Seriously...what is up with Wieters?

[nadecir]

He caught 93 of 130 (71.5%) games in 2008 between Frederick and Bowie when he mashed the ball. Last year he caught 27 of 39 (69%) games at Norfolk before catching 86 of 96 (89.6%) with the Orioles. This year he has caught in 94 of the 97 games he's been in (97%).

Just by those simple numbers there appears to be some correlation between the percentage of games caught and his offensive production.

In the minors Wieters put up a .895 OPS as a DH and a 1.042 OPS as a catcher. But one thing I found interesting was that all that squating effects his effectiveness at the end of the game as he falls off the last three innings finishing up by hitting just .211 with a .682 in the 9th inning of games.

How good a hitter was Wieters in the minors with fresh legs? He hit .395 with a 1.175 in the first inning of games.

With his .563 OPS he's put up against lefties this year, maybe it's time to give him a rest against lefties and allow Tatum some starts.

Interesting, but Wieters effectiveness early vs. late in games has changed completely in the majors.

In the majors, Wieters has a .579 OPS in innings 1-3, a .775 OPS in innings 4-6, and a .797 OPS in innings 7-9. He's hitting the best late in games at the major league level. It doesn't look like tired legs in the late innings of a game are hurting him now.

His career OPS as a catcher (.723) is actually a little better than his OPS as a DH (.710), so there is another data point that suggests catching may not be his hitting problem. He has only had 49 plate appearances as a DH, so a small sample size may be an issue.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=wietema01&year=Career&t=b

[Frobby]

Interesting, but Wieters effectiveness early vs. late in games has changed completely in the majors.

In the majors, Wieters has a .579 OPS in innings 1-3, a .775 OPS in innings 4-6, and a .797 OPS in innings 7-9. He's hitting the best late in games at the major league level. It doesn't look like tired legs in the late innings of a game are hurting him now.

His career OPS as a catcher (.723) is actually a little better than his OPS as a DH (.710), so there is another data point that suggests catching may not be his hitting problem. He has only had 49 plate appearances as a DH, so a small sample size may be an issue.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=wietema01&year=Career&t=b

I think the early inning/late inning splits are based on small sizes (both the ones Tony gave and yours) and I wouldn't draw any conclusions from them. To me, wildcard's theory that Wieters would hit better if he had more rest is just that -- a theory, which can be tested. Every player is different, so I don't think the comparisons to Mauer or others is really that meaningful. If Buck decided to rest Wieters a little more to see how he responded, I wouldn't complain, but I really have no idea if it's an issue or not.

[Mackus]

Let's say we agree that Weiters should have 20 games that he does not play. That leaves 142 games. If the same amount of rest that he got in the minors when he was hitting well is used (71.5%) then mean Wieters would place 101 games at catcher. The remaining 41 games he would DH.

Games off count as resting. So if he catches about 70% of the games, that would be about 115 starts at catcher. Leaving 25 or so games DH-ing and 20 or so games on the bench. That keeps in line with a typical thought process of him catching 4-5 games, getting one day off, and one day at DH each week.

Getting Wieters consistent rest is important. Having him only catch 80-100 games is obvious overkill of that goal.

The most important thing for Wieters, is to start hitting better. He'll do that through working on his hitting, not by watching from the bench of by switching to DH. Jones did it earlier this year, not by switching to LF, but by working hard and having his talents come through. Crowley has failed miserably in any attempts to help Wieters this season, hopefully the two of them can have some more success next year, or if Crowley is replaced the new hitting coach will be able to get the most out of Matt.

[24fps]

You just don't get it. He has a slow bat and everyone sees it, except those wearing orange tinted glasses. He hit a 2 seam fastball from DAVID PAULEY!! He throws in the high 80's most of the time. This guy is a career minor league journeyman. Does that prove Wieters doesn't have a slow bat? I think not.

Wieters time and time again gets beat with a good fastball in his kitchen. Perhaps not as often as earlier in the season. No pitcher is on the mound taking Wieters into account as a legitimate threat. If anything they know he can be pitched to without too much trouble. Those are just observations from watching a ton of his at bats.

I take it this means you don’t have an answer to my question?

You just don’t get it. It’s simple reading comprehension. I asked a question about a specific AB. If you want to interpret my post as a defense of Wieter’s overall approach at the plate this year, you might want to consider switching to decaf.

That being said, I’m mostly in agreement with your points. Many of his AB’s this year have been pathetic. I just don’t always see a bat that’s slow through the zone. Note that I’m using the qualifier ‘always’. If Pauley threw him a meatball, I’m not going to read too much into last night’s HR.

[Tony-OH]

Interesting, but Wieters effectiveness early vs. late in games has changed completely in the majors.

In the majors, Wieters has a .579 OPS in innings 1-3, a .775 OPS in innings 4-6, and a .797 OPS in innings 7-9. He's hitting the best late in games at the major league level. It doesn't look like tired legs in the late innings of a game are hurting him now.

His career OPS as a catcher (.723) is actually a little better than his OPS as a DH (.710), so there is another data point that suggests catching may not be his hitting problem. He has only had 49 plate appearances as a DH, so a small sample size may be an issue.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=wietema01&year=Career&t=b

Interesting, I was looking for those stats and was wondering why I didn't see them in his major league stats in baseball-reference. Might help to click on the splits category.

Without a doubt my numbers and yours are small sample sizes, but I thought it was interesting that his minor league numbers showed him falling off late in games.

I wasn't trying to "prove" anything of course, just providing some data that might suggest some indications.

[wildcard]

Games off count as resting. So if he catches about 70% of the games, that would be about 115 starts at catcher. Leaving 25 or so games DH-ing and 20 or so games on the bench. That keeps in line with a typical thought process of him catching 4-5 games, getting one day off, and one day at DH each week.

Getting Wieters consistent rest is important. Having him only catch 80-100 games is obvious overkill of that goal.

The most important thing for Wieters, is to start hitting better. He'll do that through working on his hitting, not by watching from the bench of by switching to DH. Jones did it earlier this year, not by switching to LF, but by working hard and having his talents come through. Crowley has failed miserably in any attempts to help Wieters this season, hopefully the two of them can have some more success next year, or if Crowley is replaced the new hitting coach will be able to get the most out of Matt.

Markus, you are the first poster to mention Wieters playing 80 games. Where did that come from?

I think we are basically agreeing that more rest is important for Wieters to hit to his potential. I don't think it matters if we agree or disagree on 100, 110 or 115 games. The manager is going to decide that anyway.

There are probably other things that can be done to help him and I will leave that up to you to discuss. Rest is the only thing that I wanted to address in this thread.

[Sports Guy]

What about the 95 MPH high fastball he crushed for a home run in the Cleveland series?

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10825201

Check the radar, guy.

It's the dude's first full season. He'll be fine. Next.

Izturis hit a homer off of Cliff Lee.

[Big Keys Fan]

He should catch around 130ish games a year and DH another 5-10. That is perfectly normal.

Have you ever been a catcher at any level of baseball? For a catcher that isn't 6'5 240+ that may be normal! Take a look at the size of the catchers in the MLB..... There is one catcher in baseball that is as big and he has been discussed on several instances in this thread Joe Mauer. Back and knee issues has been his thing.... wonder why???? To boot he is a better athlete than MW. The catchers that play(ed) a ton I-Rod, McCann, Posada, Bench and others discussed all are smaller than both Weiters and Mauer. You need to be extremely cautious with catchers this size, hence the amount of games caught/DL by Mauer. You can compare numbers all day long, but until you are 6'5 and catch a baseball game 130+ times a year you have no clue the wear and tear it brings on the body. I challenge anyone to stand and squat 200 times in the next 2 hours, meanwhile have someone randomly hitting your body with a 95+mph baseball 4-5 times. It isnt as easy as most make it out to be trust me. Now dont take me as an apologist for MW, but there is A LOT to the game behind the plate. Your legs are the first thing to go!!!!!!!

[Moose Milligan]

Maybe he's reading this thread or something. Homer last night, double tonight...maybe he's heating up.

I really don't get it with him. Sometimes he looks bad at the plate, other times he looks ridiculously good. That homer last night was drilled and on that double tonight his swing was gorgeous...both times it looked almost effortless.

Dudes a mystery.

[AgentOrange]

Maybe he's reading this thread or something. Homer last night, double tonight...maybe he's heating up.

I really don't get it with him. Sometimes he looks bad at the plate, other times he looks ridiculously good. That homer last night was drilled and on that double tonight his swing was gorgeous...both times it looked almost effortless.

Dudes a mystery.

I think it has to do with the growing pains of being a young player in the league. Flashes of greatness and flashes of sub par.

[DonnyUnitas]

I think it has to do with the growing pains of being a young player in the league. Flashes of greatness and flashes of sub par.

Agreed 100%. At just a few months into his 24th year on this earth, I'm don't expect him to be put up incredible numbers just yet. Sometimes, yes, but I'm not surprised or even disappointed at the occasional slumps. He'll gain more consistency with age and the wisdom that comes along with it. It also won't hurt that he'll be under the guiding light of Showalter.

If he's still inconsistent carrying into age 25 and beyond, then call Houston, because we may just have a problem. Until then, let's just ride it out and watch him grow.

[Prayin4Reign]

Agreed 100%. At just a few months into his 24th year on this earth, I'm don't expect him to be put up incredible numbers just yet. Sometimes, yes, but I'm not surprised or even disappointed at the occasional slumps. He'll gain more consistency with age and the wisdom that comes along with it. It also won't hurt that he'll be under the guiding light of Showalter.

If he's still inconsistent carrying into age 25 and beyond, then call Houston, because we may just have a problem. Until then, let's just ride it out and watch him grow.

You sound entirely too logical to be a fan.

[Sports Guy]

I think it has to do with the growing pains of being a young player in the league. Flashes of greatness and flashes of sub par.

Agreed 100%. At just a few months into his 24th year on this earth, I'm don't expect him to be put up incredible numbers just yet. Sometimes, yes, but I'm not surprised or even disappointed at the occasional slumps. He'll gain more consistency with age and the wisdom that comes along with it. It also won't hurt that he'll be under the guiding light of Showalter.

If he's still inconsistent carrying into age 25 and beyond, then call Houston, because we may just have a problem. Until then, let's just ride it out and watch him grow.

You sound entirely too logical to be a fan.

Top young players are generally good immediately...Obviously, there are exceptions.

However, I could live with "smaller numbers" much easier IF he was showing improvement...He has REGRESSED. Regression is not a good sign on any level...I don't care how old he is(and btw, we aren't talking about a 20 y/o Pudge Rodriguez here...we are talking about an advanced college bat that is already in his mid 20s) or how this is just his first full year....He has had enough at bats and had enough time at this level that he should be showing progress.

[AgentOrange]

Top young players are generally good immediately...Obviously, there are exceptions.

However, I could live with "smaller numbers" much easier IF he was showing improvement...He has REGRESSED. Regression is not a good sign on any level...I don't care how old he is(and btw, we aren't talking about a 20 y/o Pudge Rodriguez here...we are talking about an advanced college bat that is already in his mid 20s) or how this is just his first full year....He has had enough at bats and had enough time at this level that he should be showing progress.

He has regressed in the fact that he is not hitting more line drives and his OPS is down. His BB/K is moving in the right direction though. He also got insanely hot at the end of the year last year. If he pulls that stunt again, he will be close to what he did last year.

He only played in 96 games last year, which is a little more than a half of a season. When you get hot for a part of that time, your numbers will be more inflated.

[Sports Guy]

He has regressed in the fact that he is not hitting more line drives and his OPS is down. His BB/K is moving in the right direction though. He also got insanely hot at the end of the year last year. If he pulls that stunt again, he will be close to what he did last year.

He only played in 96 games last year, which is a little more than a half of a season. When you get hot for a part of that time, your numbers will be more inflated.

But even if you want to look at what he did before he got hot last year, you see better numbers month to month than you saw this year, outside of July.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?playerId=29287&year=2009

Yes, the k and BB rates are improved...That's a good thing...But that improvement is miniscule compared to the lack of power, hitting the ball with authority, etc....

He has clearly regressed as a player...If he can get hot to end the year, great. But we need MW to be a little bit more than a guy that gets hot for 6 weeks a year and is AWFUL the rest of the season.