Domenic Vadala: With Wright, Orioles are doing things the right way

For starters, the debut of Mike Wright on Sunday was about as awe-inspiring as a debut can be. Seriously, I can't imagine what must have been going through his mind walking off the mound in the 8th inning to a standing ovation like he did. And he indicated as much after the game, saying that you really couldn't draw it up any better than that.

However, Buck Showalter said something that piqued my interest in his postgame press conference on Sunday afternoon. He said that in Wright's case, the Orioles brought him along in the manner that players had been brought along years ago. In essence, he stopped at every point along the way from being drafted until reaching the majors.

He began with the Rookie-level Gulf League Orioles in 2011, before making stops both in short-season Single-A Aberdeen and Single-A Delmarva during that same season. In 2012, he played at both Single-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie, as well as in the Arizona Fall League. In 2013, he started off in Bowie and then made the leap to Triple-A Norfolk, where he remained until last week.

And as we know, they say that the leap from triple-A to the major leagues is the biggest in sports. Obviously, that didn't seem to impact Wright in a negative manner - that is, if one start is any indication. And that context does need to be applied to Wright's situation; it was one start. Good or bad, one start a career does not make.

At 25, Wright made his impact in the Orioles farm system for sure. This stands in stark contrast to someone like Chris Tillman, who was 21 at the time of his major league debut. While Tillman bounced around a few teams in the Mariners system and then played at Bowie and Norfolk for a couple of years, he still made his debut at 21. Brian Matusz also followed a similar path, and made his debut at 22.

This is not to say that either way is right or wrong. (Or perhaps I should say "Wright" or wrong.) But what I suspect has happened is that the Orioles have strategically changed their management of the minor league system from how things worked years ago. I would submit that guys like Tillman, Matusz, Brad Bergesen and others might not have been totally ready to come up when they did. And if you look at some of their careers (including that of Tillman, who struggled for some time), it showed.

But once the Showalter came to the helm of the organization, the O's started doing things differently. You have Wright, along with Tyler Wilson, who's now an Oriole as well (also at 25). There's a certain maturity level that comes with certain ages, and that also factors in. I feel that I was a much more mature person at 25 than I was at 21. And now at 34, I think I'm probably leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at 25!

Again, there's no right or wrong way, per se. Washington's Jordan Zimmermann made his debut at 23, and I think he's been the best pitcher on the Nationals staff over the past couple of seasons. The fact is that teams can think all they want that a guy is ready, but it won't be clear whether he was or wasn't until he actually starts playing in games. And the same is true in reverse; teams can argue that someone isn't ready until they're blue in the face, but if they don't give him a chance, they'll never truly know.

There's always a risk in having someone make their big league debut. You're trying to win games, and you certainly don't want that guy to fall on his face and lose his confidence. I would submit that Wright's debut the other day was more important than those of Tillman, Matusz and the rest of them. Those guys made big league debuts for Oriole teams that were going nowhere. Wright made his for an Oriole team that's expecting to win.

Regardless of how old he was when he came up and how much seasoning he got in the minors, Wright wasn't just good on Sunday. He was dominant. Anytime you retire nine straight big league hitters twice in a game, you're doing something right. If Wright is any indication of how pitchers come along under Showalter, the Orioles are in good hands moving forward.

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @DomenicVadala. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.