This is Matt Wieters, a 6ft-5inch 23 year old catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, a former # 5 Overall draft choice, and the man that has been annointed as the savior of a franchise that has not been relevant since Cal Jr. traded in his fielding cane for a regular walking cane in 2001. Sure this teams had some young talent floating. But now, thanks to the killing theyve made from the shrewd Erik Bedard trade and some luck with late round picks, they are t-h-i-s close to being a contender. They are not the Nationals who are still 11 pitchers away from contending, they have the pitchers coming. David Hernandez could be the Pedro to Wieters....well thats the thing he gets compared to Joe Mauer but Mauer will never have the power that Wieters has right now. There hasnt been a catcher with his combination of Average, Power, and Defense. Piazza could hit for power but was a terrible defender, Pudge Rodriguez at his best still never had the power. The only real comparison is Johnny Bench. In his best season (1970) Bench hit .298 with 45HRs and 148RBIs, and won the Gold Glove. That stat line, the best season of the guy widely considered the best overall catcher in baseball history could be Wieters AVERAGE!
So whats the downside of all this hype? The same has been for decades....injuries( see:Mauer,Joe).....pussy (Keep him away from Benson's Ex!) and the scariest....hes just not that good......but fuck that noise for now I know the majority of the people reading this are O's and Nats(Just wait for my Strasberg post!) fans......so lets focus on what we have. A bunch of good young players, some veteran's to make the trade deadline exciting and announcers like Rob Dibble's hair grease and Buck Martinez's bad toupee that break the unintentional comedy scale.
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