Bench Mountcastle, start O’Hearn

[Aristotelian]

1 hour ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

I don't get the over reactionary seething hatred around here for Ryan Mountcastle. You'd think he stole someone's baby or something. But then, maybe I'm just not seeing something others are. Maybe I'm just blinded by the 40 something Home Runs and countless saved bad throws from the past 365+ days.

He has tantalizing power, but his career OBP .308 and he's at .268 this year. He has just enough power to eke out replacement level credibility but we can and must do better if we are trying to contend. It is not reactionary, this has been going on for three years now.

He hit 22 HR last year and 11 so far this year, I'm not sure how that adds up to 40. Again, good power but not enough to make up for his terrible OBP. 

For his career he is -13 OAA. Just not that good. 

[vab]

It probably is a bit early to toss Mountcastle (I don't hear too many calls for Cano over Bautista in the closer role recently)  but things certainly are headed the way of Mountcastle not being a long-term piece. He just appears to be the classic case of a hitter who has been unable or unwilling to make adjustments. I could see him getting the wake-up call and becoming something much closer to the hitter we expected after a trade but it looks more and more like it won't happen for him in Baltimore. 

[Tony-OH]

Mountcastle is a one dimensional player who brings some power but very little else. He's never hit for the average I thought he would because even though he has good plate coverage, he's never made the adjustments for taking that low and away pitch to RF. Instead he'll pull that pitch and roll over to SS or 3B. 

He hits the ball hard consistently, but he seems to hit the ball hard on the ground or too high which averages out to make his numbers look good.

His xBA this year on fastballs has fallen to .218. That's a concern as well.

At the end of the day, while WAR is not a perfect stat, the fact is he's not a very valuable player especially when you bring his below average defense at first base (1% arm strength for first baseman).

Mountcastle has really become a platoon right-handed DH type who may be able to provide some Benny Ayala type PH against lefties late in games if used correctly.

Either way, I'm hoping to see Kjerstad play 1B a lot of AAA because I think he's the best long term option at 1B though Mayo and 3-4 years for now Basallo could be options. But we'll get there when we get there.

For now, O'Hearn and Mountcastle should be platooned.

[Tony-OH]

3 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

I don't get the over reactionary seething hatred around here for Ryan Mountcastle. You'd think he stole someone's baby or something. But then, maybe I'm just not seeing something others are. Maybe I'm just blinded by the 40 something Home Runs and countless saved bad throws from the past 365+ days.

Maybe it's not hatred but fans who actually understand his lack of production and limited value to a team. 

The Orioles released 26-year old Renato Núñez who was actually more valuable and better player than Mountcastle he's basically out of baseball now.

It's not personal, it's not hatred, it's the fact that he's not producing offensively or defensively enough for a quality playoff caliber team. 

He should be a platoon RH 1B or DH.

[24fps]

Time for Mountcastle to move to the LHP platoon role.  No two ways about it.

[Yardball85]

I just wrote an article for Birdswatcher suggesting a Mounty plus to St. Louis for Goldschmidt trade.  Will be interesting to see if it gains some legs...

[flaoriolesfan]

19 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I’ve seen enough of Ryan Mountcastle. 
 

I hate to say it but I can’t stand it anymore. The valleys are too low, the peaks aren’t high enough or often enough. And he’s actually regressing, he’s worse this year than he was last year.  
 

You can’t start a first baseman with an on base percentage as bad as his. It’s unacceptable. A guy like Mateo, at least he brings a premium glove to a premium position. I do believe Mateo’s WAR last year was higher than Mountcastle’s entire career value which is absurd. Mateo, if he stays the full time SS this year, will probably lap Mountcastle’s career WAR again if he hasn’t already. 
 

But I digress. I was pretty harsh on the O’Hearn signing this past offseason but I also didn’t expect Mountcastle to be this terrible. 
 

O’Hearn is a better option right now. That’s partially because Mountcastle has made the bar so low to hurdle that it doesn’t mean much. But O’Hearn has flashed and his at bats are better than anything Mountcastle has shown. 
 

If I’m Elias, I’m admittedly selling low on Mountcastle to make room for a Santander/O’Hearn platoon at 1B and DH and bringing up Cowser to play RF.  And quite frankly, I don’t care what I get back for Mountcastle, the fact that this team gets better without his presence is enough. 

I would like to at least see this against righthanders

 

[Aristotelian]

11 minutes ago, Yardball85 said:

I just wrote an article for Birdswatcher suggesting a Mounty plus to St. Louis for Goldschmidt trade.  Will be interesting to see if it gains some legs...

We have like three guys who are better than Mountcastle that we just grabbed off the waiver wire. Why would St Louis trade their star player for someone who is replacement level? At best.

[ArtVanDelay]

35 minutes ago, Yardball85 said:

I just wrote an article for Birdswatcher suggesting a Mounty plus to St. Louis for Goldschmidt trade.  Will be interesting to see if it gains some legs...

Mountcastle has zero trade value.  It would have to be a lot of “plus”.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, ArtVanDelay said:

Mountcastle has zero trade value.  It would have to be a lot of “plus”.

Can throw in DL Hall and whomever else they don't want on the team.

[waroriole]

1 hour ago, ArtVanDelay said:

Mountcastle has zero trade value.  It would have to be a lot of “plus”.

Shhh St Louis doesn’t know yet. They’re all the way in another time zone. They just know his HR and RBI totals from last year. 

[e16bball]

2 hours ago, ArtVanDelay said:

Mountcastle has zero trade value.  It would have to be a lot of “plus”.

I’m at the end of my rope with Mountcastle, but I’m not sure he has “zero” trade value. 

He still has huge EV and expected stats. I don’t know if anyone but Kevin Brown is still buying the “bad luck” concept, but he still clearly retains the natural ability to barrel the ball and hit it really hard. If I’m betting on “bounce back” or “breakout” candidates, I’d start there. 

Beyond that, and most of this is speculation, I think a team could easily talk themselves into The Wall being a major factor in his decline. There’s the literal sense, where it’s actually robbing HRs from him — he would have had 48 homers with the Angels since the start of 2022, compared to just 33 with us. But there’s also the less obvious sense, where it seems to be changing his overall approach, in a way that isn’t working. Back in 2021, he pulled the ball almost 39% of the time — that’s steeply down to 30.8% this year, and his FB rate is also down. He’s made reference to trying to drive the ball to right-center, but that clearly is not working well for him.

Long way of saying that I think it’s entirely possible that a team could convince themselves that they’re buying low on a legit power bat with Mountcastle. In a different situation, where he can just get back to turning it loose and pulling the ball with authority, I think a serious resurgence is somewhere between “possible” and “likely.” He’s not going to be the centerpiece of any deal for an impact player — but I think there are a number of teams (CHC, CIN, aforementioned LAA, etc) for whom he’d make a lot of sense.

[Matt S]

I agree. I'm done with Mountcastle.

[OriolesMagic83]

On 6/7/2023 at 12:58 AM, ShoelesJoe said:

If Mountcastle was a LH bat and couldn't hit LH pitchers he'd have been moved to a platoon role a while ago, and nobody would have questioned it. Why are baseball managers so reluctant to make the same adjustments when it comes to RH batters who can't hit RH pitchers? 

Exactly and Mountcastle's lack of positional flexibility limits this team.  If you can't do anything other than hit the occasional HR and gets some hits against lefties, it would be nice if you could play more than 1 position, 2 if you count DH.

[Yardball85]

On 6/7/2023 at 5:22 PM, Aristotelian said:

We have like three guys who are better than Mountcastle that we just grabbed off the waiver wire. Why would St Louis trade their star player for someone who is replacement level? At best.

The hope that Mountcastle can turn it around in a new environment and start matching his minor league numbers, plus his team control versus Goldschmidt only being under control for 1.5 more years. This trade is conditioned on the Cardinals continuing their losing ways and according to mlbtravevalues.com, it actually kind of favored the Cardinals.  Here is the link to my story for you all to hate on https://birdswatcher.com/posts/impact-bats-that-could-intrigue-the-baltimore-orioles-on-the-trade-market-01h276zfa8be

Mercy reminder:  I do this on the side and am not a professional baseball writer. Be kind