.
Still think we should sign try to sign Calero if the Cubs don’t scoop em up first. He was great last year. As far as Chan Ho Park is concerned, I cannot trust a pitcher who gave up 2 grand slams in the same inning to the same batter! To Fernando Tatis nonetheless!
Casilla was lights out for a bit in 2008 before the injuries. This signing is a good one by the Giants assuming he can return to his before injury form. I always like it when teams sign a player that has shown great potential to minor league deals. The low key high reward signings win championships. But don’t get me wrong Casilla is not going to take the Giants to the series but he may just surprise people and become an integral part of that bullpen
Casilla kind of sucks. He teases you with his mid 90’s fastball,pitches well, gets hurt, then falls apart. It was the same pattern for 3 seasons. When street was struggling, casilla looked great and potentially a closer but never took advantage. He got passed up by a plethora of A’s relievers the past 2 yrs. No risk on a minor league deal, but I wouldnt expect high leverage innings from him
Calero supposedly has some injury concerns, hence the reason he hasn’t been picked up yet after that stellar year he had last season. It would be awesome if they could convince John Smoltz to come and relieve for them and be a mentor like the Unit was in ’09. Not going to happen though, so the only other guys I’d look at would be Dotel, Park, Contreras (dominant as a releiver w/Col last year) or Kevin Gregg. There are still a surprising number of serviceable relievers available, so all of them will be pretty cheap.
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park would be nice but we are a very tight budget now cause two of our favorite characters BWeezy and Timmy are owed some moolah
And the A’s/Giants “talent” exchange continues.
WTF??? Getting rid of a flame thrower with a bit of potential for this clown? you’re kidding me right? Hope he likes Fresno…. Hell nobody likes Fresno and I live there.
I think the real point here is they signed him to a minor league deal. He isn’t taking a roster spot.
What bout Eric byrnnes?