Catching Up

It's been almost a week since I posted anything, so some news and notes since then.

...Just how good is Matt Wieters? We might not know for a long time. But we're starting to think the answer is probably real good. Baseball America agrees. In their midseason update to their top 100 prospects list (they only list 25 at midseason), Wieters is the top rated position player, number three overall. He's currently at AA-Bowie. With most of his at bats coming at High A-Frederick this year, he's hitting .345 with 18 homers. His OPS is 1.013. And even though most of that did come in Frederick, his production hasn't really dropped at Bowie in 75 AB. He's hitting .347 there with a .977 OPS. Originally, I thought the earliest we'd see him in an Orioles uniform was sometime after opening day next year. I'm starting to reconsider. Although the economics of the game, still may lead to that.

...The over/under on Syracuse wins for the season 2.5. Real tough to recommend the over. Especially if the Orange is truly 12 points worse than season opener Northwestern, as the line suggests. If that is the case, the under is the safe bet. But in July, we're supposed to be optimistic. So I'm trying to remain that way.

...Adam Loewen might have picked the best option in his injury recovery. He's going to play the outfield/first base for the Oriole minor league teams and see if he can't continue a major league career that way. Truly that might be the best opportunity for him. But...we really think we saw his final major league action, when he had to leave July 6th's game with the Rangers with that recurring arm injury. It's a shame. But we wish him luck.

...Josh Vittek had a real good week. Given a chance to play a little bit for Burlington in the Rookie League, he delivered. He was 6-for-19 with 3 homers, including an extra inning game winner. He also drove in five runs during the week. Vittek, the Mount product, had not been seeing a lot of playing time in recent weeks, but got five starts this week including four as a catcher. He produced a real good week for the struggling Royals.

...