Gunnar Henderson 2024

[Say O!]

The Sigbot wizards have run the simulations and keep telling Hyder to bat him lead off.

[Say O!]

In todays postgame coverage, Melanie was sharing that Gunnar hasn’t changed his stance since high school, when he was recovering from torn Achilles (I didn’t know that re:injury history).

[Malike]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Assuming Gunnar likes batting leadoff, which I think he does, I'm happy to keep him there.

Your best hitters should get the most at bats.

I also suspect he's pitched much differently with men on base than he is during the first AB of the game.

[OriolesMagic83]

2 hours ago, ShoelesJoe said:

Currently on pace for 55 HRs, 115 RBI, and 125 runs scored. Those are great numbers obviously, but are we taking full advantage of Gunnar's abilities by batting him leadoff almost every game? I'm sure Eddie Murray and Frank Robinson would have been dynamite at leadoff, but their teams were better off making sure they came up as much as possible with men on base. So far this season Henderson has fewer ABs with men on base than any of the other regulars, which has to have cost us some runs -- and therefor wins -- somewhere along the line. 

With Cowser seemingly out of his funk I'd like to see him batting leadoff more often. He leads the Orioles in walks and OB%, and has enough speed that he'll take the extra bases just like Henderson does. I believe a lineup that looks something like this would score more runs than what we're getting now:

VS RH -- 

Cowser

Adley

Westburg

Henderson

Santander

O'Hearn

Mountcastle

Mullins

Mateo

 

VS LH -- 

Westburg

Adley

Mountcastle

Henderson

Santander

Hays

Cowser

McCann

Mateo

 

I do like Mullins and Mateo batting #8 & #9.  That way your old school lead off hitters who don't have the best OBP can get on base in front of Gunnar.  Can you imagine how distracting it is, when you're facing the MLB leader in HR and the pitcher has to keep a large part of his focus on preventing steals from 2 great steal threats.

[Aristotelian]

Current fWAR leaderboard:

#	Name	Team	PA	IP	Bat WAR	Pit WAR	Total WAR
1	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	214		3.0		3.0
2	Mookie Betts	LAD	223		3.0		3.0
3	Kyle Tucker	HOU	205		3.0		3.0
4	Gunnar Henderson	BAL	198		2.8		2.

[interloper]

11 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Current fWAR leaderboard:

#	Name	Team	PA	IP	Bat WAR	Pit WAR	Total WAR
1	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	214		3.0		3.0
2	Mookie Betts	LAD	223		3.0		3.0
3	Kyle Tucker	HOU	205		3.0		3.0
4	Gunnar Henderson	BAL	198		2.8		2.

Get outta here Kyle Tucker! Sheesh. 

[Mooreisbetter27]

14 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Current fWAR leaderboard:

#	Name	Team	PA	IP	Bat WAR	Pit WAR	Total WAR
1	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	214		3.0		3.0
2	Mookie Betts	LAD	223		3.0		3.0
3	Kyle Tucker	HOU	205		3.0		3.0
4	Gunnar Henderson	BAL	198		2.8		2.

How ridiculous is it, that Ohtani has 3 WAR while not even playing a position?

[Moose Milligan]

WAR leader on a playoff team = MVP.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

WAR leader on a playoff team = MVP.

He’s +700 right now.  May be a good bet to make.

I still think Adley at +2000 is the better play though.

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

He’s +700 right now.  May be a good bet to make.

I still think Adley at +2000 is the better play though.

Adley could be a sneaky pick, I agree.  

[Sports Guy]

10 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Adley could be a sneaky pick, I agree.  

He has to catch more and DH less to beef up some of those WAR numbers and he needs to improve the defense numbers but he stands a chance to be close enough in WAR that they give him the nod because of leadership stuff.

Edited May 20 by Sports Guy

[Sports Guy]

He might be the best player in the league already.  Pretty crazy. Even crazier to think Holliday may be better.

 

[Moose Milligan]

8 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

He might be the best player in the league already.  Pretty crazy. Even crazier to think Holliday may be better.

 

I think you could make an argument for that with Ohtani gone to the NL.  Put it this way, I am not sure if there's another ballplayer in the AL that I'd rather have than him right now and moving forward.

As red as Gunnar's statcast is, Bobby Witt Jr's is redder, he's the only one I could see myself picking instead.   Going to be interesting to watch these two battle it out for AL SS supremacy over the nex 5-10 years.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I think you could make an argument for that with Ohtani gone to the NL.  Put it this way, I am not sure if there's another ballplayer in the AL that I'd rather have than him right now and moving forward.

As red as Gunnar's statcast is, Bobby Witt Jr's is redder, he's the only one I could see myself picking instead.   Going to be interesting to watch these two battle it out for AL SS supremacy over the nex 5-10 years.

Tucker is involved in that too. 
 

But yea, Witt is probably the main competition because of position.

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Tucker is involved in that too. 
 

But yea, Witt is probably the main competition because of position.

Tucker's in there, for sure.  What's so weird about that guy is that I hardly ever think of him.  He might be the quietest star player in the game.

But yeah for me it's Witt cause of the position.