Gunnar Henderson 2022

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Tony-OH said:

Yet you are calling for "credit" by suggesting it was the right thing to do. You can't have it both ways. 

Well Tony the credit thing was, I thought, an obvious joke (I guess not?).

Also if you read it, you will see I said the idea looks a lot better now.  I think the idea has aged quite well in the last year.

[LTO's]

I would love to see Henderson in an Orioles uniform this year but I think the threat of him getting Kelenic'd should not be ignored completely. I think mid-Aug/September would give him some time to get his feet wet for next year while also minimizing the risk that he comes up and struggles for so long you have to send him back down to AAA.  That's a real risk for a 20 year old.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, LTO's said:

I would love to see Henderson in an Orioles uniform this year but I think the threat of him getting Kelenic'd should not be ignored completely. I think mid-Aug/September would give him some time to get his feet wet for next year while also minimizing the risk that he comes up and struggles for so long you have to send him back down to AAA.  That's a real risk for a 20 year old.

This shouldn’t even be under consideration. 
 

When you deem he is ready, whether it’s tomorrow or 4 weeks from now, you bring him up.  If he’s terrible and in over his head, you can send him down.

But continuing to be in the minors and not being challenged isn’t exactly great for his development either.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

This shouldn’t even be under consideration. 
 

When you deem he is ready, whether it’s tomorrow or 4 weeks from now, you bring him up.  If he’s terrible and in over his head, you can send him down.

But continuing to be in the minors and not being challenged isn’t exactly great for his development either.

Some folks think there is merit in players crushing inferior opposition.

I think more is learned in failure than in easy successes. 

[LTO's]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 If he’s terrible and in over his head, you can send him down.

I would think that  promoting a 20 year old too early and having him be completely unplayable in the majors to the point where he's demoted is a strong consideration for every GM in baseball. Maybe not for you, but that's not really saying much. 

 

[interloper]

11 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Some folks think there is merit in players crushing inferior opposition.

I think more is learned in failure than in easy successes. 

To be fair, I'm not sure anyone expected him to be at AAA at age 21 and also crushing AAA. I don't think any of us expected Gunnar to crack the MLB roster this year. Now he's got an excellent chance to. But it doesn't feel like the agonizing wait/delay that Adley did.

[Aglets]

Man, now imagine if he hadn't lost a whole 2020 season due to covid shenanigans.    We'd have been yammering for his promotion to MLB as a teenager.

Probably.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, interloper said:

To be fair, I'm not sure anyone expected him to be at AAA at age 21 and also crushing AAA. I don't think any of us expected Gunnar to crack the MLB roster this year. Now he's got an excellent chance to. But it doesn't feel like the agonizing wait/delay that Adley did.

I'm not going to lie and say I expected it.  But I did take the reports on his performance in the 2020 "Instructional group" seriously.  It sounded as if he rebounded well from adversity and rose to the level of the competition.

I will say his struggles last year had me doubting the reports from the year prior.

[LTO's]

8 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think more is learned in failure than in easy successes. 

That's working out great for Jo Adell and Jarred Kelenic and both of them had higher prospect pedigree than Gunnar. It's not a science that failing a bunch means you'll become that much more successful in the future. Sending top prospects down because they are essentially unplayable at the big league level is a failure in player development. It's ludicrous to think otherwise. 

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, LTO's said:

That's working out great for Jo Adell and Jarred Kelenic and both of them had higher prospect pedigree than Gunnar. It's not a science that failing a bunch means you'll become that much more successful in the future. Sending top prospects down because they are essentially unplayable at the big league level is a failure in player development. It's ludicrous to think otherwise. 

And if they had been babied the whole way they would probably not be doing any better.

Mostly it comes down to talent.

As Buck said you can't ruin the great ones.

[SteveA]

17 minutes ago, LTO's said:

I would think that  promoting a 20 year old too early and having him be completely unplayable in the majors to the point where he's demoted is a strong consideration for every GM in baseball. Maybe not for you, but that's not really saying much. 

 

Well, thank goodness that can't happen.   Gunnar turned 21 today.   Hope he celebrates his cycle with his first adult beverage!

[Sports Guy]

21 minutes ago, LTO's said:

I would think that  promoting a 20 year old too early and having him be completely unplayable in the majors to the point where he's demoted is a strong consideration for every GM in baseball. Maybe not for you, but that's not really saying much. 

 

Why would a GM think a 20 year old kid who is completely dominating the upper minors, walking a lot, not K’ing much, etc…would be completely unplayable?

If you think GMs call up players and believe when they call them up that they are going to fail, you are clueless.

So no, it shouldn’t enter into their minds that they are going to be awful players.

What they should be gaging is, what are we looking for to determine if a player is ready or not and if they hit those markers, we bring them up.

And I love how people keep talking about his age as if that should be something against him.  It’s just a foolish thought.  Plenty of guys have come up at his age and done well or, at least, held their own.

[jabba72]

Maybe Elias wants him to get 100 PA's in Norfolk before assessing the situation, I dont know. He has 87 PA's now. They can always use the excuse they want him to work on his fielding more. I haven't heard too much about that. He's definitely dominating AAA.

[LookinUp]

11 minutes ago, jabba72 said:

Maybe Elias wants him to get 100 PA's in Norfolk before assessing the situation, I dont know. He has 87 PA's now. They can always use the excuse they want him to work on his fielding more. I haven't heard too much about that. He's definitely dominating AAA.

I do think there's some value of giving the kid enough time to fail. See if the league (AAA) adjusts and how he handles it. 

But he's making it hard to be patient, particularly with the left side of the ML infield. 

For me, he's not even under consideration for a promotion for another 2-3 weeks, and more likely August 1. And even that's fast and assuming he continues to rake. 

[Sports Guy]

38 minutes ago, LTO's said:

That's working out great for Jo Adell and Jarred Kelenic and both of them had higher prospect pedigree than Gunnar. It's not a science that failing a bunch means you'll become that much more successful in the future. Sending top prospects down because they are essentially unplayable at the big league level is a failure in player development. It's ludicrous to think otherwise. 

How did those organization fail those 2 players and who is to says if handled differently, that they would be excelling now?