suck 'em.


---Casilla not only takes another AB but earns his first career hit:

Hell ya...how could they NOT pursue this? With a little marketing, this could be a bigger local event than Barry's #756.

We could also use him as some kind of measuring stick. As in, if Casilla starts raking Zito in BP...then we'll know FOR SURE that Casilla is ready for a Jose Bautista type breakout.

---Wilson shaves the beard:

Yes. It is time. The Reverse "Neck Beard" would be kind of cool, tho. Or at least different. He is kind of a boring personality and doesn't really demand enough attention, so it might be good to change up some visual attributes to bring him out of his shell.

---Affeldt learns how to safely separate frozen hamburger patties:

No. He just doesn't have it in him. Oddly enough I found an old scouting report from his high school days that spoke about this very weakness:

Affeldt, Jeremy
Northwest Christian High School
06/06/79 (18 yo)
6-4, 210 lbs

Positives:

Shows an outstanding 12 to 6 breaking ball, a low to mid 90's fastball and an occasionally effective slider as his work in-progress third pitch. The breaking ball and fastball are of legitimately professional caliber as is.

Great frame and size. Should naturally add size and strength in the chest & shoulders as he hits his early '20's. Fastball should hover in the high to mid-90's as he reaches his physical peak.

High character guy, great work ethic. Devout Christian who has foregone participating in other HS sports in order to focus specifically on baseball. Seems to enjoy doing scout work and tallying pitch counts on off-days.

Weaknesses:

His delivery is a little long out of the wind-up and his long limbs can get in the way of repeating his motion; may be best served out of the stretch, coming-in from the bullpen.

May be prone to various injuries by way of kitchen utensils w/ assorted foods. Cut his thumb rather severely opening canned tuna w/ a manual opener and missed a start during his Soph season. Herniated a disk in his back straining spaghetti noodles during the Winter Workout portion of his Junior season. His parents have long restricted the availability of certain tools in the kitchen to the "blunt" variety, so his adjustment into a world full of kitchen knives and shish-kabob skewers gives cause for concern.

Can have trouble finding the strike zone and at times his breaking ball can be his most locatable pitch. Has a tendency to stiffen-up on the front leg of his delivery and leave the ball up in the zone. It may be in his best interest to alter the number of angles he pitches out of, in order to maintain a repeatable slot.