Ryan O'Hearn has to start

[Frobby]

13 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

I was at yesterday’s game and positioned perfectly along the LF line to see JRod’s catch. It was definitely home run robbing for sure. It was a great catch and JRod was definitely (most understandably) very pumped afterward. But it was not as good as some of the media outlets were trying to call it/make it with the “catch of the year” label. 

I feel like there’s at least one catch a week that someone labels as the catch of the year. 

[Aristotelian]

48 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I feel like there’s at least one catch a week that someone labels as the catch of the year. 

The Mariners announcer said it was the catch of his career! I somehow doubt that. I'd be surprised if it was top 10. 

[LA2]

5 hours ago, Bemorewins said:

I was at yesterday’s game and positioned perfectly along the LF line to see JRod’s catch. It was definitely home run robbing for sure. It was a great catch and JRod was definitely (most understandably) very pumped afterward. But it was not as good as some of the media outlets were trying to call it/make it with the “catch of the year” label. 

Thanks for the observation--and yeah exaggeration seems to have become completely unrestrained in sports reporting & announcing.

[LA2]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

I feel like there’s at least one catch a week that someone labels as the catch of the year. 

The years are becoming smaller and smaller

[LA2]

4 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

The Mariners announcer said it was the catch of his career! I somehow doubt that. I'd be surprised if it was top 10. 

Actually it was worse: they said "catch of his LIFE!"

[Aristotelian]

4 minutes ago, LA2 said:

Actually it was worse: they said "catch of his LIFE!"

That's right! They were actually still talking about today. I can't believe this is true but they said it was the first time he had robbed a potential HR. So if that is the case I guess I can see why they would say that. I am sure he has made more difficult plays going by Statcast/xBA etc.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

That's right! They were actually still talking about today. I can't believe this is true but they said it was the first time he had robbed a potential HR. So if that is the case I guess I can see why they would say that. I am sure he has made more difficult plays going by Statcast/xBA etc.

Probably did in high school.

[Mooreisbetter27]

I said in the game thread… but it looks like his foot work is really good. He saved a few plays in the last couple of games for being able to step outside the baseline and not also get killed by the runner haha. 

[LA2]

Late last night catching up thru Gameday, I saw this self-contradicting description of O'Hearn's out on the base paths in the 9th inning. Can someone tell me what happened? Thanks.

"Caught Stealing 2B.

Ryan O'Hearn advances to 2nd base on a caught stealing error by pitcher Alexis Diaz."

[deward]

O'Hearn hit his first home run on 5/16; going into that game he had a .536 OPS over 28 PA spread across 11 games. Since then he has forced himself into platoon role, hitting .397 with a 1.202 OPS over 19 games from 5/16-6/20 (the date of his last HR). He obviously wasn't going to keep hitting like that, and now he has cooled off with only 2 hits over his last 5 games. For a more established player, 5 games wouldn't mean anything, but it'll be interesting to see how much leeway O'Hearn has earned to work through a cold spell. 

[Bemorewins]

1 minute ago, deward said:

O'Hearn hit his first home run on 5/16; going into that game he had a .536 OPS over 28 PA spread across 11 games. Since then he has forced himself into platoon role, hitting .397 with a 1.202 OPS over 19 games from 5/16-6/20 (the date of his last HR). He obviously wasn't going to keep hitting like that, and now he has cooled off with only 2 hits over his last 5 games. For a more established player, 5 games wouldn't mean anything, but it'll be interesting to see how much leeway O'Hearn has earned to work through a cold spell. 

In the case of O'Hearn "cooling off" or reverting back to his mean (and even Hicks for that matter), we are well suited with replacements in Coswer and Kjerstad. I'm not sure that O'Hearn has all of sudden turned back into a pumpkin. Last night he got out on an excuse me check swing when he was up in the count 3-0. On Saturday, JRod made a phenomenal catch to rob him of a 2-run homer that he crushed to left center.

[Aristotelian]

49 minutes ago, LA2 said:

Late last night catching up thru Gameday, I saw this self-contradicting description of O'Hearn's out on the base paths in the 9th inning. Can someone tell me what happened? Thanks.

"Caught Stealing 2B.

Ryan O'Hearn advances to 2nd base on a caught stealing error by pitcher Alexis Diaz."

It was a bizarre play. O'Hearn successfully advanced to second due to defensive indifference, but he seemed to think there was a foul ball so he turned around and started to jog back to the dugout. When the Reds realized his goof, they threw the ball into centerfield and he made it back to second. Apparently a stolen base attempt doesn't end until the ball is returned to pitcher so the play was scored as an error on a stolen base attempt. He was never actually caught stealing so "caught stealing 2B" was probably a glitch due to being such an unusual play.

[Aristotelian]

^Sorry, he was going back to first, not the dugout. 

[glenn__davis]

He's been great, but boy was that a bad PH last night. Gets the green light on 3 0 and hits a weak check swing grounder. You can't check swing in that spot.   That 7th inning was just a disaster all around. 

[deward]

21 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

In the case of O'Hearn "cooling off" or reverting back to his mean (and even Hicks for that matter), we are well suited with replacements in Coswer and Kjerstad. I'm not sure that O'Hearn has all of sudden turned back into a pumpkin. Last night he got out on an excuse me check swing when he was up in the count 3-0. On Saturday, JRod made a phenomenal catch to rob him of a 2-run homer that he crushed to left center.

I'm not saying he's turning back into a pumpkin yet, just that it'll interesting to see how much faith Elias and Hyde will have in him to work through any kind of extended slump, given his lack of a successful track record. If the magic has run out, I think that just means that Mountcastle gets his full-time job back. Hicks is the one who will have to crash back to earth in order for Cowser to get his shot.