Orioles first baseman/designated hitter Ryan Mountcastle has been named the American League Player of the Week. Mountcastle batted .458 (11-for-24) with four home runs, 10 RBIs, three doubles and seven runs scored and a 1.083 slugging percentage last week.
Mountcastle’s batting average increased from .225 to .254, and he homered in three straight games, the first Oriole to do so since Jonathan Schoop in 2014.
He also had at least one extra-base hit and RBI in six games, dating to May 31st. That ties for the second-longest streak in club history behind Reggie Jackson, who did it in seven straight, July 17-23, 1976.
The 24-year-old is the second Oriole to win the award this season. John Means’ no-hitter earned him the award on May 10th.
Mountcastle beat out his teammate, centerfielder Cedric Mullins, who hit .542, with hits in nine consecutive at-bats. Mullins also reached base in 11 straight plate appearances.
Note: Bowie right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez is the top pitching prospect in the minor leagues, according to Baseball America. Rodriguez is listed as the 11th-best prospect overall.
Adley Rutschman, Rodriguez’s catcher at Bowie, is the second overall prospect, and Bowie left-handed pitcher DL Hall is the 44th in Baseball America’s Top 100 list. Outfielder Heston Kjerstad is 78th and Delmarva infielder Gunnar Henderson is 90th.
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Nice recognition or RM, but I might have been inclined to select Mullins - what does the guy have to do?
Guess it was Mountcastle's extra HR and 6 additional RBIs, but definitely Mullins was deserving of selection - his OPS for the week was 1.690 vs Mountcastle's 1.563. Plus Mullins went the entire week without striking out. Then there is Mullins' defense in CF...
Mullins & Mancini gonna be All-Stars? Mancini was already snubbed once, not sure how much Means gets hurt with his last couple starts...go O’s...
Mullins is top rated CF in MLB after fantastic weekend series. Unfortunately AL has lots of good 1B and Mancini is ranked 7th amongst AL 1B currently.
Great point about Mullins going the whole week without a K. That alone should make him player of the week. That’s unheard in today’s game.
Am really surprised at Mountcastle over Mullins here. We waited 2 months for RM to “discover” himself at the plate.
Conversely, Mullins has been a steady performer all season, has an average above .300 and has been out of this world the last several weeks offensively and defensively.
?
I concur
GR and AR the future hopefully next year looks bright. No need for GR or AR to stop off at Norfolk
Adley should be here right now.
I dunno if promoting Rutschman to MLB at this point is a good idea. He is having a very good season at Bowie but think a promotion to Norfolk first might be more prudent than promotion from Bowie to MLB. Unfortunately Kelenic in Seattle provides an example of promoting too quickly but it happens sometimes (See Lowther).
What can he (rutschman) possibly learn at Norfolk that he can't in the Major Leagues?
Not sure if you'll agree on this one, but AAA is not really intended as a 'developmental' phase of the minor leagues these days. It's more of a holding pen for the final 15 guys on the 40 man roster and a handfull of journeyman types looking for one more summer in the sun. . Even more so, it (AAA) has become a bucket to rotate your pitching staff in and out of the mother club to and from ... how do you put it ... to "load balance" the wear and tare on their arms. (new buzz word stolen from the IT world...I hate when they do that)
For the positional players, AA ball is where you cut your teeth and prove whether or not you deserve a shot at the big club. The way I see it, Adley has proved he's ready in Bowie. Just as Mullins, Hays, Santander and ...ahem ... Sisco did. These guys have hardly spent any time in AAA.
Acurate or not, these are just observations off how AAA has morphed over the ½+ decade I've been following ball.
F that draft pick Mike. Bring up Rutchsman now. Let's start a winning culture this year. This ream really isn't that many pieces from being a winner.
A good point about Kelenic and Adley has it tougher being a Catcher. Just because the Os don’t have mlb level catching right now doesn’t mean we should overly burden Adley. If he progresses as expected and we don’t see him in the bigs by July next year, then we can call for the heads of Elias and Hyde.
Mullins is a no-brainer all star at this point. He's the only sure thing on the O's. Proving that you don't have to be 6'2" and built like Jessee Ventura to play amongst the elites.
10 weeks is enough to proclaim a player a no brainer all star and only sure thing on the entire Orioles squad? Not sure I agree
...at this point, reading is a treasure, read everything...go O’s...
Good signs emerging. Slowly but they are there! Need that next wave to start arriving but at least there seems to be more in the pipeline.
Don’t use the word pipeline. The guy in the Oval Office will get confused and shut it down. I’m sorry, it was a cheap shot and I apologize to anyone I offended. I just couldn’t help myself. Please forgive me. I’ll try my best not to do that anymore.
C’mon man!
An Oriole gets named Player of the Week, and O's fans lambaste the choice. Talk about negative!
Thought the same thing, wasn’t gonna say anything, I would be arguing...lol...go O’s...