Matt Wieters – There is no reason to tone down the hype

A popular comment around town the last few days has been, to tone the hype on Matt Wieters.

Everyone understands he is going to be very good, but people are understandably cautious before proclaiming Wieters the next Johnny Bench.

To me, there is no real reason to turn down the hype. At his worst, he is going to be better than Varitek, and if he reaches his ceiling; he will be Piazza with actual catching abilities.

I have linked to this before, but here is the NY Times article from early April, where Wieters is phrased as much for his work-ethic as for his natural abilities:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/sports/baseball/06orioles.html?ref=baseball

Wieters Turned 23, on May 26th.

On Jan 7th, I projected Wieters 2009 numbers as: – 300 batting avg, 20 homers, 75 rbi, 850 OPS, 70 walks, 85 k’s, 25 doubles, 130 games, 520 at-bats

http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/2009/01/wieters-year-1-what-do-you-expect.html

This was based on my expectation of him joining the O’s on April 17th.

There are 114 games left in the Oriole season.

My revised projection for his 2009 numbers is: 300 batting avg, 15 homers, 57 rbi, 850 OPS, 53 walks, 65 k’s, 19 doubles, 100 games, 395 at-bats.

2009 AAA – 305 batting avg, 5 homers, 30 rbi, 9 doubles, 20 walks, 30 k’s, .890 OPS

2008 AA – 61 Games, 208 at-bats, 14 doubles, 12 homers, 51 RBI, 38 walks, 29 k’s, 365 avg, 1.085 OPS

2008 A – 69 Games, 229 at-bats, 8 doubles, 15 homers, 40 RBI, 44 walks, 47 k’s, 345 avg, 1.024 OPS

Wieters might not be ready to be as consistent as Markakis and Jones, but I do believe that the second he puts on the Oriole uniform, that Wieters becomes the most talented Oriole.

Watching the 3 of them together for the long-term, is going to be a lot of fun.

The hype is real, welcome to Baltimore Matt Wieters!