Gunnar Henderson 2024

[baltfan]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Mine has Steve Bisciotti and 25 field hockey state championships.

Lots of lacrosse championships too!

[Malike]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Gunnar has walked 30 times in the last 39 games.  In that time, his OBP has gone from .336 to .370.   Unlike early last season, it’s not like he’s looking to walk.  Teams are respecting him and trying to get him to chase, and he’s not biting.  He’s also getting the benefit of the doubt from the umpires way more often than before.   

He's starting to remind me of Jose Siri with his strike-zone judgment on the outside corner. He complains a lot about balls that are definitely strikes and it annoys me. He should have struck out looking 4 times on Sunday.

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, baltfan said:

Lots of lacrosse championships too!

The Ice Hockey title surprised me.  Is that real? 

[Goober Noodles]

  

4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yes, we've had folks complaining about his school before.

I searched the OH for a few variations of the name of the school and came up with nothing. Clearly it's been talked about ad nauseam.

3 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

That doesn't mean that everyone there's racist.  But hard to have people wanting nuanced conversations these days.

Anyway, Gunnar has given every impression that he's an upstanding guy.  Trying to make some assertion about his character based on where his parents sent him to school is ridiculous.  

Not trying to derail the thread, and I'm not implying he's racist.  I said it was eye opening.

2 hours ago, baltfan said:

I mean it is kinda surprising that a place didn't admit it's first black student until 2008.  That is more than a bit screwed up.  Doesn't make Gunnar a racist and maybe the school went through big changes, but it is a bad look on the school for being segregated that long.

This is what I was getting at.  Some of the responses here...  Heh.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Goober Noodles said:

  

I searched the OH for a few variations of the name of the school and came up with nothing. Clearly it's been talked about ad nauseam.

Not trying to derail the thread, and I'm not implying he's racist.  I said it was eye opening.

This is what I was getting at.  Some of the responses here...  Heh.

I don't recall them mentioning the school by name, just mentioning that they had an issue with the school.

To me it matters even less that whatever nonsense an underage Josh Hader was liking on Twitter.

[Paul in Virginia]

Got you all beat: Martin Lawrence was two years behind me in high school.

 

Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do????

 

 

[Malike]

42 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't recall them mentioning the school by name, just mentioning that they had an issue with the school.

To me it matters even less that whatever nonsense an underage Josh Hader was liking on Twitter.

Now people will never know what kids are liking on Twitter. The world may never be the same.

[tntoriole]

41 minutes ago, Paul in Virginia said:

Got you all beat: Martin Lawrence was two years behind me in high school.

 

Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do????

 

 

Montel Williams was my senior class president in high school and we ran track together 

[OnlyOneOriole]

1 hour ago, Malike said:

He's starting to remind me of Jose Siri with his strike-zone judgment on the outside corner. He complains a lot about balls that are definitely strikes and it annoys me. He should have struck out looking 4 times on Sunday.

Is there an actual Oriole player or Oriole fan that you actually like?

Oy vey. 

[dystopia]

4 hours ago, baltfan said:

I mean it is kinda surprising that a place didn't admit it's first black student until 2008.  That is more than a bit screwed up.  Doesn't make Gunnar a racist and maybe the school went through big changes, but it is a bad look on the school for being segregated that long.

In fairness I’m not sure why a black family would want to send their kid to a school named after a guy who wanted to make it legal to lynch them. 

[dystopia]

8 minutes ago, OnlyOneOriole said:

Is there an actual Oriole player or Oriole fan that you actually like?

Oy vey. 

Doesn’t seem like it. 

[yark14]

One aspect of Gunnar's high school that I don't think has been brought up: the level of competition.  Those private Segregation Academies only play against each other, so the level of competition Gunnar faced was pretty low.  I rag on travel ball culture a lot, but in this case Gunnar's travel ball exposed him to far better competition (as well as more diversity).

As stated earlier, Gunnar grew up to what appears to be an upstanding human being (and athlete), despite the repugnant school he attended.

[spleen1015]

13 hours ago, yark14 said:

One aspect of Gunnar's high school that I don't think has been brought up: the level of competition.  Those private Segregation Academies only play against each other, so the level of competition Gunnar faced was pretty low.  I rag on travel ball culture a lot, but in this case Gunnar's travel ball exposed him to far better competition (as well as more diversity).

As stated earlier, Gunnar grew up to what appears to be an upstanding human being (and athlete), despite the repugnant school he attended.

I don't know what it's like in other states, but in mine HS baseball/softball is pretty watered down. There's not that many schools that have a lot of high level players. It may be different in southern states versus midwest where I am.

[clapdiddy]

17 hours ago, Malike said:

He's starting to remind me of pretty much every Yankee hitter with his strike-zone judgment on the outside corner. He complains a lot about balls that are definitely strikes and it annoys me. He should have struck out looking 4 times on Sunday.

Fixed that for you...

[e16bball]

20 hours ago, Malike said:

He's starting to remind me of Jose Siri with his strike-zone judgment on the outside corner. He complains a lot about balls that are definitely strikes and it annoys me. He should have struck out looking 4 times on Sunday.

Will certainly keep an eye out for this moving forward.

I’m not sure that concern about his strike zone judgment is really showing up in the data, though. Per Statcast, Gunnar is top 25 in MLB in value on his “takes.” He’s got the lowest chase rate on the team, as well as the largest gulf between his chase rate (21.6%) and his zone swing rate (65.7%). With my rudimentary research skills, it’s hard to “prove” someone is great at judging the strike zone — but all of the usual markers look pretty darn good.

He probably “could/should” have struck out looking 3 times on Sunday — I don’t think 4 times is accurate, just based on reviewing the at-bat details — but I don’t think that’s been a major problem for him overall. Aside from Sunday, he’s only struck out looking 4 times all month. And a quick review of the last week’s at bats suggested that there weren’t any other PAs where he “could/should” have struck out looking but didn’t.

Gunnar’s always had a bit of a low frustration tolerance, though, so perhaps it will bear monitoring whether complaining about correct calls is becoming a thing for him.