Ryan Mountcastle 2023

[Il BuonO]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:08 PM, Can_of_corn said:

Maybe impacted by the wall?

Sure, but he has enough power to change his approach and still hit bombs to RCF. Will he?

[Moose Milligan]

Got unlucky again with the rainout yesterday. 

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Il BuonO said:

Sure, but he has enough power to change his approach and still hit bombs to RCF. Will he?

He already does.  Read the article, and look at the percentage of balls Mountcastle hits to center and right.  He’s an all-fields hitter to the extent that any power hitter is.  Other than plate discipline, I don’t think there’s anything Mountcastle can really do to improve his hitting.  

Here’s his spray chart:  https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ryan-mountcastle/18373/spray-charts?position=1B&type=battedball

Edited April 29, 2023 by Frobby

[Just Regular]

Here's Ryan Mountcastle this morning with the 5th lowest YTD pull percentage among 182 qualified MLB Bats, near Steven Kwan and Myles Straw.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=2&season=2023&month=0&season1=2023&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2023-01-01&enddate=2023-12-31&sort=14,a

Flip the sort on that column - 5th highest is your AL All-Star catcher favorite Jonah Heim.     Heim is also the only major leaguer so far this year to pull off a single-digits Oppo%.    Heim knows he can't hurt anybody the other way, but has trained himself to max his Pull air power.     He's aces at what I think BAL is basically trying to teach Cowser and Norby to do.

I think an established MLB Bat has more opportunity to intentionally refine their Pull/Oppo mix than their Chase Rate.

 

 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Just Regular said:

Here's Ryan Mountcastle this morning with the 5th lowest YTD pull percentage among 182 qualified MLB Bats, near Steven Kwan and Myles Straw.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=2&season=2023&month=0&season1=2023&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2023-01-01&enddate=2023-12-31&sort=14,a

Flip the sort on that column - 5th highest is your AL All-Star catcher favorite Jonah Heim.     Heim is also the only major leaguer so far this year to pull off a single-digits Oppo%.    Heim knows he can't hurt anybody the other way, but has trained himself to max his Pull air power.     He's aces at what I think BAL is basically trying to teach Cowser and Norby to do.

I think an established MLB Bat has more opportunity to intentionally refine their Pull/Oppo mix than their Chase Rate.

 

 

And they gave him away!

[royalstillman]

Mountcastle ended up at first base due to his poor defense everywhere else. Now, not only has his offense not progressed,but his defense has really regressed. It has been his bat that has carried him  this far. But his approach has never changed. Is he stubborn therefore uncoachable? Is he a hard worker? As a fan,I want more from our "big bat". He was ice cold the better part of last summer.A couple of big hits, and maybe we would've made the playoffs.His OBP stands at a paltry .252, and he bats 3 or 4 in the order.Who's unlucky? The fan who is wanting more.

[Il BuonO]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

He already does.  Read the article, and look at the percentage of balls Mountcastle hits to center and right.  He’s an all-fields hitter to the extent that any power hitter is.  Other than plate discipline, I don’t think there’s anything Mountcastle can really do to improve his hitting.  

Here’s his spray chart:  https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ryan-mountcastle/18373/spray-charts?position=1B&type=battedball

I’m not talking about hits, I mean will he shift his approach the RCF gap or RF wall instead of losing HRs to the LF wall at Camden Yards. The chart shows only one to RCF and another which was kind of a fluke down the RF line.  
 

If he tries to drive the ball to right he has plenty enough power to hit HRs there.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

I’m not talking about hits, I mean will he shift his approach the RCF gap or RF wall instead of losing HRs to the LF wall at Camden Yards. The chart shows only one to RCF and another which was kind of a fluke down the RF line.  
 

If he tries to drive the ball to right he has plenty enough power to hit HRs there.

If you think he’s not trying to drive the ball to right, I don’t know what to tell you.  The guy had a HR taken away at the RCF fence on Thursday, and he’s had numerous long shots out that way that have been caught.  

[Il BuonO]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

If you think he’s not trying to drive the ball to right, I don’t know what to tell you.  The guy had a HR taken away at the RCF fence on Thursday, and he’s had numerous long shots out that way that have been caught.  

Alright, the batted balls chart does show quite a bit out there. I didn’t see that at first look. If he keeps going that way it’ll pay off.

[Billy F-Face3]

Mounty batting in the #2 spot of the order today for Game 1.

[Ripken]

I'm a big RM supporter.  Really grew to like him after speaking with him and watching him play at Frederick.  He gave some baseballs to my boys back then, too.  The extreme pitch chasing is very frustrating to watch but he's frequently hitting the ball hard.  Tough situation.  He's certainly replaceable with someone like Westburg or Kjerstad (or eventually others like Mayo), and he has some trade value, but likely not much.  The bad luck is real though.  He was 0-4 Thursday, in which he had a walk and 3 hard-hit/line-drive outs.

[Frobby]

I was able to scrape together a few data points about the discrepancy between Mountcastle’s wOBA and his xwOBA as the season has progressed:

9 games: .338/.406

16 games: .322/.413

23 games: .298/.390

27 games: .291/.393

This suggests he had a genuine rough stretch from games 17-23, but has hit the ball pretty well the last 4 games with not much to show for it.   

[OriolesMagic83]

On 4/29/2023 at 8:50 AM, royalstillman said:

Mountcastle ended up at first base due to his poor defense everywhere else. Now, not only has his offense not progressed,but his defense has really regressed. It has been his bat that has carried him  this far. But his approach has never changed. Is he stubborn therefore uncoachable? Is he a hard worker? As a fan,I want more from our "big bat". He was ice cold the better part of last summer.A couple of big hits, and maybe we would've made the playoffs.His OBP stands at a paltry .252, and he bats 3 or 4 in the order.Who's unlucky? The fan who is wanting more.

The O's might need to do some work on Sig's computer.  No way should a batter w/ a .252 OBP be batting 3rd.  5th or 6th sounds about right.

[Ripken]

Two dubs today and a nice play at 1st.  I think we'd all feel better about him if he was hitting lower.

[Can_of_corn]

9 minutes ago, Ripken said:

Two dubs today and a nice play at 1st.  I think we'd all feel better about him if he was hitting lower.

I'd feel the same, since lineup order is pretty inconsequential.