A final look at Mountcastle and the other AL ROY candidates

[BohKnowsBmore]

10 hours ago, Philip said:

And with all respect, that is as it should be. Mountcastle has too many issues to be a serious ROY candidate. He will be a solid player, and will make many many dollars, but he’s not elite and never will be.

Arozerena Probably has the award locked up, but my own choice is Garcia. It was so much fun to watch him play defense, and he was able to hit as well. And such a surprising story! nobody expected him to do anything, not even the Rangers.

It's not an award for long-term upside

[Moose Milligan]

People on twitter are losing their minds that Mountcastle isn't a finalist.

[Sports Guy]

4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

People on twitter are losing their minds that Mountcastle isn't a finalist.

Lol..people are ridiculous.

Look, I like Mountcastle and I am glad he is here but the bottom line is he is one of the first, if not the first, young controllable asset that we should be looking to trade for a controllable pitcher.  
 

There is talk about Luis Castillo.  If he had another year, I would trade Mountcastle in a deal for him in a heartbeat.  

[HowAboutThat]

1 hour ago, BohKnowsBmore said:

It's not an award for long-term upside

Yeah but the other guys are already elite. MC wasn’t a realistic choice

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

Yeah but the other guys are already elite. MC wasn’t a realistic choice

MC could turn out to be an extremely good hitter, .850-.900 OPS down the road.   But he's a 1B so he'll have to hit that well to be above average.   This was a very strong rookie class IMO.   In other years, MC would have gotten more consideration.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

3 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

People on twitter are losing their minds that Mountcastle isn't a finalist.

Mountcastle doesn't have any value as a defender, and he was going to need to do better than a 112 OPS+ to get final serious consideration as ROY. 

[HowAboutThat]

4 hours ago, Frobby said:

MC could turn out to be an extremely good hitter, .850-.900 OPS down the road.   But he's a 1B so he'll have to hit that well to be above average.   This was a very strong rookie class IMO.   In other years, MC would have gotten more consideration.

Sure, I don’t disagree with that, I think he’s going to be a very valuable player, And God knows we need really valuable players, but no he’s not rookie of the year, and not close. I was applauding the wrong Garcia, but if a guy like Adolis Doesn’t get any consideration, then Mountcastle certainly won’t.

[spiritof66]

9 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

People on twitter are losing their minds that Mountcastle isn't a finalist.

I congratulate them. It's been several years since I've found anything about the Orioles worth having a strong emotional reaction to -- unless you count turning off the TV because I couldn't stand to watch any more bad baseball. For the most part, the occasional s and s have turned into  s. I have pretty much no reaction to MC not being an AL ROY finalist. That was, at best, a close call, and if he had been a finalist there would have been  no way he should have won the award or would have won the award.

[waroriole]

11 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

People on twitter are losing their minds that Mountcastle isn't a finalist.

I feel like I’m conditioned to ignore anything you say after saying “people on Twitter”. It might be useful info but I’ll never hear it. 
 

As for Mountcastle, I think he’s more Eric Karros than Derrek Lee. Some nice counting stats, but doesn’t get on base enough to be an elite 1B. 

[foxfield]

MC had an excellent rookie season.  He had no business winning the ROY award.  To be wildly upset he isn't a finalist seems...weird.

I am not surprised but would have been very surprised if he had been named a finalist.  

But none of that changes it was still an excellent rookie season.

[jamalshw]

12 hours ago, waroriole said:

I feel like I’m conditioned to ignore anything you say after saying “people on Twitter”. It might be useful info but I’ll never hear it. 
 

As for Mountcastle, I think he’s more Eric Karros than Derrek Lee. Some nice counting stats, but doesn’t get on base enough to be an elite 1B. 

I like the Karros reference. He had some nice seasons, but was a bit inconsistent. I would certainly take years from Mountcastle that looked like Karros in 1995 or 1999 and I think Mountcastle is able to produce a couple .900 OPS seasons. I honestly wouldn't complain at all if the next six years were 1995 through 2000 Eric Karros. 

[Frobby]

18 hours ago, Philip said:

Sure, I don’t disagree with that, I think he’s going to be a very valuable player, And God knows we need really valuable players, but no he’s not rookie of the year, and not close. I was applauding the wrong Garcia, but if a guy like Adolis Doesn’t get any consideration, then Mountcastle certainly won’t.

I guess Adolis had a great year defensively.   Mountcastle appears to be the better hitter and is four years younger.  Adolis probably deserved ROY consideration more than Mountcastle, but I’d bet on Mountcastle being the better player long term.  

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

3 hours ago, jamalshw said:

I like the Karros reference. He had some nice seasons, but was a bit inconsistent. I would certainly take years from Mountcastle that looked like Karros in 1995 or 1999 and I think Mountcastle is able to produce a couple .900 OPS seasons. I honestly wouldn't complain at all if the next six years were 1995 through 2000 Eric Karros. 

Sure it would be nice if Mountcastle does better, but I'll sign up for a career that mirrors Karros. It would just mean Mountcastle probably isn't worth signing to a longterm contract when he hits free agency.

[DrungoHazewood]

On 11/9/2021 at 11:00 AM, Frobby said:

MC could turn out to be an extremely good hitter, .850-.900 OPS down the road.   But he's a 1B so he'll have to hit that well to be above average.   This was a very strong rookie class IMO.   In other years, MC would have gotten more consideration.

There were 13 2021 rookie position players who had 2+ rWAR. That's tied for the 5th-highest of all time, noting that for much of history there were fewer teams than there are today.  Mountcastle was 30th in rookie position player value across all of MLB.

2021 rookie pitchers were tied for 45th-place, with eight over 2 rWAR.

[sportsfan8703]

Are we too hard on Mountcastle here?  
 

He’ll be 25 on OD. He hit 33 HR as a 24 year old. Had a good 2020 Covid shortened year. Won AAA MVP in 2019. He’s only been playing 1B strictly for a short time period. There’s room for growth defensively and offensively. Especially with the homers, he’s shown pitchers he can hit the ball out of the ballpark. 
 

We can’t just dismiss every player because they’re not OBP machines right away. I see the OBP increasing as pitchers know he can hurt them with the long ball. We talk about Hays breaking out, we’ll Mountcastle is could get a lot better quickly too. 
 

He shouldn’t be penalized because he couldn’t play SS, 3B, or LF. He’s the organizations #1 option at 1B for a long time.