Ryan Mountcastle 2023

[emmett16]

Until he can sustain an > .800 OPS for a significant amount of time, I’m going to be wary.  I’ve been premature excited on his hot streaks in the past.  He swung at more than a few pitches 8”+ out of the zone that made me nervous.   
 

With that said   He blisters the ball when he’s going good.  I hope he can keep it up.  

[NCRaven]

Mountcastle’s statcast data has indicated a breakout all along.

[Billy F-Face3]

1 hour ago, justD said:

I looked it up on X to find out for sure.

 

Browsing nudy sites again, are ya?

[crawjo]

Right now I am enjoying how complete and complementary our position player roster is. Some were ready to kick dirt on Mountcastle's grave a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see he can still be a major part of our offense, along with O'Hearn. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

21 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

Until he can sustain an > .800 OPS for a significant amount of time, I’m going to be wary.  I’ve been premature excited on his hot streaks in the past.  He swung at more than a few pitches 8”+ out of the zone that made me nervous.   
 

With that said   He blisters the ball when he’s going good.  I hope he can keep it up.  

The issue with Mountcastle is his highs are very high, but his lows are very low. At the end of the year Mountcastle's stats end up falling somewhere in between.

Perhaps if he can get a bit more selective Mountcastle can be closer to a >=.800 OPS hitter. It's good to see the white hot Mountcastle make a return after a lengthy disappearance. 

[Uli2001]

1 hour ago, Ripken said:

That approach though.  That's sustainable if he'll just do it.  Obviously, no one is going to get 3 hits every game but if he just commits to right center he has the physical talent to be a damn good hitter.  Maybe his career being in danger this year was the wake up call he needed.  I watched many of his games in Frederick and spoke to him several times.  He's a great kid with wicked hands.  Any free hacker who tries to yank everything pull side will fail.  I'm so hopeful this change is real.

Some players take some time to come into their own. Why is it not possible that he has figured out something and turned a corner? He's still young enough for that.

[Fiver6565]

“It’s easier when you are just seeing one baseball instead of three at the plate. I feel a lot better and healthy and it’s a blessing,” Mountcastle said.

That's a quote from Melewski's post this AM.  Based on that, maybe we all should have been a little easier on Mounty as he was slumping directly ahead of his IL stint.  That could not have been easy to deal with and may have been worse (and going on for longer) than we realized.

Anyway, what a performance this week in Toronto.  Rather than worry how long it'll continue, I'm just enjoying watching the man eat.  It has to feel even better than usual for the guy.  Good for him.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Fiver6565 said:

“It’s easier when you are just seeing one baseball instead of three at the plate. I feel a lot better and healthy and it’s a blessing,” Mountcastle said.

That's a quote from Melewski's post this AM.  Based on that, maybe we all should have been a little easier on Mounty as he was slumping directly ahead of his IL stint.  That could not have been easy to deal with and may have been worse (and going on for longer) than we realized.

Anyway, what a performance this week in Toronto.  Rather than worry how long it'll continue, I'm just enjoying watching the man eat.  It has to feel even better than usual for the guy.  Good for him.

If he was suffering from vertigo and "seeing three balls" than he was being pretty irresponsible not informing the team.  I imagine it's pretty easy to get yourself injured trying to play MLB under those conditions.

I admire the desire to play through injuries but it's not smart.

[BRobinsonfan]

9 hours ago, emmett16 said:

Until he can sustain an > .800 OPS for a significant amount of time, I’m going to be wary.  I’ve been premature excited on his hot streaks in the past.  He swung at more than a few pitches 8”+ out of the zone that made me nervous.   
 

With that said   He blisters the ball when he’s going good.  I hope he can keep it up.  

If your premature excitement lasts more than four hours please call a doctor.    (Sorry, I have the sense of humor of a 13 year old).  

[Fiver6565]

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

If he was suffering from vertigo and "seeing three balls" than he was being pretty irresponsible not informing the team.  I imagine it's pretty easy to get yourself injured trying to play MLB under those conditions.

I admire the desire to play through injuries but it's not smart.

The way O'hearn has played, he probably feared losing his spot in the lineup if he went away for a while, and he darn near did.  Not condoning the decision, but its a possible explanation for it.  Also, perhaps he would wake up in the AM feeling OK, and then symptoms would start to recur during games or something.  I don't know, never had vertigo so I won't judge him.

Regardless, I'm glad he's back and I hope he stays hot for a little while.  Mountcastle feeling it, while usually brief, is a lot of fun to watch.

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

Some players take some time to come into their own. Why is it not possible that he has figured out something and turned a corner? He's still young enough for that.

It’s possible.  But we’ve seen him have hot streaks and become more selective at the plate for a few weeks numerous times, only to fall back into bad habits.  So, I don’t want to get my hopes up prematurely.   Back when everyone was dumping on him in late May and early June, I always expected he’d eventually get hot and make up ground.  It’s his nature.  But at the end I’d of day, he swings at too many bad pitches to hit sell consistently. If he can change that, maybe he’ll get more consistent results.  But I’m skeptical that he will.  

[AlbNYfan]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

If he was suffering from vertigo and "seeing three balls" than he was being pretty irresponsible not informing the team.  I imagine it's pretty easy to get yourself injured trying to play MLB under those conditions.

I admire the desire to play through injuries but it's not smart.

There's a possibility he never thought of vertigo or knew of it. It could have just built up gradually. "I can just play and work through it mentally", until it got so bad he knew something was not right. Vertigo is, from my understanding is not an easily diagnosed problem and is general term rather than a specific malady.

[Frobby]

In his postgame interview he was asked about comparing hitting how compared to when he had vertigo and he said “it helps to only be seeing one baseball.”  Yikes!

It reminds me of Frank Robinson getting concussed in a 2B collision in 1967.  He missed a month, then played despite occasionally seeing two baseballs the rest of the year, and still had fuzzy vision the following year, which was one of the worst of his career. His vision had returned to some semblance of normal by 1969, but he claimed his vision was never as good post-concussion as it had been previously.   

[Roy Firestone]

I've watched baseball a long time. I dont believe I ever saw a hitting performance  in a series against one team on the road, quite like that..I think he ended up 11  for 13. That's insane.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Roy Firestone

[IPlayGM]

10 hours ago, crawjo said:

Right now I am enjoying how complete and complementary our position player roster is. Some were ready to kick dirt on Mountcastle's grave a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see he can still be a major part of our offense, along with O'Hearn. 

This is where I’m at…if they were to swap Mateo for Ortiz and Mullins for McKenna, I see a roster in September where it’s impossible for Hyde to put out a bad lineup…it is what we have been envisioning for awhile now.