Bench Mountcastle, start O’Hearn

[ChosenOne21]

4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'm not all in on O'Hearn just yet, however he's making it hard not to be a believer.  

Let's keep in mind that the O's hitting coaches allegedly fixed Mateo and we've all seen how that's played out.  Maybe O'Hearn doesn't regress to what he was, maybe he does.  

At the very least, he's earned the right to keep playing so we can find out.

Swings are complex. They may be fixed only to break again soon after.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, MurphDogg said:

O'Hearn doesn't hit lefties at all. They have been using Urias at first against lefties, but despite being right handed, he also doesn't hit lefties at all. 

I see an O'Hearn / Mountcastle platoon for the rest of the season, starting after the All Star Break. 

Not sure who goes down when Mountcastle comes back (could be Mateo dfa'd with Westburg and Henderson covering shortstop with Urias in an emergency). I don't think either can be counted on as the first baseman next season. Hopefully Kjerstad can get more comfortable at first in the offseason.

I'm thinking the Orioles would like to move Urias for something of value since he doesn't have much of a role on this team right now. Along with Mountcastle, Urias is a guy who doesn't have a ton of trade value right now and probably should have been dealt this offseason. 

[Aristotelian]

1 hour ago, MurphDogg said:

I have no problem with Mountcastle being optioned if he is still scuffling at AAA when his rehab is up, but a Santander/O'Hearn platoon doesn't really solve anything in the medium term, because it still puts one of O'Hearn, Hicks, Urias, Mateo or McCann in the lineup against lefties.

 

What's wrong with that? Hicks is a switch hitter better vs LHP and Urias is RHB, albeit with reverse splits. Mateo could be replaced with Ortiz soon enough. 

[LA2]

1 hour ago, Filmstudy said:

I don't want to be negative with how important O'Hearn is to the Orioles lineup right now, but I can't think of too many instances where a 30-year old (July 26) suddenly learns to hit the way he is doing now.  In addition, he's not walking, which is probably going to catch up to him when pitchers start challenging him less in the zone.  I'd love to have him be the exception to the rule.

He had an 83 OPS+ in 1071 ABs prior to this season and is at 139 now.

Off the top of my head, in Orioles history, you have Lowenstein (32 yo), Dwyer (32), Mora (31).

[Moose Milligan]

32 minutes ago, ChosenOne21 said:

Swings are complex. They may be fixed only to break again soon after.

When Mateo waves at a slider that's a foot outside the zone, I'm pretty sure it's not his swing that's broken.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Moose Milligan

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm thinking the Orioles would like to move Urias for something of value since he doesn't have much of a role on this team right now. Along with Mountcastle, Urias is a guy who doesn't have a ton of trade value right now and probably should have been dealt this offseason. 

Urias, Mateo and Frazier are all just taking up space at this point, just as we all thought (hoped) they would be if Westburg, Ortiz, and Norby dominated AAA and Gunnar didn't have any major hiccups (three out of four ain't bad, Norby has been fine but not dominant, and Prieto isn't far away either with Mayo behind him). Frazier has the veteranosity and is supposedly a great clubhouse presence, but all three of them could be jettisoned without expected production falling too much.

Exciting problems to have and I expect they all will be sorted out by the winter, if not before.

[Just Regular]

The happy feature from Verducci and DeRosa:

 

[Roll Tide]

12 hours ago, Just Regular said:

The happy feature from Verducci and DeRosa:

 

I don’t know how anybody can not be happy with O’Hearn. Solid hitting and production continues.895 OPS. Consistent production whether home or away. I know not to get too excited about this type of player as it often doesn’t hold up long term. But for this season let’s ride the streak.

[Billy F-Face3]

13 hours ago, Just Regular said:

The happy feature from Verducci and DeRosa:

 

I just watched this and it gave me flashbacks to when they did the same breakdown of Meteo at the end of April. Ss we all know, Matei regressed and the bottom fell out.

Guys, should sell high on O'Hearn? His value might not ever be higher. The Orioles still have good options behind him like Diaz and Mountcastle, plus Santander can play 1B.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

I just watched this and it gave me flashbacks to when they did the same breakdown of Meteo at the end of April. Ss we all know, Matei regressed and the bottom fell out.

Guys, should sell high on O'Hearn? His value might not ever be higher. The Orioles still have good options behind him like Diaz and Mountcastle, plus Santander can play 1B.

I don't see any team giving anything of valuable for him.  He was BAD for years.  Ride the hot hand for now.

[sportsfan8703]

19 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm thinking the Orioles would like to move Urias for something of value since he doesn't have much of a role on this team right now. Along with Mountcastle, Urias is a guy who doesn't have a ton of trade value right now and probably should have been dealt this offseason. 

This is how I was thinking, but then are we really going to get more for Urias now then what we would get after the season?  I think we keep our depth and go after the playoffs from here our. Changes will happen this offseason. 
 

How big has O’Hearn been?  Where would we be without that dude?  What a great pick up by Elias. So were Diaz, Cameron, and Lester. Elias quietly picked up some really good AAA depth this seasons. It makes me wonder what he saw in Torrens the Catcher. Hopefully, the Wall will start to attract pitchers looking for a chance. 
 

O’Hearn and Hicks show that we’re now the team that can “fix” hitters. We can fix them pretty fast too. 

[Moose Milligan]

32 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

I don’t know how anybody can not be happy with O’Hearn. Solid hitting and production continues.895 OPS. Consistent production whether home or away. I know not to get too excited about this type of player as it often doesn’t hold up long term. But for this season let’s ride the streak.

BuT wE nEed MoUnTcAsTlE 4 a pLAtOoN

[sportsfan8703]

10 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

BuT wE nEed MoUnTcAsTlE 4 a pLAtOoN

We should’ve sent Mountcastle to the FCL. Sending him to AAA was just setting him up to get embarrassed, but maybe he needed to be humbled. 

Edited July 7, 2023 by sportsfan8703

[waroriole]

I like the idea of Mountcastle in a strict platoon at 1B. I just don’t trust Hyder to use him that way. If we bring him back up, he’ll be playing every day and batting 4th. 

[Just Regular]

Mountcastle used to play the outfield some....that might be a path to some extra at-bats if he is unable to return to the best nine overall position players.