Now Weiters HAS to be promoted...

[Frobby]

Couple of singles for the night, but they were pretty impressive singles. Both of the balls he smacked are right now pretty sorry that they were born balls.

That's a classic line.

[MurphDogg]

Am I the only person who would prefer that Wieters not make the Opening Day roster next year even if he is ready, plays a month in AAA before being called up, and allows the team the flexibility of an additional year before he becomes eligible for free agency? I think the O's made a mistake with Markakis, not developmentally, but they potentially cost themselves a lot of money by not sending him to AAA to start the season, his rookie year. Markakis would have been arbitration eligible at the same time (as a Super-2) but wouldn't be eligible for free agency until after 2012 instead of 2011. I can't see them making that mistake again.

[Al Pardo]

I think you might see an improvement with Reimolds numbers (not that he needs it) once he has Matt hitting around him.

[glorydays]

Anybody catch that Reimold is also on the list? Here is what it says:

Team: Double-A Bowie (Eastern)

Age: 24

Why He's Here: .450/.500/.700 (9-for-20), 2 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 1 HBP, 2 BB, 2 SO, 1/1 SB

The Scoop: After a .232/.324/.347 start in 95 April at-bats, Reimold has been one of the Eastern League's best hitters. His slash stats have jumped to .287/.377/.494 in 237 at-bats, and Reimold has shown an excellent handle of the strike zone with 33 walks and 35 strikeouts. Reimold has always had the bat speed and the power to become a future big league star, although we would like to see him at a higher level soon given his age.

And Tillman is mentioned also:

One of the most important considerations in prospect or performance evaluation is the context of the player's environment. In the case of Double-A Bowie (Orioles) RHP Chris Tillman, the 20-year-old the youngest pitcher in Double-A. Anyone who strikes out 17 in 11 1/3 innings (1-1, 3.72, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB) deserves some credit

[zff4]

Great article about Matt up on the team's MLB site. http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080616&content_id=2941499&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal

"For the most part, there's nothing I can teach him, he's just that advanced for this level," says his hitting coach.

He's on his way up for sure...

[Frobby]

Great article. I can't wait to see this guy in Baltimore.

[Baseball4Life]

Great article...It's amazing how good this guy is already..Can't wait to see what the future holds for the O's and Weiters!!

[IamtheSkip]

Am I the only person who would prefer that Wieters not make the Opening Day roster next year even if he is ready, plays a month in AAA before being called up, and allows the team the flexibility of an additional year before he becomes eligible for free agency? I think the O's made a mistake with Markakis, not developmentally, but they potentially cost themselves a lot of money by not sending him to AAA to start the season, his rookie year. Markakis would have been arbitration eligible at the same time (as a Super-2) but wouldn't be eligible for free agency until after 2012 instead of 2011. I can't see them making that mistake again.

Honestly, I think leaving a player in the minors for a month, when you're completely confident they can help the ML club, to stave of FA for one little season...

Is pretty asinine. So you've gotta pay the guy a year earlier. Whoopie. If you think he's that good, lock him up long-term after a couple seasons, when he gets into arbitration. It's becoming a trend.

If you're happy with how a guy's doing, and know you want him long-term... get it done. Don't go through arbitration, where players wind up getting low-balled and angry.

[Frobby]

Honestly, I think leaving a player in the minors for a month, when you're completely confident they can help the ML club, to stave of FA for one little season...

Is pretty asinine. So you've gotta pay the guy a year earlier. Whoopie. If you think he's that good, lock him up long-term after a couple seasons, when he gets into arbitration. It's becoming a trend.

If you're happy with how a guy's doing, and know you want him long-term... get it done. Don't go through arbitration, where players wind up getting low-balled and angry.

Of course, you could do what the Rays did with Longoria -- keep him in the minors just long enough to delay his eligibility for free agency by a year, then call him up and negotiate a long-term deal. That shows the ideas of deferring free agency and locking the player up long term are not mutually exclusive. If you ask me, the Rays were smart in both decisions.

[Mackus]

Honestly, I think leaving a player in the minors for a month, when you're completely confident they can help the ML club, to stave of FA for one little season...

Is pretty asinine. So you've gotta pay the guy a year earlier. Whoopie. If you think he's that good, lock him up long-term after a couple seasons, when he gets into arbitration. It's becoming a trend.

If you're happy with how a guy's doing, and know you want him long-term... get it done. Don't go through arbitration, where players wind up getting low-balled and angry.

I'd agree with you if it was just the money thing, but you get an entire extra year of service time.

If Wieters' agent was anybody other than Boras I'd think it was a shady thing to do and a crappy thing to do to Wieters personally. But given the high probability of Wieters testing the FA market once his 6 years are up, I think it'd be a lot better to have him for 6 3/4 seasons (call him up May of 2009) than 6 1/4 seasons (call him up August 2008) or 6 seasons (OD 2009).

[hoosiers]

Of course, you could do what the Rays did with Longoria -- keep him in the minors just long enough to delay his eligibility for free agency by a year, then call him up and negotiate a long-term deal. That shows the ideas of deferring free agency and locking the player up long term are not mutually exclusive. If you ask me, the Rays were smart in both decisions.

The Rays were not the only ones to do this. The Reds did it with Bruce.

I agree it is the smart thing to do.

Of course, with talent with far less experience at AA and AAA, our FO decided to push Markakis to the big leagues. Not a good decision from a financial standpoint.

[wickedwitch]

Of course, with talent with far less experience at AA and AAA, our FO decided to push Markakis to the big leagues. Not a good decision from a financial standpoint.

We have more money than the Reds or Rays. It's a fine decision for us.

Plus, hopefully Markakis and Wieters will sign long term contracts and this won't matter at all.

[hoosiers]

We have more money than the Reds or Rays. It's a fine decision for us.

Plus, hopefully Markakis and Wieters will sign long term contracts and this won't matter at all.

This is the problem teams with $ run into. They often fail to make the correct small decisions that can add up later.

Any goodwill that may have existed when we brought NM up earlier than we needed is surely long gone by now as we've struggled to get a LTC done with him. I still expect that he will sign a LTC, but we lost leverage as soon as we had him on the OD roster in 2006.