This is Welington Castillo. He's the catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. He is NOT Matt Wieters. However...that may not be an especially bad thing, as the Orioles are still winning games and owning the AL East even without the perennial All-Star catcher.
The most surprising part of the rise of this Orioles team is the efficiency of the pitching staff- guys who were simply 'okay' last year are doing some fine work so far, including Wade Miley, Dylan Bundy and former Philadelphia Phillie Alec Asher. Now...Kevin Gausman's lost some of the control of last season, and Ubaldo Jimenez...shouldn't be pitching on a major league roster, but the pitching staff as a whole is doing a TON better than people thought they'd be. There's some equality and the consistency of the lineup and the rotation for once...which is nice.
I mean, the lineup's still impressive- Adam Jones is back to playing insanely well, newbies Welington Castillo and Seth Smith are doing pretty well, and the usuals, like Chris Davis, Manny Machado, and Jonathan Schoop, are doing pretty well. There are some holes, some guys who aren't playing as well as people thought (looking at you, Trumbo), but this is a team that's staying atop the AL East despite some competition from the streaking Yankees.
It's looking like it might be a two horse race for a while, until the Red Sox all get healthy, and the Orioles are more than well-equipped to fight for a while.
Coming Tomorrow- I've done customs for all 30 teams this month, except for one. Their star third baseman is still one of the coolest players in the leagues.
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