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The Orioles Ryan Mountcastle: A Star in the Making

Ryan Mountcastle

A Star in the Making

The Orioles may have a star in the making. It’s hard to even mention this. It feels like a teammate approaching a pitcher in the dugout who is throwing a no-hitter and asking him what he thinks so far about the game. Bad karma.  Ryan Mountcastle has stormed onto the diamond, like a rejuvenated Cal Ripken Jr. He may be a star in the making. Okay, there, it’s said. Twice, in fact.

The 23-year-old has paid his dues, spending five years in the minors. As he progressed from Single-A to Triple-A, his batting average increased 10 points each year. Last year in Norfolk he batted .312 with 25 HR and 85 RBIs. In his first 11 games, since making the move to the majors, he is batting .341 with two homers and six RBIs with an OPS of .937.

These are great stats, even though they come at a time when the Baltimore Orioles have lost 13 of their last 17 games, but in Sunday’s walk-off loss, his two combined 800 ft plus homers out of the Buffalo stadium and onto the streets of Buffalo, had a feeling of superiority. In a few years let’s hope that Mountcastle becomes a leader of a much-improved Orioles team.

Rookies Brought Up

Despite being in trade mode, there have been a few signs of future success for the Orioles. On Monday, rookie Keegan Akin made his MLB debut and struck out six batters in four and one-third innings, and Baltimore scored twice in the 11th to take the finale.

Before the trade deadline, the Orioles dealt reliever Mychal Givens to the Rockies and left-handed starter Tommy Milone to the Braves for prospect packages. This made room for Akin and reliever Hunter Harvey.

Trades Before the Deadline

The Givens and Milone deals netted five players to Baltimore. The Givens trade to the Colorado Rockies brought infielders Terrin Vavra and Tyler Nevin, plus a player to be named later, and the trade for Milone also brought two players to be named later.

Vavra was a third-round draft pick out of Minnesota in 2018. In two seasons in Single-A, he had a .313 AVG., an OPS of .888, and was an All-Star in Ashville. Tyler Nevin had a .286 AVG and a .802 OPS in five seasons of Single-A and Double-A ball.

Monday the Orioles traded another one of its staunch relievers, Miguel Castro to the New York Mets. The right-hander appeared in 16 games this season for the Orioles with a 4.02 ERA. Since joining the Orioles, he was 7-16 with seven saves and a 4.30 ERA, but in his last seven games, his ERA rose to 5.14, and, in that period, he gave up nine hits and four earned runs.

In the trade for Castro, the Orioles acquired minor league left-hander Kevin Smith from the Mets and a player to be named later or cash considerations. In his two seasons at Single-A, Smith had a 12-8 record and an ERA of 2.27.

Orioles Sellers Again

The Orioles were obviously sellers again at this trade deadline and are still looking to the future. Milone, Castro, and Givens brought them three solid prospects and four more to be named later. Once these players are named and they all join the team, the Orioles may find themselves with more prospects and an even more improved farm system.

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AJ Russo

AJ Russo

Recently retired from full-time teaching, A.J. was a professor and researcher at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Maryland, Hartwick College and Drew University. He is currently the Research Director of Mensah Medical Research Institute, in Warrenville, Ill. He has over 35 years of research and teaching experience. His bachelors’ degree in Biology is from Hobart College in Geneva, NY. His Masters in Biology and Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology are from Roswell Park Memorial Institute, a division of the State University of New York in Buffalo. After graduate school, he did postdocs as a staff fellow at the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Department of Dermatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He was the Class of 1964 Endowed Professor from 2006 to 2008 at Mount Saint Mary’s. His research over the past twenty years has focused on studying autism and other behavioral disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression. AJ was the head lacrosse coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) from 1973-75 before going to graduate school. He was the assistant lacrosse coach at Mount Saint Mary’s from 1985 to 88, then was the head lacrosse coach from 1989 to 1993. AJ has written more than a dozen novels and many short stories. He published a sports column in several local papers in Maryland called Outside the Game. Recently he published seven Op-Eds in the Baltimore Sun. When he is not watching Orioles and Ravens games, he can be found writing, coaching youth lacrosse, or jogging very slowly around town.

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