Weiters; Arrieta earn Carolina POW awards

Carolina League
Matt Wieters, Frederick
.421 (8-19), 9 R, 0 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 4 BB, 1 SO, 0 SB, .895 SLG
The fifth overall pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft continues to show that he may not be long for the Carolina League. He hit in every game last week, and was riding a nine-game hitting streak heading into Monday's action. The barrage has raised his season average to .355, which is second in the league behind Lynchburg's Jim Negrych (.402). Wieters' big game for the week came on Friday at Lynchburg, when he went three-for-four with two homers and three RBIs. He scored three runs in that game and added a homer the following day to keep his hitting streak alive. Wieters also leads the circuit in throwing out attempted base stealers (41 percent). Overall, he has a .983 fielding percentage.

Carolina League
Jake Arrieta, Frederick
1-0, 1.50 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 12.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 13 SO
The Keys have quite a battery when he's on the mound and Wieters is behind the plate. Arrieta allowed only an unearned run on one hit in six innings against Kinston on Monday. The fifth-round selection (2007) from Texas Christian University allowed two runs in six innings at Lynchburg on Saturday, and picked up his third win of the season in the process. He fanned eight, the fourth time he has reached that number, which was one short of the season-high nine he had in his debut against Lynchburg

Matt Wieters being a September Call Up depends on whether he signed a major league contract when he was drafted.  If not, the Orioles would be wise to wait until the middle of April or May of 2009.  This would extend his service time under the MLBPA and MLB collective agreement.  If he were a September call up, he would be eligible for free agency in 2014, but if April or May of next year he could be considered a free agent until 2015 or 2016.  I am not totally sure of the service time cut offs to be exactly sure, but he would not hit free agency or arbitration as early.

Plus, this is his first year of minor league ball and he has not had the workload behind the plate or even those amount of games before in his entire life.  Let him rest as the minor league season goes on and move him to Sarasota to work on fundementals.

This would be my approach to keeping Matt in the best possible position to turn into the Superstar everyone projects.