For as a lot pregame defensive work as Ryan Mountcastle will get at first base, Orioles infield coach Tony Mansolino acknowledges there’s one space of the sport the younger slugger receives no preparation for in any respect.
Baltimore’s teaching workers lacks a left-handed hitter, so at the same time as Mountcastle fields groundballs virtually day by day to enhance at his comparatively new place, the spin he sees off fungo bats is completely that which comes off a right-hander’s bat. Mansolino desires to discover a solution to change that.
“We joke about it, that I’m going to learn how to switch-hit next spring,” Mansolino stated. “But I probably am.”
Mountcastle’s troubles with the occasional grounder from a left-hander signify probably the most obvious deficiency in a defensive sport that Mansolino stated has “significantly” improved from final yr to now. That impact has trickled to the Orioles’ infield protection, which ranked as one in every of baseball’s worst in 2021 however is now in the course of the league.
“In the major leagues, there’s a lot of days where guys don’t go out and take groundballs, a day game after a night game or a day that’s really hot,” Mansolino stated. “He’s trying to take ground balls every single day. He wants to go out there. Credit goes to him for working so hard at it. I think he’s made himself an upper-tier defender at first base in both the American League and Major League Baseball.”
Mountcastle takes grounders practically on daily basis to “try to at least see something come at me before the game,” serving to him find out how totally different infields across the league play, as effectively. Drafted as a shortstop out of a Florida highschool in 2015, he has since made his approach down the defensive spectrum. He performed completely third base in Double-A in 2018, dabbling there at Triple-A in 2019 whereas primarily spending time at each first base and left discipline. He stayed on the Orioles’ alternate coaching website for the beginning of the 2020 season partially as a result of the workforce felt he wanted extra work in left discipline, and though he held his personal there after a call-up that season, he struggled immensely within the outfield initially of the 2021 marketing campaign.
Those troubles led to a midseason transition to being a full-time first baseman, and the outcomes have been disagreeable. By Statcast’s Outs Above Average, Mountcastle was tied for fourth-worst amongst certified first basemen. With day by day devotion to the place, to not point out a full offseason and spring coaching to arrange, Mountcastle entered Wednesday’s sport tied for third amongst first basemen in OAA, a cumulative stat that displays the impression he’s made at the same time as he cut up the place with Trey Mancini early within the yr.
“I’ve been putting in a bunch of work,” Mountcastle stated earlier this season. “I feel pretty confident out there right now. I mean, it’s not the most rigorous position in the world, but it definitely isn’t easy.”
Mansolino stated publicly obtainable stats don’t essentially communicate to how impactful Mountcastle is at first base. The Orioles have inside metrics that measure how efficient first basemen are at choosing throws from their fellow infielders, and when Mansolino final checked, Mountcastle ranked among the many prime 5, with a key play in Tuesday’s seventh inning among the many newest examples. Mansolino wasn’t conscious of a determine that tracked first basemen’s means to catch different infielders’ throws relative to how far they’re from the middle of the primary base bag, however he figures Mountcastle, listed at 6-foot-4, “would probably be elite in that area.”
“He has so much reach and length coming off the bag,” Mansolino stated. “He catches balls that a lot of first basemen do not catch.”
His enhancements have coincided with main steps ahead for the Orioles’ infield protection. Collectively, the group was baseball’s third-worst infield with minus-27 outs above common in 2021. This season, it ranks fifteenth within the space.
“That’s very, very understated, how much a really good first baseman can impact the other three guys in the infield,” supervisor Brandon Hyde stated. “When you possibly can discipline a groundball and know that, ‘I just have to get it over there,’ and the man’s gonna make a play for you, I feel it offers you quite a lot of confidence.
“He works his butt off on his defense every single day, makes it important, works on his weaknesses.”
Mountcastle needed to construct his personal confidence first. After transferring in from the outfield, he and Mansolino started by engaged on the basics of the place, specializing in correct footwork and greatest practices for catching and throwing earlier than including layers to that basis. Among the ultimate items of instruction was dealing with popups, particularly these drifting in foul territory, a presumed easy play that each Mansolino and Mountcastle famous the problem of.
“It’s very nerve-wracking when you’re over there and you’re running down the foul line and you’ve got your back to the play and you have thousands of people screaming at you and it’s considered a play you’re supposed to make,” Mansolino stated. “It doesn’t make quite a lot of sense to me. It’s a extremely troublesome play. But he’s going after popups far more aggressively than at any level he did final yr.
“How aggressive he is on something that he didn’t have a lot of confidence in is probably the thing that stands out to me the most.”
Areas to enhance stay. Mansolino stated Mountcastle has proven a knack for ranging to his proper to discipline grounders and throwing to pitchers overlaying the bag, and he desires him to be snug making that play extra regularly. There’s additionally the grounders that come out of Mountcastle’s glove, notably these hit by lefties. But maybe the largest step in that regard will come subsequent spring, when Mansolino hopes to reach to the Orioles’ Ed Smith Stadium advanced in Sarasota, Florida, able to hitting from each side.
For now, they’ll proceed their day by day work to make Mountcastle a greater first baseman and enhance Baltimore’s infield protection within the course of.
“When I see him out there, I trust him,” Mansolino stated. “I know when I see him out there that he’s a huge asset to the other three infielders.”
CUBS@ORIOLES
Thursday, 3:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com