One of the many things the sports media do is build a set of expectations. Here in Baltimore, we’re seeing that put into play as the Orioles call up the player widely regarded as baseball’s No. 1 prospect, catcher Matt Wieters.

The club itself helped crank up the hype machine by announcing on Tuesday — during a game telecast — that Wieters would be brought up from Triple-A Norfolk on Friday. When is the last time you heard of a team of announcing a call-up three days in advance?

The early notice certainly has had the desired effect. The attention — in print, on TV and radio and online — has built. And when you hear talk-show chatter about people deciding to come out to the ballpark Friday to see Wieters’ debut, you can’t argue with the Orioles’ strategy to let the anticipation build.

To a great extent, it doesn’t even matter what the media content about Wieters is. They are talking about him, even if, paradoxically, they are telling everyone to turn down the expectation dial to “chill out.” Today’s Sun had a column about Wieters on its sports cover, which featured two fans named Stiffler, one of whom was quoted as saying: “You don’t want to be unfair to the guy. But he did have a lot of buzz [surrounding] him, even from the beginning.”

Exactly. The buzz was generated by the constant mention of Wieters’ name — from newspaper updates on his progress in the minors to radio callers asking hosts when he was going to be called up.

The media are the message, and the message is: This guy has got to be great, or why would you be talking about him all the time? So if I’m an Orioles fan, don’t tell me about how Wieters has to adjust to the majors and how we can’t expect him to tear up American League pitching from the get-go. I’m not listening to that. I’ve been listening to the mantra of  “Matt Wieters, Matt Wieters.”

So if Wieters does struggle at all — regardless of how many times media reports have warned about such a possibility — don’t blame the fans for feeling let down.