Orioles fans are growing restless, and why not? The O's are struggling - as everyone knew they would - and the clock seems to be running out on the stopgap options the front office employed to avoid rushing the organization's best prospects into the major leagues during what was always supposed to be a transitional season.
Ryan Freel is already gone. Mark Hendrickson is out of the rotation. Adam Eaton could be one frightening Thursday start at the new Yankee Stadium from being placed on release waivers.
The changeover has begun, and it will only accelerate from here.
The Orioles opened a three-game series Tuesday night in New York already a much different team than the one that hosted the Yankees on Opening Day at Camden Yards. Outfield prospects Nolan Reimold and Lou Montanez are getting significant playing time at the major league level instead of Triple-A. Fresh pitchers Brad Bergesen and Rich Hill have moved into the starting rotation, and it wouldn't surprise anyone if an additional young pitcher - perhaps David Hernandez or David Pauley - shows up here in the next week or two.
It's still a little early for some of the best young pitching prospects, but the time is drawing near for the watershed moment in the Orioles' long-term rebuilding program. The arrival of top prospect Matt Wieters is just around the corner.
The date has not been announced, but we're already inside the general time frame that was laid out by the front office over the offseason. The Orioles signed free-agent catcher Gregg Zaun to start the first couple of months of the season and projected Wieters to be called up from Triple-A Norfolk in late May or sometime in June. The team always intended to hold Wieters back in April to preserve a seventh major league season under club control. It now is within reach of also preventing him from becoming a "Super-2" arbitration candidate, but that probably wouldn't have been a consideration if he had burst out of the gate in April instead of suffering a minor hamstring injury and getting off to a relatively slow start at the plate.
Now he's charging back, and it won't be long, though it probably makes economic sense to wait the remaining 11 days and save that year of arbitration now that the June 1 deadline is so close at hand. It's not my money, so I don't really care, and neither should anyone outside the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos, but since Wieters is starting to roll again, another week or two at Triple-A isn't going to hurt him.
