Gunnar has the yips. Its in his head now.

[Malike]

He makes things harder than they need to be quite often. He often loves running to the bag for an unassisted DP, which takes more time and then he has to throw the ball harder. I wish he would feed the 2B more often and let them make the turn for the DP. I get it when he's right over the bag, but there have been many times he's had to make 4 or 5 steps to get to the bag before having to throw a seed to the 1B.

[Spakman]

1 hour ago, NashLumber said:

I was about to reply to you on the game thread on his D, but I kept getting the 403 notice and just dropped it. I was jokingly was gonna say he had yips, but it's really what you say, just throwing off-balance far too often. 

I believe he is doing this out of nerves. If he makes the throw harder than it is and he makes a bad it doesn’t look as bad.

[Roll Tide]

I don’t know what the problem is….All I know is his defense has been atrocious lately.

Edited July 29 by Roll Tide

[OnlyOneOriole]

There are only 3 options here imo.

1.  He is just in a total slump....for whatever reason.

2.  He does have the yips doing a straight forward, set your feet throw.  So he feels like if he jumps or runs while throwing?  It stops him from overthinking and he can just.......be.

3.  He got into a bad habit from getting too big of a head and is trying to make every play an instragram or tik tok worthy play.

Whatever it is?  IMO he just needs to go back to basics.  Get in front of the ball.  Plant the feet. Throw to first base. 

The weak line drive that he misplayed today was imo 100% because he has lost all confidence in his fielding.

The interference play?  He for sure got interfered with.  But at the same time he embellished the fall.  He could have thrown it if he wanted to.  But I think he saw what I saw if you watched the replay from the 3rd base pov.  (they showed it once)  IMO he had no chance to throw out the runner at first.  Therefore I was not too upset by the umpire overturn. 

[InsideCoroner]

It all sort of balances out as he also made a couple plays most SS wouldn’t have managed. Though he would have had a third error yesterday if not for a great pick by Mounty. As mentioned by Malike, he’s throwing on the run too much. On one play yesterday he threw to 1B while on the run to the right while it looked like he had more than enough time to plant his right foot and make a balanced throw. 

He’s not a reckless player as evidenced in his baserunning, but he has to learn when to pick his spots as to when to try and make the highlight reels, and when to be content that he kept the ball from getting through the infield and just hold it.

Edited July 29 by InsideCoroner

[survivedc]

2 hours ago, emmett16 said:

He had no chance at throwing out the runner at first.  

Without putting too much into it, when Gunnar had the ball and ready to throw it, Profar was between 6-7.5 steps away from first (I suppose ready to throw is debatable). Earlier in the game on the sliding play over the middle, Gunnar threw out Peralta with 6 steps left, and he threw out Arraez on a double play with 5 steps left. Would he have gotten him? Not sure. To say he had “no chance” is wrong.

I counted steps on the Gamecast 3D. Very useful for something like this, but I can’t figure out how to post the screen shot that shows Profar’s distance. Feel free to run it yourself and let me know if you disagree.

[Sports Guy]

10 hours ago, HowAboutThat said:

It has gone down TO 4OAA, or FROM 4OAA? I don’t know how often the Savant stats update 

As of a few days ago, his OAA was -2 in July 

[Roll Tide]

3 hours ago, InsideCoroner said:

It all sort of balances out as he also made a couple plays most SS wouldn’t have managed. Though he would have had a third error yesterday if not for a great pick by Mounty. As mentioned by Malike, he’s throwing on the run too much. On one play yesterday he threw to 1B while on the run to the right while it looked like he had more than enough time to plant his right foot and make a balanced throw. 

He’s not a reckless player as evidenced in his baserunning, but he has to learn when to pick his spots as to when to try and make the highlight reels, and when to be content that he kept the ball from getting through the infield and just hold it.

This is a terrible thought process … Made a great play so it’s ok to throw a routine ball away. 

[Moose Milligan]

Some of you guys have the yips. 

[terpoh]

7 hours ago, ChipTait said:

He's looked a little off balance to me.  Like he may have a mild inner ear infection or something?  Something like that can mess with your equilibrium.

 

The theories and diagnoses that I've seen thrown around here, including the opening post of this very thread, have been something. 

[Sports Guy]

It’s also possible he’s not the world clsss defender so many make him out to be.

I think he’s very good. Definitely above average but he’s not elite and he’s not a true GG candidate imo.  In that I mean, I think there are several guys clearly ahead of him. 

That doesn’t mean he’s not good, just that others are better.

Right now, he’s in a slump. He’s not hitting for power and he’s not playing good defense. He’s fighting some things now and needs to get out of his funk. He’s obviously not this bad but he’s gotten into some lazy habits and just isn’t performing well.

It doesn’t mean he has the yips. 

[emmett16]

5 hours ago, survivedc said:

Without putting too much into it, when Gunnar had the ball and ready to throw it, Profar was between 6-7.5 steps away from first (I suppose ready to throw is debatable). Earlier in the game on the sliding play over the middle, Gunnar threw out Peralta with 6 steps left, and he threw out Arraez on a double play with 5 steps left. Would he have gotten him? Not sure. To say he had “no chance” is wrong.

I counted steps on the Gamecast 3D. Very useful for something like this, but I can’t figure out how to post the screen shot that shows Profar’s distance. Feel free to run it yourself and let me know if you disagree.

I just rewatched the highlight.  He was further from the bag than I had remembered.  I guess he had a chance, but it would  have been a very difficult play to make off balance.  
 

If you have an iPhone you can screen shot and save to photos.   Bottom left of message box there is a button next to paper clip icon where you can load photos from you save photos on your photo.  Screen shots are typically not too big of a file to upload. 

Edited July 29 by emmett16

[RZNJ]

Someone in this thread made a great point.  Probably half his errors are from trying too hard to make an impossible play.   I can remember as far back in Pittsburgh where he tried to end a game with a DP.   Guys with the yips are afraid to throw the ball.  Henderson is the complete opposite of that.   He’s been throwing on the run for two years now.  That’s what he’s comfortable with.  All of a sudden people are saying he’s off balance, needs to set and throw, or he’s afraid to plant and pivot.   Moose has the post of the thread.   Gunnar isn’t the one with the yips.

[Just Regular]

Watching the recent run, one of the angles has been that for all the ways he has blessed Orioles fans with a career start similar to Cal's, boy would Cal never have done like 7 things Gunnar's done in 7 days.

[RZNJ]

12 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Watching the recent run, one of the angles has been that for all the ways he has blessed Orioles fans with a career start similar to Cal's, boy would Cal never have done like 7 things Gunnar's done in 7 days.

There’s probably 7 things Cal couldn’t have done in the last 7 days.