The Once and Future Oriole King

The most popular Baltimore Orioles catcher of all time enjoyed Froot Loops. The organization’s greatest catcher according to its fan base was a weak hitter but endeared himself with an MVP 1983 World Series performance. Now the club will soon turn over the backstop duties to a rookie less than two years out of Georgia Tech. Matt Wieters was just the third Yellow Jacket to ever earn All-America honors twice in a three year career and the Goose Creek, SC native was the 5th overall pick in the 2007 MLB draft. The switch-hitting backstop burned up the minor leagues last season en route to a .355 batting average with a .454 OBP and .600% slugging. His 27 home runs and 91 RBIs combined between stops at Class A and AA helped him earn Baseball America’s 2008 Minor League Player of the Year honors. Baseball America also named him No.12 on the Top 100 Prospects List and the highest ranked catcher on the list.
Now the Orioles have hopes that Wieters can contribute sooner rather than later for the major league club. The team traded away last year’s starter Roberto Hernandez and chose to sign Gregg Zaun as a seat warmer over Hall of Famer Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez as to not block the path of young Wieters’ certain ascension to the club. Wieters’ college coach Danny Hall believes that Wieters will be in Baltimore sooner rather than later. “Matt Wieters is a guy that will break onto the scene of Major League Baseball this season and is going to be playing for a long time.” The fact that Wieters has shown switch-hitting power at the minor league level as well as in college has many major league scouts comparing him to another former Yellow Jacket backstop Jason Varitek. Like Wieters, Varitek strokes it from both sides of the plate, though Wieters at 6’5 is taller than his fellow alum. Wieters has been switch-hitting since a child, just as his father did as a minor league journeyman in the Braves and Indians minor league systems.
The high expectations will likely put extra pressure on Wieters to perform, but the No.5 draft pick met the challenge last season and will be looking to take the next step in the Majors. Hall noted of his former player that he was one of several ex-Jackets that have “made us very proud [here at Tech].” If the Baltimore Orioles have a Mount Rushmore of franchise catchers, Rick Dempsey, Chris Hoiles, Mickey Tettleton and Ellie Hendricks would be the current faces. Only time will tell if Wieters stands out to where fans will demand a chisel be taken to the monument to add his visage.