Maddux Sports Blog

Baltimore catcher and prodigy Matt Wieters came into the league with a tremendous amount of hype this spring. It certainly hasn’t taken him long to justify it. His first full month in the league – June – was a bit rocky. By July, though, he had figured things out in a big way. He hit .323 on the month, and he had a decent OPS of .767. More amazing than the numbers, Wieters has quickly started to look comfortable and confident. It’s not at all hard to believe that he’s the real deal.

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As a baseball fan I love this time of year. Actually, I love different parts of the season for different reasons. This time is great because it’s when hot young prospect typically get called up by teams that can’t wait to see what they have on their hands any longer. The biggest gem of this current period has been called up already – at least a couple of weeks before he was expected to be. Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters is the top prospect in all of the minor leagues right now, and he will be making his debut on Friday. He’s a big hitting prospect who is very strong at handling pitchers. The comparison is obvious – he’s regularly called the next Mike Piazza. He’ll get lots of opportunities to play in Baltimore – they are lousy and their best catching option is currently Gregg Zaun . I can’t wait to see what he is able to do with the opportunity. All indications should be that it will take a while for him to find his game, but he’s so talented and hopes are so high that maybe he’ll just jump right in like he belongs – like Evan Longoria did last year. Either way, the hype will be at such a high level that it will be fun to watch. It’s been a while since we’ve had a megastar at catcher – since Pudge was in his prime, I guess. It would be nice to have one again.

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