Ryan Mountcastle 2023

[Frobby]

11 minutes ago, SilverRocket said:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/ryan-mountcastle-orioles-vertigo-swing-decisions-THSULACPM5F4NNVTPZWPR3G4N4/

Looks like his swing decisions have improved dramatically:

But there's probably also some luck involved:

The swing decision differences are striking though. Did he just never do any sort of that training when the new hitting coaches came over last year?

I feel like Mountcastle has brief periods every year where his plate discipline improves and people start hoping he’s turned a corner in that regard.  Last yesr for example, he walked 23 times in August/Sept. after walking only 20 times in the first 4 months of the year.  In September 2021, he walked 12 times after walking only 29 times the first 5 months.  

So, while I’m glad Mountcastle is showing more plate discipline right now, I’m skeptical that it’s any kind of long term trend.  I’d be happy for him to prove me wrong.  
 

[George Zuverink]

32 minutes ago, Yossarian said:

Ryan Mountcastle destroyed a baseball last night.   

Probably a response to OH poster who said that all those opposite field singles suggested Ryan had turned into Juan Pierre.

[banks703]

On 8/4/2023 at 2:42 PM, Moose Milligan said:

The Curse of Mark DeRosa.  It was like 2 or 3 months ago where he broke down Mateo and the toe tap and we were all like "WHOA a toe tap, Mateo's legit!" and then he went right back to being Mateo.

Anyway, I'm with @Frobbyon this.  I've been a pretty vocal Mountcastle critic over the years here.  It sucks because I think he's a great guy and his teammates appear to love him but his shortcomings have been apparent.

I'm curious to see if any real changes have been made.  He's gone on heaters before, we're all aware of that.  But we need to see how he handles a slump and how long that is.  The slumps are insufferable, they last forever and it's nothing but impatience at the plate and poor, pull-happy swing decisions.

I'm loving that he's using all fields lately, I hope he continues with that.  And if he can continue to be a little more selective at the plate, that might make a difference for him.

Like all hitters, he will inevitably revert to old bad habits or learn new bad habits but this stretch for him since he returned from the IL has been the best of his career. Sure, he's had burners when he's hit like 5 or 6 homers in like a two week stretch and mashed everything but he does appear to have made small adjustments to his stance a little - the front leg/foot is a little less pronounced and he doesn't look as tall as before. He seems to be laying off of the low and away pitches a little more and he's taking walks. His swing appears to be aggressively targeting the middle of the field, which has allowed him to utilize all fields/go to right field. This is when he is at his best and while the power is obviously there with the near 500 foot homer yesterday, he doesn't seem to be trying to hit homeruns right now.

He seems a little less Mountcastly to me right now, which is a good thing. If we could get a mirror image of him and Gunnar and watch their trigger, he looks a little more Gunnary with his hands and hips than before. I chalk that up to taking whatever coaching was given to him while he was out/down in Norfolk.

We all know he can hit em as far as just about anyone and I think that's what gets him into trouble and opens the door for his slumps. Remember how he was mashing when he was like 20 or so and everyone was like "bring up Mountcastle" and Buck was critical of him because he wasn't selective enough (or whatever that exact criticism was).? That's the Mountcastle that we have come to know during his three years with the big club. This Mountcastle does seem to be a little different but the proof will be in how he finishes the year.

Personally, I'd rather have the version of him that's taking walks, hitting to all fields, doubles power with the homer rate where it's been the last 25ish games. 

Since he returned from the IL he's:

27/66 good for .409 BA with 7 2Bs, 3 HRs, 12 RBI and a 7/16 BB/K ratio. 

I'll take that all day from him as the homers will come. 

[Moose Milligan]

13 minutes ago, banks703 said:

Like all hitters, he will inevitably revert to old bad habits or learn new bad habits but this stretch for him since he returned from the IL has been the best of his career. Sure, he's had burners when he's hit like 5 or 6 homers in like a two week stretch and mashed everything but he does appear to have made small adjustments to his stance a little - the front leg/foot is a little less pronounced and he doesn't look as tall as before. He seems to be laying off of the low and away pitches a little more and he's taking walks. His swing appears to be aggressively targeting the middle of the field, which has allowed him to utilize all fields/go to right field. This is when he is at his best and while the power is obviously there with the near 500 foot homer yesterday, he doesn't seem to be trying to hit homeruns right now.

He seems a little less Mountcastly to me right now, which is a good thing. If we could get a mirror image of him and Gunnar and watch their trigger, he looks a little more Gunnary with his hands and hips than before. I chalk that up to taking whatever coaching was given to him while he was out/down in Norfolk.

We all know he can hit em as far as just about anyone and I think that's what gets him into trouble and opens the door for his slumps. Remember how he was mashing when he was like 20 or so and everyone was like "bring up Mountcastle" and Buck was critical of him because he wasn't selective enough (or whatever that exact criticism was).? That's the Mountcastle that we have come to know during his three years with the big club. This Mountcastle does seem to be a little different but the proof will be in how he finishes the year.

Personally, I'd rather have the version of him that's taking walks, hitting to all fields, doubles power with the homer rate where it's been the last 25ish games. 

Since he returned from the IL he's:

27/66 good for .409 BA with 7 2Bs, 3 HRs, 12 RBI and a 7/16 BB/K ratio. 

I'll take that all day from him as the homers will come. 

Of course, I'll take that all day, too.

But like you touched on, I'm curious to see how bad the cold streak is.  I want to see how bad the slump is.  

I don't know if it'll be as bad as it was earlier this year but I don't have many doubts that he'll revert back to a .250 avg/.290 OBP type.  Maybe .310, .320 OBP.

I hope the changes he's made are legit and he can stay with them.

[Natty]

Maybe he's had vertigo for a long time. He sure is hitting great since they fixed that.

But unfortunately he showed last night he is still a sucker for a slow breaking ball way low out of the strike zone.  

[Malike]

I know it feels like he's a veteran but he's also only 26, I'm still not sure who he is. He's not the 9 for 11 with 2 walks guy in the Toronto series, but he's also not a .680 OPS guy. Time will tell.

[SpOkane]

When he has his next slump, he should take BP with 3 pitched balls at a time so during the game one pitched ball will seem rather easy.

[Sports Guy]

Did they really not show where the Mounty homer went last night because of Free Kevin Brown signs?

The camera work was awful and then they showed a weird angle where it landed. 

That excuse makes a lot of sense.

[Malike]

5 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Did they really not show where the Mounty homer went last night because of Free Kevin Brown signs?

The camera work was awful and then they showed a weird angle where it landed. 

That excuse makes a lot of sense.

No, I made that up in the game thread. It's just shoddy camera work.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Malike said:

No, I made that up in the game thread. It's just shoddy camera work.

I didn’t see you say that. Just saw some speculation on Twitter about it.

How do you know that it wasn’t because of signs or something like that?

[Malike]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

I didn’t see you say that. Just saw some speculation on Twitter about it.

How do you know that it wasn’t because of signs or something like that?

TBS showed it fine, there was nothing to see out there on any replay I saw.

[SilverRocket]

They showed other angles later. It was beyond both bullpens which is a pretty normal spot for bad camera work.

[NCRaven]

Glad Elias is a better evaluator and more patient than many here.  

[banks703]

To keep this going for RM. Since the break he's now:

 

29/71 good for .409 BA with 7 2B, 4 HR, 14 RBI, 9 BB to 19 Ks

 

He's been a little more strikeout happy the last six games counting today (8 Ks in that span) but he's also walked three times and had nine hits. He may be reverting back to pull-happy Ryan, which we have to expect some but if he can fight off those tendencies and continue to stay true to the middle of the field, I think we've got this version of him that everyone salivated over during his years in the minors. It's still a relatively small sample size but I continue to like what we're seeing from him (approach-wise, not the numbers, obviously we all like the numbers). 

[Os4days]

I just don’t understand why there is no love for Mountcastle? Even guys who say some complimentary things about him always preface it with until he slumps again.
 

I wrote a while back that I think he is our only true slugger, sure he may not bat .300 and may strikeout some but he is the guy that can slam that 3 run dinger. He is now 2nd on the team behind Ohearn in slugging percentage.