Scott Moore's Back In The Bigs

The Orioles have sent reliever Alberto Castillo and his 12.79 ERA back to the minors, and called up Scott Moore to take his place on the roster. Castillo struck out 8 batters in 6.1 IP this year while walking only 2, but 12 hits - 4 of which were home runs - did him in. Now, he's not an extreme flyball pitcher, so the homers are somewhat fluky. He allowed 9 flyballs and 4 of them found the outfield seats, which is pretty absurd. That's why his xFIP^ is a much nicer 3.48. I'm not saying he shouldn't have been sent down, but he doesn't suck quite as much as it appeared. Moore came over to the O's a couple years ago in a trade from the Cubs, and has spent almost all of the time since then in Triple-A. The left-handed batter is hitting .276/.324/.463 this year, with not terribly dissimilar lines in previous years. The CHONE projection calls for something along those same lines, but I'd expect a little below average hitter without much batting average, a few walks, and homer here and there. Defensively, Moore is a third-baseman by trade but has seen time at first-base, as well as occasionally at second, short, and left-field. He's not exactly known for his glove-work, though then again, neither is Ty Wigginton. Overall he's probably a slightly above replacement level player, which means he might be able to take Garrett Atkins' job but he's not likely to wow anyone.