Ahead of the Orioles’ sequence towards the New York Mets, Baltimore supervisor Brandon Hyde was requested concerning the youngest participant on his workforce.
In his reply, Hyde mentioned the phrase “love” 5 instances to explain how he feels about rookie Gunnar Henderson. He loves the 22-year-old’s “passion,” his “energy,” his “emotion.” But there’s a tiny facet of Henderson’s recreation that Hyde doesn’t love.
When he grounds out, he at all times sprints down the primary final analysis attempting to beat the throw, lunging as he approaches first base and forcefully slamming his foot connected to his 220-pound body on first base.
“That drives me nuts,” Hyde mentioned.
Those moments, although, are a results of an aggressive play model that has allowed Henderson to seek out his groove and switch his season round.
“He just plays so hard. He’s so awesome,” Hyde mentioned with a smile. “I just want to see him hit the base a little easier, honestly. But he’s so young and he wants to get there so bad and it’s a great problem to have, having him go too hard sometimes.”
After a gradual begin to the season, Henderson has emerged this summer time as one of many Orioles’ finest gamers and re-established himself because the American League Rookie of the Year frontrunner. His 3.2 wins above substitute on Baseball-Reference leads Baltimore, and as was the case earlier than the season, each main sportsbook has Henderson as the favourite to develop into the primary Oriole to win the award since Gregg Olsen in 1989.
“He’s coming into his own,” co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte mentioned. “It’s at all times nice to see guys have success. It’s nice to see younger guys have success. But it’s good to see guys that work their tails off and make changes that have to be made they usually come via.
“It’s really hard. This game is really, really hard. You can make adjustments and still not have success come. For him to put in the work and be willing to make adjustments, it’s just been great to watch the confidence that he’s playing with. The way that he plays the game is so fun to watch.”
The gamers Henderson has been the previous three months is nearly unrecognizable to the one he was to start the season. Through the primary six weeks, Henderson was a affected person — maybe too affected person — hitter who was swinging and lacking at a excessive charge. Since, he’s been way more aggressive and making contact extra typically to reinforce the impression of a 92.3 mph common exit velocity that ranks within the prime 10% of main league hitters, in line with Statcast.
In his first 100 at-bats, Henderson, the game’s consensus No. 1 prospect on the time, hit .170 with a .651 OPS and simply three dwelling runs. In his previous 72 video games coming into Saturday, Henderson hit .262 with a .831 OPS and 16 dwelling runs, 4 triples and 44 RBIs — a stretch that features the .994 OPS he put up in June to win AL Rookie of the Month honors. On the season, he’s slashing .237/.321/.460 — good for a .781 OPS.
“It was challenging, especially if you’re 21 years old, and a lot of hype, people expecting things out of you, the way he handled all of that, that’s been the most impressive thing for me,” Hyde mentioned. “Now he’s really just relaxing and playing and playing with confidence. And for the last couple of months, he’s just been a really, really good player in so many areas.”
In his first 33 video games, Henderson walked 25 instances — a charge of 19.8% that was among the many majors’ leaders. In the three months since, he’s accepted simply 20 free passes for a charge of 6.8%.
Henderson mentioned he’s extra conscious now of how pitchers are attacking him than he was early within the season. He doesn’t wish to be “overly aggressive,” however he additionally acknowledges {that a} pitch early within the plate look is likely to be his finest alternative to place the barrel on one.
“I’ve been seeing the ball well,” Henderson mentioned. “It’s just getting in the mindset of telling yourself you’re going to swing and then when it’s a ball say ‘no.’ It’s harder to go from, ‘No, I’m not going to swing’ to ‘Oh, there it is, yes.’ Because then you’re late, fouling it off or completely missing. Just got to be in that mindset of getting your swing off and then if it’s a ball trusting yourself that you’re not going to swing at it.”
Looking at his success early in counts, it’s not a shock that Henderson is leaning into that method. He’s put the ball in play on the primary pitch in 45 of his plate appearances. In these cases, he’s hitting .500 with a .955 slugging share. His 1.443 OPS on first pitches — a pattern that doesn’t embrace swings and misses or foul balls — ranks fifth within the majors amongst batters with not less than 40 such at-bats behind Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman and Washington Nationals outfielder Lane Thomas. Henderson has a 1.207 OPS on 1-0 counts and a .888 OPS in 1-1 counts.
“He’s done a great job of improving that aggressiveness from the beginning of the season when he was maybe a little bit more passive,” Borgschulte mentioned. “One a part of it’s simply him realizing that he can hit these pitches. It doesn’t must be good proper down the center for him to assault it, he can do injury on quite a lot of totally different pitches if he’s one time.
“Along with the fact that maybe in the minor leagues you get a couple pitches more to hit than in the major leagues. Letting those go by was not as consequential, whereas now, letting those go by and now you get the nasty stuff is a little more challenging.”
His success on the plate isn’t the one enchancment Henderson has made after his gradual begin. He struggled defensively to start the 12 months, however he’s been a plus defender since. After rating because the Orioles’ worst defender in Statcast’s outs above common in April with minus-5, he’s been considered one of their finest with six since May.
He’s additionally been extra keen to point out off his velocity — which ranks within the prime 12% of certified huge leaguers — and base operating skill, turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Hyde mentioned Henderson is considered one of his gamers whom he has to “pull back” due to how keen they’re to take additional bases.
Hyde additionally mentioned he tries to “calm him down a little bit” as a result of Henderson is usually pissed off when he will get out — part of the sport the fifth-year skipper mentioned the teenager will quickly study to raised deal with.
“He just cares so much,” Hyde mentioned. “You live and die with that and take that any day of the week.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Hayes Gardner contributed to this text.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com