anyone have any idea why Wieters stinks?

[Tony-OH]

I don't want to hear the excuse that Wieters has a lot on his mind due to his catching duties. He's not the first catcher ever to come up in the major leagues, and plenty of them have hit.

Mauer - .783 OPS in his 1st full year

V. Martinez - .851

R. Martin - .791

McCann - .960

Kendall - .773

Pierzynski - .773

Soto - .868

This isn't that hard. Heck, Wieters posted a respectable .753 last year, and he was coming on strong. I sure expected .800+ this year. He's a HUGE disappointment at the plate.

Exactly. I'm so tired of hearing people make excuses for him. Face it, he's been a gigantic disappointment this season. I still can't believe he's this bad. I once said if Wieters doesn't hit in the major league I'd give up doing player evaluations because I'd never seen a better hitter who was able to do everything.

I honestly don't get it. Could he be pressing? Sure. In the pathetic offensive club I could see that, but at some point you have to say I'm just going to be me and go up there and have good at bats.

My biggest concerns is his inability to hit the fastball this year. He's -4.3 wFB when last year he was a 6.6 wFB. His GB% is up and his LD% is down and his .095 ISO is light hitting shortstop stuff.

My hope is a new hitting coach can find something because whatever Crowley has done with him has not worked.

[Sports Guy]

Well, last year I said I thought he had a slow bat.

Since he has been up, he really has done nothing impressive with the bat.

As I said, the more he got into the Orioles organization and the more he "learned" from them, the worse he got.

he was great in his first MiL season...Then he struggled in AAA and hasn't been good up here.

The development staff has turned one of the best college hitters of the last 20 years into a guy that isn't as giood as Francisco Cervelli.

[Arthur_Bryant]

Terry Crowley is not doing a good job with our young hitters and needs to be replaced. Can it be that simple?

I doubt it. You put a lot more importance on the hitting coach than I do.

But... To the extent that he matters, a hitting coach on a team hitting this poorly shouldn't keep his job. To NOT replace him would basically be declaring that he's totally insignificant, and I don't believe that, either.

I hope the next manager is told, "You can replace whoever you want, but you must replace Terry Crowley."

[Boy Howdy]

But there wasn't unfair "hoopla". The guy was considered the best player in the draft, crushed everything he saw in the minors, and genuinely looked like an impact major league player.

.

To me it's like this, when Kirk Gibson came up with the Tigers, Sparky Anderson went on and on with comparisons to Mickey Mantle which he later apologized for and promised (in vain) never to do to a young player again. (Now, in fairness, when Gibson was 24 he had his first magnificent year.)

Wieters earned himself an awful lot of warranted hype, but having people compare you to the Son of God meets my definition of "unfair hoopla". It can't possibly be a good thing.

My intention is not to make excuses for the guy, but just because he's not otherworldly 13 months after his big league debut doesn't mean he won't be. I stand by my belief that he could make a dozen All Star teams and win a MVP award and still be labelled a disappointment by some.

[nadecir]

The pitch data does suggest at a slow bat for Wieters this season. Pitchers have been able to get Wieters out with their fastball, and the only pitches to be able to drive are changes and split fingers fastballs. Fangraphs shows that Wieters has a negative runs above average on fastballs and cutters. He is positive in runs above average with changes and splits.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4298&position=C#pitchtype

Lets compare Wieters with Markakis for example. For Markakis, you've never really been able to get him out with fastballs in his career. He's had positive runs above average on fastballs every single year of his career, and he absolutely bashed the fastball in 2008, which was his best season.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5930&position=OF

Another telling sign of Wieters inability to hit the fastball well this season is that Wieters has a .376 OPS when his swings at the first pitch this season. Markakis, as an example again, has a 1.190 OPS when he swings at the first pitch.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?playerId=29287

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?playerId=6478

The fangraphs data shows that pitchers are not afraid to go after Wieters with the first pitch. Wieters has a first pitch strike percentage of 62.4%. Markakis' first pitch strike percentage is 55.6% this season. The major league average first pitch strike percentage is 58.2%. It's pretty safe to assume that the majority of the first pitch strikes are fastballs.

So, the data shows that Wieters gets more first pitch strikes (usually fastballs), and he doesn't hit them well this season. And he is below average hitter in general against a fastball.

What is really perplexing is that Wieters was a much better hitter versus the fastball last season. He had a 1.081 OPS on the first pitch last season, and he had a nice positive (6.6) runs above average against the fastball.

I have to believe that Wieters will adjust and catch up to the fastball again. A 24 year old hitter just shouldn't suddenly lose the ability to hit a pitch he has always driven.

[rhyno2110]

I've thought all along that for most of the season, his bat-speed has been slow, and loopy. That has to be a contributing factor.

[crowmst3k!]

I think Wieters should just continue to do what got him up here: hitting the ball to all fields, and if it turns into a double or Home Run, so be it.

I remember Wieters being quoted as saying that he is not a power hitter, and that his homers are just "doubles that carry further". If he's comfortable with this approach, and doesn't try to be a pull-hitter, then he'll hit the ball better.

[crowmst3k!]

I really don't get how MacPhail fired Trembley and left Crowley in charge of this craptastic offense.

I think it's just a matter of time. The FO is not going to make the "big" shakeup until they hire their new manager. It's just very difficult to replace an entire peripheral staff at this point in the season. Crowley, by all logic, should be gone along with Kranitz, et al. when the new permanent manager is found.

[theobird]

The signs have been there all along. He destroyed AA pitching, then struggled with AAA for quite a while. Finally he started to hit AAA pitching better, but he really wasn't killing them like he did AA. At the ML level, he has really struggled. IMO, he does not have the quickness through the strike zone to hit ML fastballs with his swing constructed as present. The only time I see him hit the ball hard, it is generally off speed pitches.

This has nothing to do with him being a Catcher. His defensive game is fine. No issues there, he is actually better behind the plate than I thought he would be. His problem is besides the plate, from either side. The big kid just has to be shorter to the ball. Period. I am beginning to wonder if they will ever get to work on that.

[tvz1997]

The signs have been there all along. He destroyed AA pitching, then struggled with AAA for quite a while. Finally he started to hit AAA pitching better, but he really wasn't killing them like he did AA. At the ML level, he has really struggled. IMO, he does not have the quickness through the strike zone to hit ML fastballs with his swing constructed as present. The only time I see him hit the ball hard, it is generally off speed pitches.

This has nothing to do with him being a Catcher. His defensive game is fine. No issues there, he is actually better behind the plate than I thought he would be. His problem is besides the plate, from either side. The big kid just has to be shorter to the ball. Period. I am beginning to wonder if they will ever get to work on that.

Yeah, it was sort of surprising to me how quickly the sports media pushed his AAA struggles out of their minds. It just seems that pedigree means so much more than performance this early in a career.

Brandon Snyder raked at AA and then fell of a cliff in AAA. What if he had gone on a tear for a month in Norfolk and gotten promoted. Would he still be in the majors when struggling to bat .250 and hit more than ten homers for the year? Very doubtful.

I just hope we get a new manager soon and that he includes some analysis of the Wieters quandry in his interview process with new hitting coach candidates.

[section18]

I am not going to try and claim to be a hitting expert but when I played baseball I used sometimes two different bats in a game. Every player has their favorite bat for hitting and when a guy is not throwing too hard you could go to a little bit heavier bat and when you saw the flame thrower you went to a lighter bat. I think when these players get to AAA and hear that the major league club is hoping to get 20-30 HR'S out of them they are going to a heavier bat to try and get more power. If I were Wieters and Jones and Scott....I would go to a lighter bat. Nothing major but a little bit lighter and they will see they can get around quicker on the faster pitches. I would rather see Wieters hit .295 and get 40+ doubles and only 10 HR'S than see him try to get 20 HR'S and see him hit .235.

[Going Underground]

Most Orioles are having problems hitting. We have a real bad OBP. Some stats:

Jones=.280

Izzy= .278

Atkins=,276

Lugo = ,252

Patterson.Wieters and Tejada are all near the .300 mark. So we don't walk and we don't hit for power.Slg. pct. of some O's:

Wieters: .337

Tejada= .369

Izzy= .252

\Luog= .206

Atkin= .291

Alot of O's have been real bad hitting so far. The strikeouts also seem to be up over the last couple of weeks. So we don't walk and don't hit for power. That combine is not a good thing.

[Arthur_Bryant]

I am not going to try and claim to be a hitting expert but when I played baseball I used sometimes two different bats in a game. Every player has their favorite bat for hitting and when a guy is not throwing too hard you could go to a little bit heavier bat and when you saw the flame thrower you went to a lighter bat. I think when these players get to AAA and hear that the major league club is hoping to get 20-30 HR'S out of them they are going to a heavier bat to try and get more power. If I were Wieters and Jones and Scott....I would go to a lighter bat. Nothing major but a little bit lighter and they will see they can get around quicker on the faster pitches. I would rather see Wieters hit .295 and get 40+ doubles and only 10 HR'S than see him try to get 20 HR'S and see him hit .235.

If you believe that a heavier bat equals more power then you need to stop right there.

Heavier bat = slower bat speed.

Slower bat speed = LESS power, not more.

And I very much doubt that AAA players are going out and changing the bats that they have been using since they were in HS.

[notfast]

I think his bat speed/long bat is noticable from each side of the plate. As much of a disappointment as he's been, he looks even more awful swinging from the right side.

[Maverick Hiker]

The more I think about it I think he is likely just having an off year, which almost every player has.

For example: When Johnny Bench was age 22 he was .293/45/148, and won the MVP.

The next year at age 23 he was .238/27/61.

I think with a new hitting coach and increased experience in the majors, Wieters wlll come around. Maybe even have a good 2nd half.