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May 31, 2009

On the Beat

Weekend Roundup

by John Perrotto

Matt Wieters or David Price? That was the debate over who was the best prospect in baseball as teams had gone into spring training. Now, the two can compete for American League Rookie of the Year honors after both were called up from the minor leagues to great fanfare this past week.

The Rays recalled Price, the dazzling left-hander who starred in last year's postseason, from Triple-A Durham on Monday, and he had a poor first start, but followed it up with an outstanding second outing. Wieters was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk, and the switch-hitting catcher's major league debut on Friday night was the biggest regular-season moment for the Orioles since Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak in 1995. "It's like we're calling Bill Dickey up," Orioles manager Dave Trembley cracked, referring to the former Yankees' catching great the night before Wieters' debut.

Even Wieters' veteran teammates admitted they were caught up in the hype accompanying the most highly touted catching prospect of this millennium reaching the major leagues. "I'm absolutely excited to see him," said first baseman Aubrey Huff. "I've always been a big fan of his. The kid has got a great head on his shoulders. In spring training nothing seemed to rattle him, even with all the hype around him. I don't expect all this hype to affect him one bit. He's above all that. He just seems like a big old country boy, a simple-minded guy who loves to play the game."

Orioles' fans haven't had a winning team to cheer for since 1998, and Wieters is expected to be the centerpiece of a youth movement that began earlier this month when left fielder Nolan Reimond and right-hander Brad Bergesen were called up from Norfolk. Wieters, however, says he doesn't feel any pressure to live up to the great expectations of both leading a franchise back from irrelevancy and becoming the next Johnny Bench. "Nobody has higher expectations of me than I do, so I don't let what other people think bother me," Wieters said. "It's something I'm going to go through. I feel I'm prepared for it. The biggest thing to me is just to keep being the same player I've always been. Everybody says it's a big jump to go to the major leagues, but the best way to handle it is play the game the way you know how and everything will be all right."

Considering that the Orioles spent most of the first two months of the season going with the veteran catching tandem of Gregg Zaun and Chad Moeller, it would only be fair to wonder if management had decided to keep Wieters at Norfolk strictly to avoid his accruing enough service time to become a "super two" player, which would make him eligible for salary arbitration after his second major league season instead of now likely not earning those rights until after the 2012 season. Orioles president Andy MacPhail, however, believes that Wieters benefited from his time at Norfolk, where he hit .305/.387/.504 in 161 plate appearances with a .297 translated EqA. "He was really starting to hit the ball over the last 10 days at Norfolk," said MacPhail. "He has made the progress, the power is starting to come. It's time. He's done what he needed to do at that level."