Biggest individual disappointment of the season?

[Oriology]

To me, its between Matusz and Wieters.

The lack of offense Wieters is producing is terrible. This team just needs him to be so much more.

But, he has at least been a contributor to the team and BMat really hasn't.

If I am looking at this for 2011(which is the point of the poll), then my answer is BMat. But if I am looking at this long term, then my answer is Wieters.

This is essentially my reaction as well. Matusz's season has been a nightmare, but I am still confident that he will succeed at some point. Wieters' lack of offensive production, on the other hand, signals to me that he may not approach anything near what was expected of him when he came into the league. It's fine and dandy that his defense is superb, but the bottom line is we needed him to excel in both categories and he, now in his third year, has mastered only one. His swing sucks, and I'm hoping it can be ironed out with some help, but it hasn't happened yet, and at this point I'm having a hard time expecting that it ever will be.

[El Gordo]

If you're dumb enough to believe hype, then I suppose you could consider Wieters a disappointment, but Matusz looked like a solid #2 based on actal performance last season. Now it's a question whether he makes it as a ML SP at any spot in the rotatoiomn. That to me is a disappointment

[BrunoCherrytown]

Pie, simply because he was my favorite Oriole and now it looks like I have to go shopping for a new favorite Oriole. I had high hopes for him. Now, not so much. I still think Wieters is great although not offensively. Markakis is still fun to watch. I never had any hopes for Vlad or DLee. People getting injured doesn't disappoint me. It doesn't destroy the Red Sox or teams with depth.

But Pie...Pie I thought would break through. Although the helmet thing has become a very amusing thing for me and my Cubs fan friends.

[bobmc]

I really expected to be competitive with the Bostons and Skankees this year and rival the Jays and Rays. I was really pumped and excited to see how it all played out. I expected to still lose more than our share but I hoped to be in most of the AL East games and scare them a bit. Wow was I wrong. I was hoping for 75 - 80 wins. Matusz was the centerpiece of my fantasy - dealing zeros and striking out Crawford and Drew masterfully and challenging AGon to be a man. Never happened....so I agree with you that for this year Matusz was the biggest with Wieters for the long term if he never figures to be a bopper. Mitch Williams said last year that he did not believe in BMat and preferred the power arms. I guess he was right. But, if Cliff Lee could figure it out after all those failures so can Matusz. He needs to get tough and battle like Jake. Was it Connors' fault, the back muscle, lack of Kranny???? Who knows but we're in deep doo doo if those two don't become what we expected. It's a long wait for Manny, Jonathan and Dylan.

[Oriology]

Additionally, I don't think that simply because Matusz got hurt means his season wasn't a disappointment. Just because it may or may not have been his fault and is "part of the game," it was still a big let down that his year has been so poor when so much was expected. You can argue whether or not the O's should have put so much stock in these young guys (cavalry, Wieters), but the bottom line is that they did and it backfired, thus it is, by definition, disappointing.

[Guest]

Where to start?

There is no reason to defend Weiters. You all KNOW much more was expected of him. Now, if we were a reasonably good team and not in a 14 year mediocre slide, we could live with an highly touted HITTER (yes and catcher) becoming a bust. But we are THE ORIOLES! We are REALLY BAD! We cant afford to have players be even close to being considered a bust. We NEEDED Weiters to become JOHNNY BENCH, because it's the JOHNNY BENCH type players that get teams to playoffs and world series's and stuff. Does anyone really remember when the Orioles were good? We had 4 hall of famers playing the team,augmented by other really talented players. Not highly touted hitters who became busts. Like Weiters has been. As a HITTER!

[Pedro Cerrano]

The biggest disappointment, easily, is Matt Wieters. I can't believe that only 3 people have voted for that.

[Pedro Cerrano]

If you're dumb enough to believe hype, then I suppose you could consider Wieters a disappointment, but Matusz looked like a solid #2 based on actal performance last season. Now it's a question whether he makes it as a ML SP at any spot in the rotatoiomn. That to me is a disappointment

Lol, so having the best minor league season in about 50 years leads us "dumb" people to believe it to be "hype"? I'm sorry, but you're incredibly off-base here (which is par for the course).

[UnashamedRiver]

I can't believe people are labeling Wieters a bust. This is a guy who has simply produced offensively better than the average catcher. Matusz has sucked. If he had an ERA of 3.80 then by some peoples logic he would be a bust because that's just barely better than league average

[Pedro Cerrano]

BTW, I know SG and I and some others have made this point countless times but can we please stop mitigating Wieters' awful season with "well he's good for a catcher." That never has been and never will be the point. The point is that he was supposed to be the cornerstone of our offense, a cleanup hitter who would give us elite numbers year in and year out. He was supposed to be a sublime OVERALL PLAYER not just a "very good catcher."

[Pedro Cerrano]

I can't believe people are labeling Wieters a bust. This is a guy who has simply produced offensively better than the average catcher. Matusz has sucked. If he had an ERA of 3.80 then by some peoples logic he would be a bust because that's just barely better than league average

Please see my post right after yours. You miss the point completely.

[UnashamedRiver]

Please see my post right after yours. You miss the point completely.

Matusz was the 1st pitcher taken in the draft. He's supposed to be a Cy Young caliber pitcher.

[Pedro Cerrano]

And obviously I'm not giving Matusz a pass here, it's just that Wieters has been so freaking disappointing I can't not vote for him. In 99 out of 100 other situations Matusz gets the vote.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Matusz was the 1st pitcher taken in the draft. He's supposed to be a Cy Young caliber pitcher.

Do you believe that Matusz and Wieters had equally high expectations coming out of their respective drafts?

[ShaneDawg85]

I would pick Matusz, because a lot was expected of him. But he's a pitcher, and it doesn't take much for a pitcher to get thrown out of whack, and there seems to have been a lot going on that contributed to his struggles. The only thing that keeps me from saying Matusz is Wieters putrid offense. Simply put, there's no excusing it. No matter how great his defense is, and trust me, it is awesome, it doesn't compensate for the fact that he's not even an average offensive player. Matt Wieters wasn't drafted and garnered the hype he did to be one of the better catchers in the game. He was drafted and garnered the hype to become the BEST, and at worst one of the three best catchers in all of baseball. He has failed to do that, and the fact that he's done this two straight years isn't giving me much hope that the future will be any different.