I've already decided I am driving up from Virginia for Wieters first home game. So I hope they wait until June 9th. But I see the logic is debuting him on the road since his first game in town may be a circus.

Why would it be one or the other? I am sure the super 2 date has nothing to do with when he will get called up, you assured me of that last month.

Great article. Dan Connolly does some great pieces. Please let him know that, Peter. Thanks.

Pete, I took part in Dan's poll on what would be Weiters' greatest adjustment (could have phrased it much better, Dan). I chose hitting. Then I checked the responses and found that most felt Weiters' greatest challenge (adjustment) would be calling the game/working with O's pitchers.

Here's what bothers me about that - Weiters will ultimately be judged on his hitting. So it will be interesting to see the amount of people who voted for 'behind the plate' who blow up when he initially struggles (as he likely will for a bit, aka Markakis). Just thought it was interesting. His offense is far and away more of interest to more fans that I think all that other stuff. But it could just be me....

As far as the poll on Wieter's adjustment period, I actually think the MLB lifestyle adjustment tends to be the biggest but most underestimated and under-reported aspect of a prospect's adjustment to the majors. Flying to new places every 3-4 days, under the club's schedule pretty much the whole time, without a real sense of how to pace oneself, and expected to perform at the highest level in the world on a nightly basis is a very tough thing to ask a kid who might otherwise be entering his first fulltime job right out of college. Coaches do their best to protect young players from making inadvertant mistakes, like saying or doing things in the public eye that might complicate things, but at the end of the day, it's up to the kid to make those adjustments. To think a young player's adjustment starts and ends only between the lines would be a luxury. I think it's no accident that the players that Trembley has committed to very early has succeeded. He took out the factor of the player having to think about doing certain things to stay in the lineup, even if X wasn't in his best interests. A lot of kids get caught up with bad habits like swinging for HRs to stay in a lineup and inadvertantly fall into an unsustainable longterm approach.

Pete, I thought your date of June 9th was probably the earliest time that Wieters would be brought up. I didn't MacPhail would want to take a couple of starting pitchers and starting position players away from Norfolk within a month's time. At this point, a winning team in Norfolk this year is probably more important than a wiining team in Baltimore this year. I think what fans want to see is improvement in the Baltimore team - particularly the pitching. But now Koji is hurt and may miss a couple starts. Bowie went to the playoffs last year. Do you know if any of the other Oriole minor league teams were involved in the playoffs the past 2 or 3 years?