Ryan O'Hearn Per Mewleski

[jabba72]

12 hours ago, bluedog said:

Ryan O'Hearn should be starting every day IMHO.

Only 23 PA's all year against LHP. Still has a .971 OPS vs them.

[Jammer7]

17 hours ago, Malike said:

Whenever they ask him on TV he keeps saying no shift is a big reason for his success. Seems odd that that is always in his head.

I thought this was a solid pick up before the season when you look at his exit velos and the spray charts. He hit a lot of hard shots to short to medium right field and the 2B made those into outs.

As far as to why it is an issue to him now, when it seems he uses the entire field, is because of approach in an at bat. A LH batter, particularly a power hitter like Ryan, wants to know that if they get a ball on the inner half that can barrel with their true swing and have a good chance of success. The approach is to look outside and react inside by getting the barrel out in front. If you do that today, it is likely a positive outcome. Before 2023, those guys either hit it out or made an out. So, just speculation, but I would think that added feeling of comfort allows him to stay on the outside pitch and know that he can handle the inner half as well. He wants to produce and win. It’s a results based business, and he is 30 years old. He knows this is his time do it or get forgotten. A truly inspirational story for me this year.

The sad part is that Kjerstad, Cowser and others may make him expendable this off season. That’s the business, but I really like Ryan as a player. 

[bluedog]

Ryan O'Hearn 5 for 5 tonight. 

4 of those hits were with 2 strikes.

Wow....just wow.

[LA2]

Just listened to O'Hearn's post-game interview and yet another sign of his humility is he took the blame for not coming up with Urias's bad throw (E charged to Urias): "I didn't make the pick there on that play in the 9th, gotta work on that."

[Frobby]

I liked it when Roch commented that O’Hearn had his first four hit game and his first five hit game tonight, and asked O’Hearn how that felt.  O’Hearn smiled and said “well, I still haven’t had a four hit game.”  

[Malike]

I think they've utilized O'Hearn perfectly. If he were an everyday player instead of a pretty strict platoon guy, we're probably not speaking as positively about him as we are. They do just a masterful job of putting him in the right positions to succeed and he's running with it.

[Roll Tide]

5 hits the other night and 2 hits and a homerun last night. O’Hearn is now batting .311 and seems to like hitting in the 3 hole.

[Roll Tide]

From Roch

 

Quote

O’Hearn went 5-for-5 in Monday’s series opener against the Astros, making him the oldest Orioles player (30 years, 54 days) to collect five hits in a game since catcher Matt Wieters (30 years, 85 days) on Aug. 14, 2016 in San Francisco. He’s the oldest left-handed hitter since B.J. Surhoff (35 years, 329 days) on June 28, 2000 in Boston.

A few teammates beat him to it.

O’Hearn is the fourth Orioles player this season to collect five hits, tying the Red Sox for most in the majors and equaling the franchise record, according to STATS

 

[btdart20]

On 9/9/2023 at 10:35 AM, Jammer7 said:

I thought this was a solid pick up before the season when you look at his exit velos and the spray charts. He hit a lot of hard shots to short to medium right field and the 2B made those into outs.

As far as to why it is an issue to him now, when it seems he uses the entire field, is because of approach in an at bat. A LH batter, particularly a power hitter like Ryan, wants to know that if they get a ball on the inner half that can barrel with their true swing and have a good chance of success. The approach is to look outside and react inside by getting the barrel out in front. If you do that today, it is likely a positive outcome. Before 2023, those guys either hit it out or made an out. So, just speculation, but I would think that added feeling of comfort allows him to stay on the outside pitch and know that he can handle the inner half as well. He wants to produce and win. It’s a results based business, and he is 30 years old. He knows this is his time do it or get forgotten. A truly inspirational story for me this year.

The sad part is that Kjerstad, Cowser and others may make him expendable this off season. That’s the business, but I really like Ryan as a player. 

I thought it was a solid pick up too considering the shift ban.  Career splits vs. RHP looked solid for a shot at a platoon too.  Add in a healthy dose of concern over Mountcastle's off 2022 for some playing opportunity.  And a pinch of OPACY's RF for some upside.  The contract was the insurance policy against a waiver claim too.  I honestly didn't think it was more than a depth play who had MLB experience but there was a hopeful path for improvement.  I didn't anticipate the .319/.345/.514 triple slash against RHP in 300+ PAs.  

2024 depends on what the Arb number is.  But there's a chance the Sigbot likes O'Hearn's risk aversion as a function of the cost-benefit analysis.  

 

On a side note, he's matched his career high in HRs in a season at 14 (2019).  But then he slashed .195/.281/.369...  13 of his HR in 2019 were against RHP in 309 PAs.

For Mounty, he had slim reverse splits in 2020 and 2021.  Then OPACY changed LF.  So I suspect the OPS gap of .100+ career and .400+ 2023 in Mountcastle's RHP/LHP splits dictates to Elias that there's a platoon need (and some off-season work to be done by Mounty).  

[dystopia]

35 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

I thought it was a solid pick up too considering the shift ban.  Career splits vs. RHP looked solid for a shot at a platoon too.  Add in a healthy dose of concern over Mountcastle's off 2022 for some playing opportunity.  And a pinch of OPACY's RF for some upside.  The contract was the insurance policy against a waiver claim too.  I honestly didn't think it was more than a depth play who had MLB experience but there was a hopeful path for improvement.  I didn't anticipate the .319/.345/.514 triple slash against RHP in 300+ PAs.  

2024 depends on what the Arb number is.  But there's a chance the Sigbot likes O'Hearn's risk aversion as a function of the cost-benefit analysis.  

 

On a side note, he's matched his career high in HRs in a season at 14 (2019).  But then he slashed .195/.281/.369...  13 of his HR in 2019 were against RHP in 309 PAs.

For Mounty, he had slim reverse splits in 2020 and 2021.  Then OPACY changed LF.  So I suspect the OPS gap of .100+ career and .400+ 2023 in Mountcastle's RHP/LHP splits dictates to Elias that there's a platoon need (and some off-season work to be done by Mounty).  

Impossible, I was told this year was a fluke and that’s he’s all but guaranteed to revert back to his .650 OPS self next year. 

[btdart20]

1 hour ago, dystopia said:

Impossible, I was told this year was a fluke and that’s he’s all but guaranteed to revert back to his .650 OPS self next year. 

Maybe he will if he were batting against LHP too.  Maybe he will if he goes somewhere with a bigger RF.  It makes sense to project some regression, but he's raising his floor for sure.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Roll Tide said:

From Roch

 

 

Wow, talk about obscure stuff. “Oldest left handed Orioles hitter to get five hits” - should put him in Cooperstown!  

Seriously though, O’Hearn is the Steve Pearce of the 2023 Orioles.  I expected nothing, and we’ve gotten a lot.  And watching him, it doesn’t feel like a one-year, SSS fluke.  It feels like the O’s acquired a talented player from a backwards organization and did a few things to unleash his talent.  
 

[Mooreisbetter27]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Wow, talk about obscure stuff. “Oldest left handed Orioles hitter to get five hits” - should put him in Cooperstown!  

Seriously though, O’Hearn is the Steve Pearce of the 2023 Orioles.  I expected nothing, and we’ve gotten a lot.  And watching him, it doesn’t feel like a one-year, SSS fluke.  It feels like the O’s acquired a talented player from a backwards organization and did a few things to unleash his talent.  
 

I agree with this.  It could just be a career year, but his hard hit percent is 52.3 which is in the 95 percentile.  Exit velocity is 92.2 in the 90 percentile.  Heck, the only thing he's been really bad about is his walk percentage.  And I don't feel like he chases and it appears to me he has a good eye.  He just is aggressive with pitches he can hit hard.  

Ryan O'Hearn Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com | baseballsavant.com

[Tony-OH]

I went back and reread my take on O'Hearn and while I saw the good EV's, I certainly did not expect a 29-year old to suddenly change this much. 

When you look at the offseason, which I thought was very disappointing after the "Lift off" comment made by Elias, O'Hearn is certainly his best pick up.

I was certainly wrong about him.

[glenn__davis]

Imagine the angst on Royals Hangout over this guy.