Ryan Mountcastle 2024

[Just Regular]

I know 2 years of club control, but I do think it may play out 1.    It will be a lot of HR/RBI, and the usual arbitration misalignments between value and cost will ding Elias' taste.   It is baseball beautiful watching him hit.

He could be an interesting candidate for a low-key Bo Bichette style "long-term deal" that actually only covers arb seasons.    Depth charts wise he is at kind of an interesting crossroads in Elias' portfolio where both Mayo and Basallo's handling affect opportunities for "BAL 1B".

O'Hearn outfield has a 9-8 lead on 1B when he has been part of the defense YTD.

[Keygans]

Here’s a tough question:  knowing what bats we have in the minors, and his hot/cold streaks… Would you move him in a package for a back end reliever?    Much like the Burnes deal and DL, teams want established value back not just prospects.     Me personally … I’m on the fence leaning towards yes.   Tough though . 

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, e16bball said:

Next 10 games: 1.257 OPS

Checks out.

So I guess he has another 10-11 good games before reversing course.  

Actually, June is traditionally Mounty’s best month, with a career .977 OPS.  He certainly made a good down payment yesterday.  
 

[DirtyBird]

26 minutes ago, Keygans said:

Here’s a tough question:  knowing what bats we have in the minors, and his hot/cold streaks… Would you move him in a package for a back end reliever?    Much like the Burnes deal and DL, teams want established value back not just prospects.     Me personally … I’m on the fence leaning towards yes.   Tough though . 

Is a .280 avg, .754 OPS for a month a cold streak for him now? If so, I’d like to keep him around.

[Keygans]

22 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

Is a .280 avg, .754 OPS for a month a cold streak for him now? If so, I’d like to keep him around.

He’s hot now… but Can’t ignore his history of going ice cold.  Luckily Toronto will keep him hot…

[Ripken]

We should definitely have a team full of hitters who never have cold streaks.  

[Safelykept]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

So I guess he has another 10-11 good games before reversing course.  

Actually, June is traditionally Mounty’s best month, with a career .977 OPS.  He certainly made a good down payment yesterday.  
 

I don't know, it just seems different with him this year, Ive been a big critic. I did a long post months back of what I expected from an Orioles 1B on a very good Oriole Team, Boog, Eddie Rafeal and even Moose his first 2 years. Something way north of 2 War a season. Hes now on pace for north of 4.5 War this season. From the time he came back from Vertigo last july his OPS is north of .850 Almost a year is not just a heater. Is he finally turning into what we thought he could be in 2020?

[Moose Milligan]

Looks like he’s getting ready to go on one of his insane heaters. Couldn’t come at a better time, but enjoy it while it lasts. 

[Big Mac]

15 minutes ago, Safelykept said:

I don't know, it just seems different with him this year, Ive been a big critic. I did a long post months back of what I expected from an Orioles 1B on a very good Oriole Team, Boog, Eddie Rafeal and even Moose his first 2 years. Something way north of 2 War a season. Hes now on pace for north of 4.5 War this season. From the time he came back from Vertigo last july his OPS is north of .850 Almost a year is not just a heater. Is he finally turning into what we thought he could be in 2020?

I think you are on to something here, over the last calendar year Mounty has put up a slash line of .302/.363/.485 in 438 PAs...that's a long of stretch of strong offensive performance.  I'm glad he's on our team and hope he can keep it going. 

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, Big Mac said:

I think you are on to something here, over the last calendar year Mounty has put up a slash line of .302/.363/.485 in 438 PAs...that's a long of stretch of strong offensive performance.  I'm glad he's on our team and hope he can keep it going. 

I like Mounty, and do think there’s a decent chance this will be his best season so far.  But I don’t take a lot of comfort from sewing together two partial seasons at points that began and ended with hot streaks, and ignoring his history of streakiness.  He will have to prove that he can minimize the length and severity of his cold streaks, and for me he can only prove it over the full 162 game season.  He’s already had a stretch of 29 games at .657 this year but has been hot enough before and after to make up for it.  Hopefully he’ll continue that trend, but we’ll see.  

[Safelykept]

13 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I like Mounty, and do think there’s a decent chance this will be his best season so far.  But I don’t take a lot of comfort from sewing together two partial seasons at points that began and ended with hot streaks, and ignoring his history of streakiness.  He will have to prove that he can minimize the length and severity of his cold streaks, and for me he can only prove it over the full 162 game season.  He’s already had a stretch of 29 games at .657 this year but has been hot enough before and after to make up for it.  Hopefully he’ll continue that trend, but we’ll see.  

With all due respect, You're better than that Sans injury this will be his best year.

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Safelykept said:

With all due respect, You're better than that Sans injury this will be his best year.

I’m not better than that remark, which said I thought there was a decent chance this would be his best year.  Everything else I said was correct. 

Mountcastle at times drives me nuts with lack of situational awareness.  Comes up today with one out and the bases loaded, one down in the 8th, with a pitcher who’s been struggling with his command.  The very first pitch he sees, he swings at a pitch well below the knees and grounds into a DP, killing the rally.  I know Mountcastle likes to golf low pitches, but he can’t do it in that situation.  Take ball one and make him throw you a pitch you’re more likely to hit in the air.   
 

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m not better than that remark, which said I thought there was a decent chance this would be his best year.  Everything else I said was correct. 

Mountcastle at times drives me nuts with lack of situational awareness.  Comes up today with one out and the bases loaded, one down in the 8th, with a pitcher who’s been struggling with his command.  The very first pitch he sees, he swings at a pitch well below the knees and grounds into a DP, killing the rally.  I know Mountcastle likes to golf low pitches, but he can’t do it in that situation.  Take ball one and make him throw you a pitch you’re more likely to hit in the air.   
 

I'm sure that if he had golfed it into the outfield for an RBI single you'd still be saying that.

[Say O!]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm sure that if he had golfed it into the outfield for an RBI single you'd still be saying that.

You don’t swing at the first pitch below the knees with bases juiced. Even if well struck, it was always going to be a ground ball.  It was a bad swing decision by Mounty and emblematic of his hot/cold variability. 

Edited June 2 by Say O!

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm sure that if he had golfed it into the outfield for an RBI single you'd still be saying that.

His propensity for swinging at low pitches has always bugged me. He does have some success at times.  The ground single he hit earlier also was below the zone.  I still think that Cleavinger AB was a bad situation for it.