Wieters Offense: Code Red?

[fish113d]

Yeah he appears to have a slow bat and long swing. I wonder if the hitting coach can help him with his swing mechanics to be quicker to the ball.

In this day in age, there is just no excuse at this point for a "slow bat". the dude is 6'5" and weights over 240...don't tell me he doesn't have the strength. If his bat is slow, maybe he needs to bust his @ss over the off-seasons to work on his fast twitch muscles and a weight training regimen to make him better. I don't know whether or not he does do this already, but guys like Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Maguire, and Sammy Sosa followed a very STRICT off-season regimen, and look how great they've all done...oh wait....

Honestly this post is half-serious...not sure what he should be doing, but whatever it is, it ain't working at this level when he's at the plate. Weak groundouts to 2B aren't gonna cut it.

[Frobby]

He is in a cold spell right now. For his last 12 games he's hitting .146/.180/.167. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon. His offense is certainly disappointing compared to what we expected, but he's still way above average as an all-around catcher.

[Sports Guy]

He is in a cold spell right now. For his last 12 games he's hitting .146/.180/.167. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon. His offense is certainly disappointing compared to what we expected, but he's still way above average as an all-around catcher.

Seriously...Enough of this. It is getting old and it is meaningless.

Great, he is very good defensively...How exciting. The staff ERA still blows. I am so happy that the Orioles paid all that signing bonus money for a guy who blocks balls in the dirt and has a great arm.

The fact that he is one of the better catchers says a lot more with how poor the catching position is than how good Wieters is.

He is a huge disappointment and throwing in "he is still an above average catcher" doesn't make him less of a disappointment.

he doesn't walk enough. He doesn't hit for enough power. He doesn't hit for average. He has had one good month in the majors, which makes his career OPS look better than it is...and his career OPS is only 716. 716!!!!!!!

That is pathetic.

[Malike]

I think Code Red is the wrong code. Wieters offense is Code Blue, which in hospital terms means dead. He is simply terrible with a bat in his hands, and while his defense is stellar, we missed big time with this selection in regards to what he was supposed to be with the bat. I can't think of a bigger disappointment. I know people will say in relation to other cathers he's above average, blah blah blah, he was supposed to be a superstar with a bat in his hands, and hes just terrible.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Seriously...Enough of this. It is getting old and it is meaningless.

Great, he is very good defensively...How exciting. The staff ERA still blows. I am so happy that the Orioles paid all that signing bonus money for a guy who blocks balls in the dirt and has a great arm.

The fact that he is one of the better catchers says a lot more with how poor the catching position is than how good Wieters is.

He is a huge disappointment and throwing in "he is still an above average catcher" doesn't make him less of a disappointment.

he doesn't walk enough. He doesn't hit for enough power. He doesn't hit for average. He has had one good month in the majors, which makes his career OPS look better than it is...and his career OPS is only 716. 716!!!!!!!

That is pathetic.

If you could trade Matt Wieters for J.P. Arencibia straight up, would you do it?

[Guest]

He will? It's August 6th and he has 10 homers and 39 RBI's. So I don't see that happening.

Again, we are all held hostage by our expectations. Wieters is still pretty damn valuable, just not the type of player we had hoped he'd become... yet.

Wow. Dind't realize it was that bad.

[Orioles1954]

Conditioning. Conditioning. Conditioning. MW is very indicative of this organization from top to bottom. Just not enough strength, not enough bat speed, not enough fire.

[oriolefan1035]

Speaking of Alex Gordon...wasn't it thought that we could have him for FELIX PIE last off-season, or the one before? Or did I dream that?

[PaulFolk]

Speaking of Alex Gordon...wasn't it thought that we could have him for FELIX PIE last off-season, or the one before? Or did I dream that?

That was one of the unrealistic trade rumors thrown around on this board, sure. It was never anything that was actually discussed by the teams, nor would the Royals have made that trade.

[section18]

He needs an off season with Brady Anderson to get stronger and maybe he can hire a hitting instructor to help him with the mental part of hitting. He will never be traded by MacPhail because they drafted him on his watch so we have to hope that AM doesn't return and the guy everybody seems to have a lot of respect for Joe Jordan leaves as well. They would both be opposed to him being traded. Maybe strength building and working with a top hitting coach would help him. Does anybody else still think he may be better off just batting from the left side and abandoning switch hitting?

[Can_of_corn]

He needs an off season with Brady Anderson to get stronger and maybe he can hire a hitting instructor to help him with the mental part of hitting. He will never be traded by MacPhail because they drafted him on his watch so we have to hope that AM doesn't return and the guy everybody seems to have a lot of respect for Joe Jordan leaves as well. They would both be opposed to him being traded. Maybe strength building and working with a top hitting coach would help him. Does anybody else still think he may be better off just batting from the left side and abandoning switch hitting?

First off what evidence do you have that AM won't trade players he drafted?

Secondly he wasn't drafted under AM's watch.

He won't be traded since he is worth more to the team then he would likely bring back. You want to see Tatum catching 100 games next season?

[fansince71]

He will? It's August 6th and he has 10 homers and 39 RBI's. So I don't see that happening.

Again, we are all held hostage by our expectations. Wieters is still pretty damn valuable, just not the type of player we had hoped he'd become... yet.

Well he has played in 322 games and has 30 HR's and 137 RBI's. MW will get better.

[gamer]

Honestly you would have to be stupid to believe the rumors that were surrounding Wieters and how much of a power bat he would have.

[JTrea81]

Honestly you would have to be stupid to believe the rumors that were surrounding Wieters and how much of a power bat he would have.

Why? Because he only put up one of the greatest MiL season campaigns in the past 40 years?

I don't think anybody was stupid to predict he'd be one of the best if not the best offensive catchers in baseball.

I doubt more than few saw this dropoff coming based on his minor league performance.

[gamer]

Why? Because he only put up one of the greatest MiL season campaigns in the past 40 years?

I wouldn't call 169 games a campaign.

On another note, if any one has some minor league footage of him swinging it would be helpful.

His lefty and righty swings appear much different.

At least for this year his avg. appears about 30 points higher as a righty.

His lefty swing from Sept. of '09 appears to have some different mechanics than it does now.

All of which should be an easy fix,,, just not sure how the hitting coach hasn't noticed or he himself hasn't noticed.