Hearing from Wieters and Young as another FanFest ends

Fans are filing out of the Baltimore Convention Center, marking the end of another FanFest.

The attendance exceeded 16,000 despite all the griping about how the Orioles aren't trying to improve following their division title and that they're likely to finish in last place.

Maybe folks were just trying to get warm.

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters remains optimistic that he'll be ready on opening day. So far so good. However, he won't really know until he starts playing in exhibition games.

Wieters, who had season-ending surgery on his right elbow in June, increased his throwing progression to 150 feet with no setbacks.

"We're still in a phase where a lot could happen in the next few months," said Wieters, who's been hitting for about a month. "It could get a lot better, it could slow down, so we won't know until we go through a throwing program. But I'm preparing every part of my body to be ready for opening day and that's all I can do right now."

Wieters said he probably won't do much catching in the early exhibition games as he eases back into the grind.

"The main thing is we have to get the arm healthy enough to play the rest of my career," he said. "Whenever that is, it is. We don't want to be feeling like we are babying (his elbow) through the season. We need to be ready to go."

Earlier today, Delmon Young talked about his decision to re-sign with the Orioles and turn down other one-year offers.

"Just playing in a division I always liked to play in, the East against the big-market teams, and every team in the division is probably going to be competive the whole year," Young said. "And our team's going to be very competitive because we've got all of our pitching and bullpen coming back except for (Andrew) Miller. We had a good bullpen before he came. As long as you have a lot of pitching on our team like we have, you always have a chance to win the division.

"There's always a chance you're going to sign somewhere and there's always a chance you're not going to re-sign somewhere, but first goal was to come back here just because I like being in a place where you're guaranteed to have an opportunity to defend a division title. It could have been cool going to a different place, but it's always better to defend what you earned the year before."you

I assumed that Young wanted to stay in the same place for more than one season rather than getting acclimated to another spring training site and clubhouse.

"You're still playing baseball, you get to see a new city, and when it's all said and done you can say, 'I've been to all these different places and everything.' But the guys are good here and it's fun to come back to a place where everything is very comfortable," Young said. "The city is very comfortable. It's easy to get around and the travel's good out here."

Young wants to get plenty of reps in right field with Nick Markakis no longer on the roster, and manager Buck Showalter will make it happen.

"Going back to right field, that's where I played most of my time my whole life, so with right field having platoon splits and everything, I don't mind going back to right field," Young said. "Left field, I don't care too much to be over there, but right field is a lot more comfortable. That's where I had most of my reps in the minor leagues and my youth."

Young had to earn a spot with the club last spring after signing a minor league deal at the minicamp, but he's in an entirely different situation this year.

Not that it's going to change his routine.

"I always come into spring the same way," he said. "Get there at the crack of dawn, do all my stuff, try to have everything down. The results in spring are good to have, but I'd rather make sure mechanics are pretty sound going into the season because it's a lot different hitting in spring training than when the lights come on in April."