Wieters Allows Teammates To Shine

It may have been Matt Wieters day at the yard on account of his much anticipated debut, but the game belonged to starter Brad Bergesen and Luke Scott. Bergesen worked quickly (game time 2 hours 12 minutes) and kept the ball down, allowing him to get into the ninth before being removed after giving up a couple hits (Jim Johnson closed it out). Berg's final line was 8 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 3 K, and he looked as good as I've seen him in the majors thus far. Luke Scott provided the offense, continuing his tear since coming off the DL with two home runs - including a grand slam. That gives him 5 HR in his three games and 12 RBI, and he's even homered for the cycle with a couple of solo shots, a two-run homer, a three-run homer, and now a grand slam. He's as locked in as I think I've ever seen a player. Oh, and Wieters went 0-4. But he called a good game, apparently! Read more ...

Matt Wieters Is So Good He Brings Me Success With No Effort

Spend over a year on the calender and hundreds of hours writing about baseball and the O's using statistics and analytical skills... get a very mild readership and (hopefully) the respect of your fellow bloggers.

Spend an hour or so setting up a site with amusing "facts" about Matt Wieters and get others to contribute to it... get a hundred hits a day and get linked at:
Baseball America (This was in an interview with Wieters, in which he was asked if he had read the site; sadly, he said that he hadn't.)
Beyond The Box Score
MLB Notebook
Baltimore Sports Report
Athletics Nation (in the comments)
Lookout Landing (in the comments)
Wezen-Ball
Sports Radio AM1470 The Fox (who?)
and various forums - both sports related and not.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
Read more ...

Community Projections: Matt Wieters

I've seen a lot of articles about Matt Wieters coming out lately. Many are the standard top prospect lists - with Wieters holding the top spot - while others are general of the form "man, that Wieters kid is going to be some player."

I had Wieters projected for 400 PA of .275/.344/.438 ball (which makes him a slightly above average hitter already), but that seems to be the worst anyone thinks he's going to do. When coming up with that line, I gave a lot of weight to his being a catcher (and thus needing more transition time). I'm also not used to the Orioles having such a good prospect - I remember thinking Larry Bigbie was going to be the next Shawn Green (oops).

Wieters is about as complete of a hitter as you can ask for; he hits for average and power (and has a very good batting-eye) from both sides of the plate. He definitely showed that too, putting up (in retrospect) a monster year - .345/.448/.576 in A+ and .365/.460/.625 in AA, with 27 HR and 82 BB to 76 K in 437 combined AB at the age of 22.

There are a lot of players Wieters has drawn comparisons to:

Joe Mauer: At age 20 he hit .335/.397/.412 in A+ and .341/.395/.453 in AA. Mauer was younger, but Wieters had a higher OBP and much more power. Joe hit .294/.372/.411 in his first full year at age 22.

Mike Piazza: At age 23 he hit .377/.441/.658 in AA and .341/.403/.564 in AAA. Maybe give a small OBP advantage to Wieters, but Piazza was a beast and carried that through to the big leagues; .318/.370/.561 with 35 HR.

Mark Teixeira: At age 22 he hit .320/.404/.593 in A+ and .316/.403/.591 in AA. Tex showed a touch more HR power, but Wieters has the edge in BA (and thus SLG) and OBP. Mark hit .259/.331/.480 the following year in the majors. Teixeira is the guy who Wieters should be most like with the bat. Mark Teixeira... as a catcher. Boy the Pirates must be kicking themselves for that one (picking lefty reliever Daniel Moskos #4 overall instead of Wieters).

Average their first-year lines together and you get .290/.358/.484. That would be awfully impressive, but with some seasoning in AAA (which looks like it might last longer than I originally expected) it is conceivable.

So the current projection for Matt Wieters is:

PA

H

2B

3B

HR

BB

BA

OBP

SLG

wOBA

300

78

20

1

10

29

.289

.359

.482

.365

That would have made Wieters the 7th most valuable catcher in baseball last year (in half a season, no less). The NL has Brian McCann (.301/.373/.523 last year), Russell Martin (.280/.385/.396), and Geovany Soto (.285/.364/.504). The AL only had Joe Mauer (.293/.413/.451). And Matt Wieters might be the best one of them all in the not-too-distant future. Read more ...