I'm Ready for Mountcastle and Diaz: Mountcastle Up, Diaz Still Waiting

[DrungoHazewood]

6 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Would think this is directly related to the lack of WAR relative to older position players.

That should be easy enough to tell. In 1910, just to randomly pick a year, there were 16 teams and eight players 33 or older who had a 2+ win season.

In 1930 there were six.

In 1960 there were eight.

In 2000 there were 30 teams and 25 players 33 or older with 2+ wins.  So up a bit.

In 2010 there were 20.

In 2015 there were 13.

In 2019 there were 12.

So it seems like we've returned to historically normal levels of old players producing.

[ChuckS]

14 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Unfortunately he has the strike zone judgment of Jonathan Schoop.

Pham walked 81 times last year.  Mountcastle has walked 101 times in his professional life.

Schoop walked a lot more in the minors than Mountcastle.  If Mountcastle can achieve Schoop or AJ level of plate discipline, I think we should all be happy.  

[eddie83]

18 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

That should be easy enough to tell. In 1910, just to randomly pick a year, there were 16 teams and eight players 33 or older who had a 2+ win season.

In 1930 there were six.

In 1960 there were eight.

In 2000 there were 30 teams and 25 players 33 or older with 2+ wins.  So up a bit.

In 2010 there were 20.

In 2015 there were 13.

In 2019 there were 12.

So it seems like we've returned to historically normal levels of old players producing.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/changes-in-war-and-playing-time-based-on-age-since-1980/

 

Not sure if someone here posted this last year or I found it elsewhere.

Free Agency also didn’t exist until mid 70’s so years ago a great player was on a team for life if the team wanted to keep them. 

[DrungoHazewood]

10 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Schoop walked a lot more in the minors than Mountcastle.  If Mountcastle can achieve Schoop or AJ level of plate discipline, I think we should all be happy.  

You're right, Schoop actually walked 50 times during his full year at Bowie. 

Last year in AAA Mountcastle walked 24 times in 553 PAs.  AL pitchers, scaled to 553 PAs, walked 25 times.  Mountcastle is at the theoretical minimum.

[ChuckS]

Just now, DrungoHazewood said:

You're right, Schoop actually walked 50 times during his full year at Bowie. 

Last year in AAA Mountcastle walked 24 times in 553 PAs.  AL pitchers, scaled to 553 PAs, walked 25 times.  Mountcastle is at the theoretical minimum.

Schoop and AJ both walked quite a bit in the minors compared to their major league career.  I don't remember plate discipline being a huge cause for concern when they came up.  Of course, it's much easier to draw walks in the minors facing erratic pitching but usually that is something that a young player can improve on.  

Mountcastle will have to strike out less and hit for a higher average than those guys to be a successful major leaguer IMO.  He has to be a guy that hits to all fields.  

[Can_of_corn]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Mountcastle will improve his walk rate in the majors over what he did in the minors.

He won't walk a lot but he will walk a sufficient amount of the time.

Might take a bit but he'll get there.

[Aristotelian]

Alberto could actually have competition for lowest walk rate on the team. For what it's worth, Alberto had about 3% walk rate in the minors, 2% in MLB. 

[Yardball85]

13 hours ago, survivedc said:

It’s getting on negligence not having Mountcastle up. Sure play some time games if you want but we have to be close to the point of hurting his development not having him face legitimate competition.

but but but... hE's nOt rEaDy YeT!

[Ruzious]

54 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Mountcastle will improve his walk rate in the majors over what he did in the minors.

He won't walk a lot but he will walk a sufficient amount of the time.

Might take a bit but he'll get there.

Agreed, and the only way to find out is to actually play him over awful players like Chris Davis and Dwight Smith Jr.  

[Enjoy Terror]

14 hours ago, survivedc said:

It’s getting on negligence not having Mountcastle up. Sure play some time games if you want but we have to be close to the point of hurting his development not having him face legitimate competition.

I don't even believe you know what this means. How do you quantify "hurt by AAA competition" because he wasn't called up to more difficult level? This is some boogeyman catch phrase people use because they're upset and don't have a real argument for why.

[Enjoy Terror]

Ryan Mountcastle has objectively poor walk rates in AAA and people are like "he has nothing left to learn in AAA". 

I just don't understand. 

Put him up in the Majors and watch him struggle with walking AND hitting. That'll fix him. That's my grandpa's approach to swimming lessons; he just tosses you out of the boat.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

Ryan Mountcastle has objectively poor walk rates in AAA and people are like "he has nothing left to learn in AAA". 

I just don't understand. 

Put him up in the Majors and watch him struggle with walking AND hitting. That'll fix him. That's my grandpa's approach to swimming lessons; he just tosses you out of the boat.

I think his ability to put bat to ball is part of the reason he isn't selective and that facing superior pitching might cause him to become.more selective.

 

[MurphDogg]

It seems like he was already making the adjustments though, his last 26 games of the season at AAA he walked 10 times in 113 plate appearances.

[eddie83]

30 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

Ryan Mountcastle has objectively poor walk rates in AAA and people are like "he has nothing left to learn in AAA". 

I just don't understand. 

Put him up in the Majors and watch him struggle with walking AND hitting. That'll fix him. That's my grandpa's approach to swimming lessons; he just tosses you out of the boat.

Say he does struggle. They can’t send him back down? 

I know ideally you don’t want to bounce a player back and forth but we don’t have a AAA season to grow from if he did indeed need more seasoning. 

[Enjoy Terror]

4 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Say he does struggle. They can’t send him back down? 

I know ideally you don’t want to bounce a player back and forth but we don’t have a AAA season to grow from if he did indeed need more seasoning. 

I'm sure they could. If Elias felt that was appropriate, I'm sure he would.