I've been talking about my proposed line-up for the Baltimore Orioles for a couple of weeks now. One of the things I've had to defend was batting Matt Wieters clean-up. "Why would you want to but such a young player in the middle of the order?"

 

If the line-up goes as I would like it to go, Wieters will have Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, and Nick Markakis in front of him and another All-Star in Adam Jones batting behind him. That's more production than a lot of hitter with Wieters' limited experience will have surrounding them.

 

Secondly, Wieters is going to be special, and I don't think Orioles' fans will have to wait long to see how special he is. This will be a huge year for the second year player. With the O's acquiring Kevin Millwood, and Jeremy Guthrie not pitching in the World Baseball Classic, the young signal caller will not have as many "green" hurlers to deal with.

 

In addition to adding a veteran, he'll have other pitchers who've already made their Major League debuts. Not like last year, when it seemed the team had at least one picher making a debut every month.

 

Wieters will have more time to focus on himself. Matt had a very good second half in 2009, and he will pick up where he left off. Look for him to have a .290 season with 20 homers and 80 runs batted in. He is the real deal.

 

Rob Long