The Orioles are determined not to push catcher Matt Wieters to the major leagues too quickly as they form the foundation of their future. After all, the team’s top draft pick in 2007 has played barely four months of professional baseball.

But Wieters, 22, is doing plenty of rushing on his own. He could leave the Orioles no choice but to bring him to the bigs soon, before somebody down on the farm gets hurt.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pounder is continuing his summer of destruction at the expense of minor league pitchers.

For more than two months, Wieters tore it up in Class A with the Frederick Keys. He won the Carolina League’s Player of the Month award in May, before the Orioles promoted him on June 27 to Class AA Bowie. Since then, he has rolled on with barely a hiccup.

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Wieters reached base in his first 23 games with Baysox, and failed to do so only once in his first 33 games. He hit .389 in July, with a slugging average (.678) and on-base average (.486) that suggest the replacement for the plodding, light-hitting, defensively challenged Ramon Hernandez soon will be in Baltimore soon.

Even if the Orioles decline to call him up in September, it is no longer a stretch to say Wieters could be squatting behind the plate on Opening Day next season.

What’s there to like about this kid, besides everything?

His ability to handle pitchers, throw out base stealers and call a game has improved steadily. His hitting, which supposedly needed more work than his defense, has been off the charts pretty much from the start.

Watching Wieters blend in with his teammates and soak up coaching, one would never guess he bagged a team record, $6 million signing bonus, after holding out for most of last summer and delaying his minor-league debut until a brief stint in the Hawaiian Winter League.

The ego of the organization’s top prospect and odds-on pick for Minor League Player of the Year is stuck to the door.

“[Wieters] is smart. He thinks the game real well,” said Baysox pitcher Chris Tillman, who came here from Seattle in the Erik Bedard trade and could form an Orioles battery with Wieters by 2010, if not sooner. “My first outing with him, Matt didn’t know me. I shook him off a lot. But we’ve gotten better every time. He works for you.”

And to think Baysox manager Brad Komminsk senses Wieters is starting to wear down after his longest year of baseball.

“Matt slid right into the mix here,” Komminsk said. “I like his makeup and the intangibles, how well he fits into a clubhouse, how well he fit into [Orioles spring training this year] as a guy out of Georgia Tech with [no pro experience]. He’s got a knack for squaring up the ball.”

It was pretty obvious the Orioles had something special the day they made Wieters the fifth overall pick. He joined current major leaguers Jason Varitek and Nomar Garciaparra as the only Georgia Tech players to be named an All-American twice. He was the first top-five pick out of Tech since Mark Teixeira in 2001.

At Frederick, Wieters toyed with the Carolina League by hitting .342 with 14 home runs and 38 RBI in 69 games. At Bowie, he’s been just as good, as he’s hitting .365, with nine doubles, six homers and 27 runs batted-in. Wieters is even 2-for-2 as a pinch hitter, with a grand slam.

Ask him about the inevitable move upward, and Wieters would rather go on about the crash course he’s taking as a pro. He’s learning how to eat right, get enough rest, stay hydrated, stretch properly and know opposing hitters and pitchers.

“There’s a good chance some of us [fellow Baysox) might move up together and stay together for a while. Sure, that’s exciting,” Wieters said. “But all you can control is today, and sometimes you have no control over that. All you can do is sort of live in the moment.”