Santander Back to Back Starts at Firstbase

[deward]

16 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Btw, Mounty has had a lot of bad luck the last season+. I think there is more there.

But even before that, he wasn’t a guy who you really felt was someone who should get 600 at bats.

 

Not sure I agree with that. Coming out his rookie campaign in 2021, you could make an argument for him as a solid regular with the potential for more. He got off to a brutal start, but OPS'd .883 from late-May forward. That plays just fine. The issue has been his inability to replicate that since.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

11 minutes ago, deward said:

Not sure I agree with that. Coming out his rookie campaign in 2021, you could make an argument for him as a solid regular with the potential for more. He got off to a brutal start, but OPS'd .883 from late-May forward. That plays just fine. The issue has been his inability to replicate that since.

The issue is with Mountcastle's poor strike zone judgement he's going to suffer from these dramatic swings in his performance at the plate. Mountcastle's platoon splits are fine, but if he could just be a little bit selective at the plate.

[Sports Guy]

28 minutes ago, deward said:

Not sure I agree with that. Coming out his rookie campaign in 2021, you could make an argument for him as a solid regular with the potential for more. He got off to a brutal start, but OPS'd .883 from late-May forward. That plays just fine. The issue has been his inability to replicate that since.

But he wasn’t good for 2 months and that counts.

I think Mounty has some bigger years in him but he will largely be in the 780-810 OPS range with middling defense and decent baserunning.

He’s Adam Jones without the premium defensive position.

Edited May 16, 2023 by Sports Guy

[deward]

11 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

But he wasn’t good for 2 months and that counts.

I think Mounty has some bigger years in him but he will largely be in the 780-810 OPS range with middling defense and decent baserunning.

He’s Adam Jones without the premium defensive position.

My point was that, in context of being his rookie year, you could make the case going into 2022 that the first two months of 2021 was him going through his first adjustment period in the bigs and that May-forward was a more relevant suggestion of what he was capable of. So, giving him 600 ABs in 2022 to see if he could maintain that level was reasonable. The 700+ ABs since where he can't maintain an OPS above .730 makes a different case, of course.

[deward]

30 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

The issue is with Mountcastle's poor strike zone judgement he's going to suffer from these dramatic swings in his performance at the plate. Mountcastle's platoon splits are fine, but if he could just be a little bit selective at the plate.

I think it's probably safe to assume that his plate discipline is what it is. 

[foxfield]

59 minutes ago, Frobby said:

My opinion of RMC hasn’t really changed much the last three years.  He’s fun to watch when he’s hot, very frustrating when he’s not, and his lack of plate discipline is maddening most of the time.  Defensively he’s average at best, maybe slightly below IMO.   For me he’s a slightly below average starting 1B.  I had hopes he would grow into something more than that as he gained experience, but so far, he’s pretty much the same guy.  I do agree that there’s been some bad luck involved at times, but it may just be that he happens to hit the ball to certain spots a lot and the fielders know it. 

I agree with all of this.  I will go further and you may not agree so I apologize.  I think RMC is in danger of getting pushed out not because his overall production isn't playable, but because his performance is and has been pretty erratic.  You mentioned that he really hasn't grown as a defensive player.  I don't really mean to knock RMC, but he appears to be a guy who is happy with who and what he is and is not necessarily driven to improve.  He has been good enough to warrant a spot somewhere, but I see that changing as early as next year.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 hour ago, deward said:

I think it's probably safe to assume that his plate discipline is what it is. 

Which is why we’re seeing Santander play 1B with Cowser on the cusp of making his MLB debut. 

[seak05]

I think it’s a fairly good view into how the orioles view mountcastles current defense at first. Getting a read on santander makes sense. But back to back including when Ryan was at dh suggests more 

[Pickles]

This could go in a million threads, but for note, Santander just made a poor throw to prevent a routine 1-6-3 DP and he should be thanking Mateo that ball didn't either allow the runner to be safe, or go flying into LF.  

Just wanted to make note.  He actually fielded a sharp chopper cleanly and made a quick, hard throw, but as McDonald explained on the broadcast quite well: He didn't position himself properly to make the throw by taking a step in to his left and creating a line to throw to 2nd.  That's something that can be learned.

[emmett16]

5 hours ago, Spy Fox said:

How was Santander at 1b last night? I only got to watch the 1st inning. 

I was at game and thought he looked good.  He had a couple challenging plays, a pick, an infield MLB pop up and made all The plays.  He looked pretty comfortable . 

[LA2]

6 hours ago, RVAOsFan said:

I think this is definitely a sign Mounty will be starting less games.  On the flip side, the thought of bringing him in late in a game as PH when we need a HR to tie or take the lead gets me excited. A lot more excited than Vavra stepping up to the plate. 

You called it!

Edited May 17, 2023 by LA2

[OriolesMagic83]

7 hours ago, RVAOsFan said:

I went to Harrisburg on Saturday night and caught a Baysox game.  Kjerstad has been playing 1B a few more weeks than Santander and he struggled with bad throws in the dirt.  So I am not going to hold my breath for Santander to do it.

Well Mountcastle hasn't been the best at it either.  It's not like your taking away a gold glove 1B who catches every wild infield throw.

[vab]

1. What we've seen out of G-Rod and Gunnar should give everyone at least a little bit of pause on seeing the prospects. Can't count on them coming up and just hitting the ground running. 

2. The price of this SP upgrade everyone is calling for will be very high. Very few will be available with a lot of teams looking to buy with the expanded playoffs. Big-time seller's market which means at least a couple of the Cowser, Westburg, Ortiz class will probably have to go. 

 

[RVAOsFan]

1 hour ago, LA2 said:

You called it!

Haha didn’t catch the game tonight I was just looking at the box score and thought to myself I knew I liked him as a pinch hitter.

Just a thought not that I know anything but every time I see a Mountcastle interview he’s very loose joking and happy. I think it’s awesome I really do like his personality. That being said I wonder if at times he gets too loose and loses focus. I wonder if watching Santander start at 1st a couple nights ticked him off and lit a fire. Who knows but I hope so.

[LA2]

9 minutes ago, RVAOsFan said:

Haha didn’t catch the game tonight I was just looking at the box score and thought to myself I knew I liked him as a pinch hitter.

Just a thought not that I know anything but every time I see a Mountcastle interview he’s very loose joking and happy. I think it’s awesome I really do like his personality. That being said I wonder if at times he gets too loose and loses focus. I wonder if watching Santander start at 1st a couple nights ticked him off and lit a fire. Who knows but I hope so.

Interesting notion--we shall see.