Gunnar Henderson 2022

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Back to Ortiz for a second. From the sounds of it, he's the best defensive SS in the system. He looked primed for a breakout season last year and there was a lot of positive buzz by the O's organization and even Law.  The dude had labrum surgery. That's pretty major.  So, not only did he miss most of last season we're not completely sure he's all the way back. I'm not ready to bury a guy after one month.   Even a healthy Ortiz is probably not on Westburg or Henderson level offensively but he was on his way to putting up a .750 or better in AA last year before going down. If you combine that with A+ defense that's still a legitimate top 20 or top 15 guy in our system.

Nobody should be buried after a month. He’s off to a disappointing start, for sure.  And most sources (including Tony) didn’t have him in our first tier of prospects in the offseason; Law was kind of on his own little island by ranking him 7th in our system.   Hopefully he’ll bounce back from his slow start.   

[waroriole]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Nobody should be buried after a month. He’s off to a disappointing start, for sure.  And most sources (including Tony) didn’t have him in our first tier of prospects in the offseason; Law was kind of on his own little island by ranking him 7th in our system.   Hopefully he’ll bounce back from his slow start.   

Unless I’m reading RZNJ wrong, I don’t think anyone is putting him in the top tier of prospects. He was on the verge of a solid AA season at the plate last year before a major shoulder injury. He’s obviously not in Henderson’s league, but should get as much priority as someone like Vavra. 

[Frobby]

20 minutes ago, waroriole said:

Unless I’m reading RZNJ wrong, I don’t think anyone is putting him in the top tier of prospects. He was on the verge of a solid AA season at the plate last year before a major shoulder injury. He’s obviously not in Henderson’s league, but should get as much priority as someone like Vavra. 

I was responding to this comment from SG: “He shouldn’t even mentioned in the same sentence as Gunnar or Westburg.”   I don’t think anyone but Keith Law really has.  

[Tony-OH]

Last ten games for Gunnar:

AVG	K%	BB%	HR%	SLG	OBP	OPS

.345

17.9

20.5

5.1

.586

.487

1.073

 

8 BB, 7 K with 2 HR.

                                                         

[Just Regular]

Defensive innings wise, he's switched from two-thirds shortstop last year to two-thirds third base this year.    That might just be a side effect of having a third SS candidate in Ortiz on the roster.

AA is supposed to be the hardest one in the Minors before the Show.

I believe if both grow into left-side regulars 3B Henderson and SS Westburg is probably the better arrangement.

Still 100% 3B for Coby Mayo a month into Aberdeen's season.

[Yardball85]

Any chance Gunnar gets a cup of coffee with the Orioles this year?  I would think next year, no later than early May, he should be the team's starting shortstop.

[jamalshw]

3 minutes ago, Yardball85 said:

Any chance Gunnar gets a cup of coffee with the Orioles this year?  I would think next year, no later than early May, he should be the team's starting shortstop.

I would be surprised if he got a cup of coffee this year. The Orioles are conservative with promotions and I don't expect him to skip AAA. I also don't expect him in AAA for another month. If for no other reason than to save the 40-man roster spot for another winter, I doubt they call him up (even though I'd love to see it). I expect a May/June callup in 2023. 

[glenn__davis]

6 minutes ago, Yardball85 said:

Any chance Gunnar gets a cup of coffee with the Orioles this year?  I would think next year, no later than early May, he should be the team's starting shortstop.

Given the way Elias has operated thus far, I would say extremely unlikely he sees any ML time this year.  If he continues to progress well, then he'll probably get a midseason promotion to Norfolk and finish the year there.  Next spring I predict a mild groin strain a week before Opening Day which will necessitate a rehab of about 2 weeks.

[joelala]

8 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

Given the way Elias has operated thus far, I would say extremely unlikely he sees any ML time this year.  If he continues to progress well, then he'll probably get a midseason promotion to Norfolk and finish the year there.  Next spring I predict a mild groin strain a week before Opening Day which will necessitate a rehab of about 2 weeks.

This sounds about right. I’ll go with oblique strain for 6 weeks, though. 

[Just Regular]

Very much in the category of daydreaming, an imagined August 1, 2023 lineup, should the Orioles have $35M to spend this offseason on 2023's team, and Elias completes one major trade to sell Future Wins for Present Wins.

Mullins CF, Harper RF, Adley C, Correa SS, Santander DH, Mountcastle 1B, Henderson 2B, Hays LF, Mayo 3B

I'd like to think today's Power Rankings of the likelihood of that A, B or C is:

1. One

2. Two

3. Zero

Correa and Harper just stand-ins for whatever $35M, Kyle Stowers, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg can buy of course.    Replace Arb3 Santander with league minimum Stowers according to taste.   Does Ramon Urias have an outfield glove?

I don't feel 2022 Gunnar Henderson will have any chance to repeat 2012 Manny Machado's life experience, but hope 2023 Coby Mayo might.   It'd be a novelty in his career to hit last for a couple months.

[Yardball85]

51 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

Given the way Elias has operated thus far, I would say extremely unlikely he sees any ML time this year.  If he continues to progress well, then he'll probably get a midseason promotion to Norfolk and finish the year there.  Next spring I predict a mild groin strain a week before Opening Day which will necessitate a rehab of about 2 weeks.

Sounds about right.

[scarey1999]

I saw a stat summary this year for him thus far that someone put into words as opposed to just looking at his stat line…doing this from memory so I may not be 100% correct so don’t shoot me here lol. 
 

Believe it was 22 games, 22 hits, 21 BB, a 22 game on base streak, 19 runs and 18 RBI. Add in 7 steals and zero CS and you really can’t ask for much more from a 20 year old in AA. 
 

 

[Frobby]

Here’s a fun comparison, Henderson vs. Bobby Witt Jr. in AA at age 20.   For reference, though they graduated high school the same year, Witt is a year + 15 days older than Henderson.   So, Henderson 2022 compares to Witt 2021 age-wise.   Through 23 games:

Henderson .289/.447/.500, 4 HR 18 RBI

Witt: .245/.321/.479, 7 HR 13 RBi

Now in fairness to Witt, he started in AA in 2021 after no minor league action in 2020 due to the pandemic, whereas Henderson played all last year and even got a AA cup of coffee at the end of the season.

Witt’s promotion to AAA came on July 20, and his final AA slash line was .295/.369/.570.   It will be interesting to see if Henderson can keep pace from here.

 

[connja]

that .447 on base is pretty, pretty nice.

[wildcard]

5 hours ago, Just Regular said:

Very much in the category of daydreaming, an imagined August 1, 2023 lineup, should the Orioles have $35M to spend this offseason on 2023's team, and Elias completes one major trade to sell Future Wins for Present Wins.

Mullins CF, Harper RF, Adley C, Correa SS, Santander DH, Mountcastle 1B, Henderson 2B, Hays LF, Mayo 3B

I'd like to think today's Power Rankings of the likelihood of that A, B or C is:

1. One

2. Two

3. Zero

Correa and Harper just stand-ins for whatever $35M, Kyle Stowers, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg can buy of course.    Replace Arb3 Santander with league minimum Stowers according to taste.   Does Ramon Urias have an outfield glove?

I don't feel 2022 Gunnar Henderson will have any chance to repeat 2012 Manny Machado's life experience, but hope 2023 Coby Mayo might.   It'd be a novelty in his career to hit last for a couple months.

You want to daydream?  I have one for you.

Adley, Grayson and Stowers join the team.  The team gets hot.  In August they are close of to a Wild Card spot.   Elias pulls a Dan Duquette move that he did with Manny and promotes Gunnar to the majors.   O's win a Wild Card spot.  Its 2012 all over again.

Now this is a lot of ifs but if we are daydreaming...................