Everyday on BSR we take a look at a different Oriole’s numbers from last season and set goals for them this year. If you’ve got a case of the Mondays we have the cure for you. He was the Orioles number one pick in the 2007 MLB Draft and was recently named Baseball America’s top prospect. Everyone is ready for Matt Wieters and we’ve got his projections for this year.

wieters

Image Courtesy of the Baltimore Sun

2008 numbers

Lvl  G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO    BA
A+   69   229   48   79   8   0  15   40  44   47  .345
AA   61   208   41   76  14   2  12   51  38   29  .365

2009 projections

Lvl  G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO    BA 
AAA  52   171   28   57  12   3  16   48  31   26  .333
MLB  88   322   48   83  18   2   6   88  52   41  .257

Yes, Matt Wieters will start the 2009 season at AAA Norfolk. I don’t care what your opinion is on this subject, like it or not Andy MacPhail will not rush young talent. I expect Wieters to start things off at Norfolk and after looking at his numbers in the spring I don’t see him being there for long.

Wieters will get a few quite a few at bats in Norfolk and will hit over .300 with a few more homers than he had in Bowie and Frederick. Once he gets called up don’t expect him to immediately start hitting big league pitchers with a ton of success. Wieters will do great things in Baltimore and he represents the young talent MacPhail is building a winning team around, but expecting him to walk into the AL East and hit over .257 is too much. Once he adapts to the best pitchers in the world he will begin to even out his numbers.

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