Jorge Mateo

[Just Regular]

Vavra's speed helped get the team 90 feet too with the opportunity Mateo opened up.    I don't know if WAR has a way to give any fraction of Vavra's baserunning runs to Mateo on the play, but I believe hidden stuff like that is some of why the Brett Phillips guy holds a job at the Kyle Stowers guy's expense more often than back of the baseball card stats makes it seem like they should.

2022 Orioles by Sprint Speed percentile, and regular plug Mateo's toolshed fancy enough he has Good Red in maxEV as well, teasing more if as his career plate appearances near 1000 he can improve the Hard Hit, Whiff or Chase a little bit.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/percentile-rankings?type=batter&year=2022&team=Orioles&sort=15&sortDir=desc

I am pleasantly unsure right now whether Mateo is someone more like Jorge Lopez or someone more like Felix Bautista for future planning.

 

[sportsfan8703]

I think with Mateo that his defense and base running gave him more confidence on offense. Shortstop is one of the toughest positions to play and Mateo was by know means a SS over the offseason. So it’s obvious he put in a lot of work at SS. 

[Riggodrill44]

6 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Vavra's speed helped get the team 90 feet too with the opportunity Mateo opened up.    I don't know if WAR has a way to give any fraction of Vavra's baserunning runs to Mateo on the play, but I believe hidden stuff like that is some of why the Brett Phillips guy holds a job at the Kyle Stowers guy's expense more often than back of the baseball card stats makes it seem like they should.

2022 Orioles by Sprint Speed percentile, and regular plug Mateo's toolshed fancy enough he has Good Red in maxEV as well, teasing more if as his career plate appearances near 1000 he can improve the Hard Hit, Whiff or Chase a little bit.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/percentile-rankings?type=batter&year=2022&team=Orioles&sort=15&sortDir=desc

I am pleasantly unsure right now whether Mateo is someone more like Jorge Lopez or someone more like Felix Bautista for future planning.

 

I was thinking about Phillips roster spot and it seems we are prioritizing defense over everything else.

Really it refreshing after all the bad defensive teams we have been fielding.

[InsideCoroner]

What I like about elite speed like Mateo’s is that all the fielders are aware of it and they know they have to be quick/perfect with the catch and throw if they want to get him out. That puts pressure on them, and not every fielder responds well to that. The Orioles have generally been such a lead-footed team for seemingly decades that it’s great to remember what it feels like to have speed in our arsenal once again. Even if Mateo resorts to being a backup player / bench option, I love having that option. 

[wildcard]

2 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

I think with Mateo that his defense and base running gave him more confidence on offense. Shortstop is one of the toughest positions to play and Mateo was by know means a SS over the offseason. So it’s obvious he put in a lot of work at SS. 

Mateo was signed as a SS in 2012.  He has started 777 games in his pro career at SS.  And yes I agree he has put a lot for work into his defense and offense since joining the O's.

[sportsfan8703]

500 PAs with us. .700 OPS. 13 HR. 32 SB. GG defense at SS. Those are JJ Hardy type numbers. What more do people want?  

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

500 PAs with us. .700 OPS. 13 HR. 32 SB. GG defense at SS. Those are JJ Hardy type numbers. What more do people want?  

Your post made me do a spit take.

For the record, Hardy had eight career stolen bases.

[maybenxtyr]

4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Your post made me do a spit take.

For the record, Hardy had eight career stolen bases.

He did bat leadoff for way too long.

[George Zuverink]

This question  isn’t about Mateo per se, but It fits here because his success raises a broader question.  For the past four years we’ve suffered through a seemingly endless procession of *who he” retreads. Why have the 2022 retreads been so much more successful- Mateo, Urias, Perez, Voth, Baker, Kreibel, Watkins, even Odor, to an extent? Is it an “ even a blind squirrel” phenomena? Sometimes it sticks to the wall? The dice will come up snake eyes eventually? Or is it something more fundamental and encouraging?

[Aristotelian]

17 minutes ago, George Zuverink said:

This question  isn’t about Mateo per se, but It fits here because his success raises a broader question.  For the past four years we’ve suffered through a seemingly endless procession of *who he” retreads. Why have the 2022 retreads been so much more successful- Mateo, Urias, Perez, Voth, Baker, Kreibel, Watkins, even Odor, to an extent? Is it an “ even a blind squirrel” phenomena? Sometimes it sticks to the wall? The dice will come up snake eyes eventually? Or is it something more fundamental and encouraging?

Urias and Mateo both were acquired and had success last year.

I can't for my life explain the '22 pitchers. There was a thread recently on increased use of the changeup. Other than that, I got nothing. Voth is a really interesting case, it is almost like he flipped a switch as soon as he got here. 

[Frobby]

You might say it was an active night for Mateo in the field last night — 11 chances, 9 assists, 1 DP, 1 putout, 1 error.  Seemed like the last four innings every batted ball came his way (6 out of 8 batted ball outs came to him).  The error came on a play where he charged over beyond 2B and tried to make a spectacular play but air mailed the throw.  Most fielders couldn’t have dreamed of even attempting that play. 

[wildcard]

42 minutes ago, George Zuverink said:

This question  isn’t about Mateo per se, but It fits here because his success raises a broader question.  For the past four years we’ve suffered through a seemingly endless procession of *who he” retreads. Why have the 2022 retreads been so much more successful- Mateo, Urias, Perez, Voth, Baker, Kreibel, Watkins, even Odor, to an extent? Is it an “ even a blind squirrel” phenomena? Sometimes it sticks to the wall? The dice will come up snake eyes eventually? Or is it something more fundamental and encouraging?

For the pitchers its a combination of the analytics and Holt.  This is Holt's first full season as pitching coach.   2019-2020 he was the minor league pitching coach and last year he missed over a month for some personal reason.    Holt teaches pitches,  helps his pitchers understand analytics and is the steady influence for the pitchers learning their trade.  I think teaching how to attack hitters  instead of nibbling has really helped this year.

Voth's comments about how much analytics has helped him after coming over from the Nats can be extended for several of the other pitchers on the staff.

Mateo was a highly rated minor leaguer who didn't get a chance in the majors because he was blocked by major leaguers ahead of him.   The O's being first in line on the waiver wire helped them acquire him.  He was raw  in several respects and needed playing time and coaching of both offense and defense.  The O's where able to offer him an opportunity.   His defense kept him getting playing time while working on his offense that came around later.   There is plenty of credit to go around for his improvement including  himself, the coaches and the faith that Elias/Hyde showed in him.

Edited August 17, 2022 by wildcard

[7Mo]

Jon Meoli has a good article out. 

https://jonmeoli.substack.com/p/orioles-jorge-mateo-breakdown?utm_source=/inbox&utm_medium=reader2

Let’s start with the raw numbers. Mateo entered Tuesday’s game in Toronto with a .687 OPS and 27 steals, and thanks to his superlative shortstop defense, is tied for second on the team with 2.3 wins above replacement (WAR), according to FanGraphs. To put that into context, Cedric Mullins also has a 2.3 fWAR for a season in which he’s come back down to earth after his All-Star 2021, similarly buoyed by defensive contributions without being a top-end offensive contributor. 

Mateo, however, has been much more productive offensively of late. As The Sun’s Andy Kostka noted this weekend, Mateo started attacking his weakness – breaking balls away – around the beginning of July through intensive practice work on that specific thing.

 

He’s been a different player since. From July 1 through Monday’s games, he is 21st in all of baseball with a .383 wOBA. There’s a bit of outperformance there – his expected wOBA is .312 – but it’s easy to account for considering he’s the type of player who can stretch an extra base on basically any batted ball, turning singles into doubles, and doubles into triples. 

He’s also struck out 20.9% percent of the time in that span, which is down from 32.3% at the end of June. It stands to reason that putting the ball in play more for someone with Mateo’s speed is a good thing, and credit to all involved for making that happen. 

Depending on how you slice it, you can also say there’s been improvement in his contact profile because of the changes. He hits the ball on the ground and in the air at about the same frequency before and after July 1, but since then his average exit velocity is up to 87.5 MPH from 85.1 mph through June 30, and his average

[sportsfan8703]

I don’t think he’s a fluke. I think he’s more of a guy putting it all together when MLB playing time, opportunity, and coaching. At first, he had to worry about SS defensively. He’s got that locked down. Then he was able to get coached up on his batting. Now he’s taken off, and confidence is a hell of a drug. Watch out. 
 

Nobody would have predicted that after trading Mancini, it would be Mateo that would be really helping to drive the offense. 

We had a 30/30 guy last year in Mullins. Well Mateo is going to be real close to around a 20/40 year. 

[RZNJ]

If you compare is AB' before the changes and now, it's amazing.  Last night he took a 2-0 pitch that was borderline.   I think it was even called a strike.  He barely offering at the slider off the outside corner.   He's inside outsiding with two strikes.  He's doing a much better job laying off the high fastball above the zone AND he looks fired up when he takes a walk.