To put it bluntly, the Dave Trembley era of the Orioles should have never happened and needs to be buried as quickly as possible several miles beneath the Earth's crust where it can join our knowledge of MJ's Wizard excursion, Johnny U's time as a Charger, Joey, Sarah Jessica Parker's face (covered in more detail here by one brave soul willing to scour the internet for visual proof), Fat Orson Welles, Fat Marlon Brando, Fat Vince Vaughn (pre-emptive), and this Simpson's couch gag (that was a thing). While we're at it, let's throw in the Ray Miller, Mike Hargrove, Lee Mazzilli, Sam Perlozzo, and Juan Samuel (its probably unfair to include this, but it happened) timeshares as well. In fact, the O's haven't played baseball since 1997. It's the truth, look it up. That team you thought you were watching, just a whole bunch of hermits Peter Angelos found living in mountain caves somewhere along the Pakistani border (ladies and gentlemen...we got him). This was all just a terrible nightmare, within a nightmare, within a Field of Dreams where Leo incepted Angelos into owning the team and running it into the ground. But maybe, just maybe, we've made our way out of limbo and the top of mediocrity has stopped spinning (or not, we may never know) and we're on the path to happier times, even though Leo's kid's still look the same age (BBBBAAAAAHHHHH).
Since we haven't played baseball in the last thirteen years, I'm going to look at our options, position by position, moving towards next season. In doing so I'm going to try to be objective as possible, which is harder than it sounds. It's too easy to throw stock into the Buck O's and think that the team we saw the last two months is going to be the one we get for a whole season next year. While its true those games were a good indicator of our potential next season (we had a winning record in a span where we played 14 out of 18 series against teams that were .500 or better), the key word there should be potential. This is still a very young team who were poised to make a run at the 2003 Tigers before Uncle Buck took the reigns and had just about every person in the clubhouse playing for his job. That being said, its still hard not to be excited for the possibilities next year brings.
So, without further adieu, my triumphant return to writing. Let's breakdown the O's current roster and the things they should and shouldn't do during the hot stove league to improve the team for next year while sticking to the long term plan.
Catcher
Out of all the young players on the roster, Wieter's 2010 season had to have been the most disappointing. We all probably got carried away with this, this, and who could forgot this? But, honestly, at what point did anybody think we would get this? And it gets worse. If you prorate Craig Tatum's PA to Wieter's (126 to 502; basically multiply everything by four), Tatum actually would have scored more runs, hit for a higher BA and OBP, and was better on the bases. Jake Fox, if you prorate him x5 (105 to 502) would have hit 25 homers (vs. 11 for Wieters), scored more runs, still slug .065 points higher (.440 to .377), and been *better on the bases. In short, we could have replaced Wieters with the other two and gotten relatively the same offensive production. Underwhelming only goes so far to describe this.
*Side Note - Has there ever been a slower athlete, who wasn't fat, injured, or old, than Matt Wieters? Seriously, Wieters is so slow on the basepaths that he has the opposite effect of Superman in Superman: The Movie and actually slows down the earth's rotation so much that time goes faster, instead of backwards. I would almost prefer that he was fat, old, or injured just so I could use that as an excuse when he can't get from 1st to home on what would otherwise be a triple.
Still, even after a down year, there's no reason to jump off of the Wieters bandwagon. The kid's only had a year and a half of major league experience, and a grand total of three seasons in professional baseball. Let's not forget that this is the same player who put up Babe Ruthian numbers in the minor leagues, numbers that had him rated as the top prospect in all of major league baseball heading into last season. He is still an above average defensive catcher with an elite arm, something that still separates him from the from the other catchers on our roster. Perhaps it was too much of us to expect him to put everything together right away, a la Buster Posey and others. Some guys fly through the minors and struggle at the majors for a little while before the light switch flips on in their head. Major league pitching is just simply a different animal from the minors, especially in the AL East, and it may take some time to adjust.
The first step should be to spend the off-season shortening that ghastly long swing of his. It's fine when Ernie Els swings like that at a stationary object, not so much when its moving 87 mph and sliding two feet across the plate and towards the dirt. A more compact swing will keep his bat on a more level plane and prevent him from opening up so quickly, relying on the rotation of his upper body to provide power and bat speed. He needs to spread out his legs a little more on both sides of the plate, thereby allowing him to take a more athletic stance, to transfer his weight better, and to use his trunk to rotate his body instead of his chest and upper torso. This will help him stay on top of off-speed pitches and to drive more fastballs on a lower trajectory, instead of the lazy flies to the opposite field that so often come off his bat.
As far as back-ups go, we could do worse than Craig Tatum. There's no reason to look for another catcher unless they want to find a grizzled veteran that may be able to handle the young staff better should Wieters get hurt. That being said, Tatum appeared to handle the staff rather well, and it'd be damn near impossible to find a back-up who could better handle the bat. I grant you that Tatum's only hit that high once in his two years at the major league level, but there's no reason to go spend 1-2 million on someone else when we need help at so many other spots.
No matter what, I expect Wieters to be much improved under the tutelage of the new staff coming in to aid Uncle Buck. It probably won't be the Mauer (with power) numbers we all want, but a .280 BA and OPS of .800+ is a fairly tame expectation for next year. Either way, Wieters is pretty much assured of being the opening day starter next season.
Best Case Scenario: Wieters plays fully up to his potential and competes with Mauer for the starting spot in the All-Star lineup.
Worst Case Scenario: Wieters has a repeat of this year, leaving us all to question the hype
Expected Scenario: Wieters improves significantly from last year, starting the season inconsistent at the plate before steadying out and hitting .295 in the second half.
P.S. - There, I posted. Look forward to doing so again in two years time...but hopefully more like over the weekend.
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