I entered into the Google search box, “Who loves Ryan Mountcastle more than me?” and it returned 5,000,000+ results that all said, “No one.” So, that sorta answered that question, huh? Gonna take a nap. *shuts eyes for five seconds, claps hands* I’m back! What did I miss? Nothing? Okay, great. So, Ryan Mountcastle just missed losing rookie eligibility this year, according to me, maybe not in reality. Confused? Alanis screaming, “You oughta know!” But since you might not, check out my Sixto Sanchez 2021 fantasy. Clickbait? Only if you clicked it! This past year, Mountcastle, as played by David Tennant, looked like a professional hitter. Vomit. I know. It’s a terribly overused phrase. They’re all professional, so dur! Also, “terribly overused phrase” is a terribly overused phrase. But Mountcastle really lit the nethers on fire with his patience and line-driving producing stroke. Billy Squier calls that The Stroke, and I agree. No BS from BS. Now that Mountcastle was called up the Orioles — finally! — they have no excuse to not play him. Will they still find an excuse? *makes Michael Scott grimace face* I hope not, but they are a dumber bird franchise than Chick-Fil-A and not nearly as delicious. I, honestly, seriously, interjectionly, would be shocked if the O’s weren’t relabeled the Baltimore Baseball Club, shortened to BBC, and renewed Mountcastle for an early-April 2021 premiere. However, if there’s any way to manipulate service time by keeping him down until mid-April, the BBC will do it. So, what can we expect from Ryan Mountcastle for 2021 fantasy baseball?
Ryan Mountcastle swings a lot. His 83% balls swung at in the zone would’ve been the third most in the majors, and 42% of balls swung at outside the zone would’ve been top eight. That’s coupled with a 72.5% contact rate, and I want my woobie what the heck my dude? Those are Austin Riley-type numbers. Mountcastle also had a 16% Swinging Strike rate, and now I’m concerned. I am not apparently a scout. Mountcastle looked like a professional hitter, but his numbers are saying he was very lucky. Oh, and the O’s prospect had a .398 BABIP. What is the world coming to? Olivia Colman and I love Mountcastle. It gave us our first shot at playing detective. Okay, will check his Statcast profile and his xBA was .271. Okay, I’m the worst detective ever who only uses The Eye Test. He looked so good in the games where I saw him, and it was a lot of games. At least like four!
I’m going back to my love for him from when he was in the minors. He was never a ‘walker,’ and he swings at a lot of pitches, which might cut down his power a little. Theory goes that if a hitter is swinging at everything, he’s not waiting for a pitch to drive. His power wasn’t dongs to the wall last year, but it also wasn’t invisible (.159 ISO and 5 HRs in 126 ABs), and Camdentown will buoy the BBC’s star of Mountcastle. The speed is more on a need-to-know basis, but if you need to know, it’s around 4-6 in 162 games. I’d guess the BABIP plummets, the average follows suit and he might go through stretches where he’s tough to own, hopefully coming out the other side with fantasy value. Going into this post, I was expecting to love Mountcastle. Now I kinda like him as a flyer late, but have cooled a bit. He looks a lot like another O’s star, Trey Mancini, with a smaller track record, but likely more upside. For 2021, I’ll give Ryan Mountcastle projections of 67/21/74/.279/3 in 512 ABs with a chance for more.
