Some of you might be sad to see the Gregg Zaun and Chad Moeller era end in Baltimore. After all, you may miss the .620 and .619 OPS they have respectively put up this year and the combined six RBI. Yes, you might miss the 24% success rate throwing out base stealers or the .571 OPS with runners in scoring position or the .164 batting average when leading off an inning. Heck, you may enjoy the daily buzz kill of those two old catchers. But cry as you might, the Matt Wieters era begins today.
If that first paragraph seems overly sarcastic, well...it probably was. To the Fan, a team is selling a product and is asking fans to buy ticket at market prices and watch the team on television. As such, each team has the responsibility to put the best product they can on the field. The Orioles' decision to start Wieters in the minors this spring was completely an economic decision to buy one more year before Wieters can go to arbitration and later become a free agent. It was a cynical and calculated decision not based on the best needs of the team or the fans and it stunk like rotten tomatoes.
Who knows, the kid could bomb and become another Felix Pie. Life does that some times. But the fans at least deserved a chance to dream and to root for a kid that brings a lot of hope to the franchise. Now that the Orioles are hopelessly out of contention, at least the fans will have something new to cheer for.
Good luck, Matt Wieters. We'll be rooting for you.
1 comment:
I want to see what this kid can do. Lot of hype around him. Hopefully, he can live up to it.
Post a Comment