For Gunnar Henderson, “Star Wars” Lego units aren’t solely a method to compete with Orioles prospect Colton Cowser, although their 2023 race is ready to start quickly. They’ve additionally helped Baltimore’s prized rookie put his thoughts comfortable amid a comparatively sluggish begin to his first full main league season.
Hits have been exhausting to return by for Henderson, a 21-year-old infielder who started this yr as baseball’s unanimous prime prospect and a favourite to be American League Rookie of the Year. That’s why many nights, he’s discovered himself piecing collectively a Lego Imperial Star Destroyer.
“Everybody has their own way to decompress, and it’s just something that just kind of gets your mind off everything,” Henderson mentioned. “You just go back home, build for a little bit, and then eventually you come out with something fully made. It’s definitely different, but I enjoy it.”
Modeling the triangular spaceship from the opening scene of the franchise’s first movie, “A New Hope,” the practically 5,000-piece set contains greater than 20 luggage of items, most full of a whole lot of Lego bricks every; Henderson mentioned working by one bag often takes him three or 4 days, relying on how intensely he works and the way drained he’s when he will get residence from a recreation. But taking that point has confirmed worthwhile to separate himself from what occurs on the sphere, the place he has at occasions expressed his frustrations with slammed helmets and bats.
He entered Wednesday’s recreation with the Kansas City Royals batting .184, the seventh-lowest common amongst gamers with at the least 90 plate appearances whereas placing out in additional than 30% of them. But due to an AL-best 20.6% stroll fee, he’s managed a powerful .361 on-base proportion, fueling a weighted runs created plus — an all-encompassing offensive metric — simply above league common.
Last month, Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde described Henderson’s begin as a case of a “young player pressing,” including that, when speaking with Henderson, he tries to get him to consider “anything but baseball.” Building after video games has helped Henderson do this.
“It just takes your mind off stuff, especially whenever you’re going through a little bit of a struggle,” Henderson mentioned. “You can sit there and go back home and that’s all you think about because if you sit there — we’re all humans — that’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna think about, ‘Something’s not going right.’ I feel like that just gets me settled back down. It just gets me ready for the next day.”
He’s comforted understanding he endured an analogous stretch in the beginning of final season, the one which propelled him to the majors and the highest of prospect lists. Last April with Double-A Bowie, he hit .250 with a .450 slugging proportion, each of which proved to be his lowest marks for any month during which he performed greater than 5 video games. But he counteracted these figures by strolling greater than he struck out, posting a .435 on-base proportion.
It was throughout that early stretch with Bowie that he discovered the worth working with Lego may have, serving to him concentrate on the optimistic features of his efficiency. He’s tried to hold the identical strategy all through the beginning of this season.
“You actually have an honest reflection,” Henderson mentioned. “You can type of look again and say, ‘Yeah, I’m getting walks. I’m not hitting it the way in which I need to, however I’m getting one factor achieved, and having the ability to have success in a method, it results in the opposite.’
“It’s just at a different level. Yeah, it’s weighted a little bit different here, but still honestly on the same path. Maybe not hitting as early as I was last year, but still taking my walks and getting on base and trying to help the guys out behind me.”
During spring coaching that yr, he was strolling round Target along with his girlfriend, Katherine Lee Bishop, after they handed by the Lego part. One set — the helmet of a Dark Trooper from the Disney+ “Star Wars” present “The Mandalorian” — caught his eye. He figured it might be a great way to cross time after morning exercises.
The 693-piece construct sparked a passion. By midseason, he and Cowser, a fellow prime Orioles prospect and “Star Wars” fanatic, had been in a build-off, a race to see who may first put collectively a Millennium Falcon set with greater than 7,500 items. Cowser was quicker, finishing his metaphorical Kessel Run in fewer parsecs by ending off Han Solo’s iconic ship in September as Henderson was ending the season with the Orioles.
“Every time I would get a few bags done, I’d be like, ‘All right, I’m about to beat you now,’” Henderson mentioned. “Of course, it ended up working out in his favor towards the end.”
The Star Destroyer set Henderson is engaged on now could be discontinued, which means it might have been powerful for Cowser to get his palms on one for his or her rematch. Instead, they’ll go head-to-head to construct the Razor Crest, bounty hunter Din Djarin’s ship from the primary two seasons of “The Mandalorian.” They deliberate to every purchase the set Thursday, or Star Wars Day, with “May the Fourth” being a play on the franchise’s in style “May the Force be with you” phrase.
Henderson mentioned the Falcon has been his favourite construct to this point, with the Star Destroyer a attainable contender as soon as it’s full. The virtually 7,000-piece set of the AT-AT, one other piece of Imperial weaponry first seen in “The Empire Strikes Back,” stays on his want record. His favourite “Star Wars” film might be “Revenge of the Sith,” the 2005 climax of the prequel trilogy that sees Anakin Skywalker full his fall to the darkish aspect and change into Darth Vader. In an MLB social media video this spring, Henderson supplied Skywalker actor Hayden Christensen as one in all his superstar lookalikes, and forward of Triple-A Norfolk’s “Star Wars” Night final summer time, the Tides’ Twitter account made the identical comparability.
In the franchise, Skywalker was believed to be the “Chosen One.” Of course, Henderson, prime prospect standing apart, doesn’t view himself that approach nor does he must, with a powerful lineup round him and his on-base capability, base working and protection — which has improved after some early shakiness — sufficient for him to make an influence as his bat returns to type.
Skywalker was alleged to carry stability to the Force. Henderson hopes his recreation will stability out quickly.
“It’s obviously not the way I want to be hitting right now, but it’s just the way the ball’s rolling,” Henderson mentioned. “I know it’s gonna come around here soon. When it does, then I’ll be ready to go.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com