Baltimore Orioles: Making the Case for Matt Wieters as MVO

For most of the year, the debate as to who deserves to win the Most Valuable Oriole award, or MVO, has been between center fielder Adam Jones, who is having his best year yet, or shortstop J.J. Hardy, who has tied his career high in homers at 26 and is playing stellar defense.

Occasionally, you'd read something about how setup man Jim Johnson needs to at least be on the ballot in the top three, but other than that, it was pretty much either Jones or Hardy.

Until catcher Matt Wieters decided to surge over the past couple of weeks.

With his name added to the list, the MVO is going to be a tough call for Baltimore's local sportswriters.

Let's take a look at how Wieters stacks up to his buds in consideration for this award (excluding Johnson, who probably doesn't have a real shot at winning the award and the voters just want to give recognition to by placing his name on the ballot).

Any statistics listed are through the action on September 14.

Incredible Defense

Matt Wieters has easily been one of the best defensive catchers in the game this year, and he'd be robbed if he didn't win the AL Gold Glove award (he's got a better shot now that his offensive numbers are higher than his previous two seasons).

His game-calling has been fantastic.

While both Jones and Hardy have been awesome defensively at their own positions as well, answer this question: What's the most important defensive position on the baseball diamond—catcher, shortstop or center field?

Seeing as how the catcher controls the game, is the only fielder who can see the entire field at once and is the man between a runner barreling down the third base line and home plate, I'd have to say that having a great catcher is the best start to having a great defense.

Wieters has done it all this year. He's got a sparkling fielding percentage of .995, has 60 assists, been in 13 double plays, and thrown out 31 of 56 would-be base stealers, all while starting in 118 games behind the dish.

He's been a brick wall for balls wanting to skip by and runners trying to get around him and touch home plate.

Those numbers speak for themselves.

Offensive Production

Finally, some of that much-hyped power has been showing this season for Matt Wieters, and Orioles fans can only hope that it's just the beginning of a breakout for Wieters that lasts about 15 years.

The big catcher cranked out his 20th homer last night, which places him fourth among O's players. No surprise here, but first/third baseman Mark Reynolds leads the team with 32, while Hardy follows with 26 and Jones rounds out the top three with 23 big flies. The next-closest total to Wieters is right fielder Nick Markakis' 15 long balls.

Wieters has a batting average of .262 (ranking sixth on the team), 63 RBI (fifth) and 26 doubles (tied for second). He's also third on the team with 40 walks, and fourth with a .323 OBP.

It's fairly obvious that Matt Wieters has been one of the most important links in the Orioles lineup.

Clubhouse Presence

While he hasn't been as vocal as the likes of Jones, Matt Wieters has assumed command as one of the leaders of the team in the clubhouse.

The switch-hitter does his best at helping some of the players who are younger than him (which, granted, aren't many) and/or less seasoned in the bigs to show them the ropes.

Always available for a postgame chat with the Baltimore media, Wieters isn't afraid to talk about things the way he sees them and will easily take account for his mistakes whenever the time comes.

His work with the young pitchers is amazing. He's been great at helping to lead the young guys on his pitching staff through tough spots during ballgames, and when some of their key pitches aren't working the way they're supposed to. And he has no shame in asking for timeout to run over to the mound and try to calm a pitcher down in a tense situation.

Mr. Clutch

Matt Wieters has had 99 at-bats with RISP during the 2011 season.

He's gotten base hits in 33 of those at-bats.

That's an average of .333.

What's more, he has a .417 OBP with RISP, and 42 of his 63 RBI have come with runners on second and/or third.

He's worked 14 walks to just 16 strikeouts in such situations, showing that he knows how to be patient and make the pitcher throw the ball in those key situations. He understand that it's the pitcher who is in trouble, not him.

And he grounded into only four double plays in those 99 at-bats.

Just the other day, September 13, Wieters hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to put the O's up 4-2 against the Tampa Bay Rays, a score with which they'd win the game.

Those numbers are ones that any player would love to have.

All-Star Man

Year in and year out, since the 2005 season, the Orioles have sent only one player to the All-Star Game.

The 2011 season was no different for the O's, as Matt Wieters saw himself chosen to head to Arizona as the team's lone representative.

Of course, there were a few more deserving candidates as well, such as the ones listed in contention for the MVO award on the title slide of this piece, but Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington saw Wieters' improvement and defensive play as a must-have for his All-Star team this year.

That has to count for something when considering who should win the MVO, right?

And So...

It should be obvious at this point that Wieters should be seriously considered to win the MVO award for the 2011 season.

His play this year has been phenomenal, in terms of his worth to the team and in comparison to other catchers around baseball.

I'm not sure who would receive my first-place vote if I were to have to cast a ballot, honestly, as the four guys mentioned in this article all deserve to receive credit for their incredible play this season.

I just hope that when the voters go to fill out their ballots, they ask themselves this question:

Where would the Orioles be during the 2011 season with Matt Wieters?