Starting Gunnar

 

Y'know, with all that buildup as an acclaimed prospect, it's not like Gunnar Henderson was just gonna...NOT figure it out, right?

Of all the mega-prospects the Orioles have slowly let onto the major league roster, the only ones who've truly struggled the whole way have been some of the pitching prospects, like D.L. Hall and Grayson Rodriguez, neither of which are up at the moment. Mullins, Rutschman, Mountcastle, they've all figured it out and are integral pieces of this team, even though two of them are currently injured. And while Gunnar Henderson worried me for about a half-second, now people are talking about him as a reason why the O's are staying hot.

It's really just been since the beginning of June that the O's SS has finally cracked MLB pitching. This month alone he's been batting .364 with 12 RBIs and 5 homers, which is a sizable fraction of his full-season totals. He's doing it in style, with a run of multi-RBI games, and a lot of contact work as opposed to the listless power he was working on before. Henderson is currently the anchor of this infield, as Mountcastle's hurt, and Mateo's only hitting .230. The goal is to have a healthy Mountcastle-Frazier-Henderson-Mateo infield, or maybe Urias in somebody's place, and once that all gets in line this team could be good for a little while. This team has also gotten great performances out of Ryan O'Hearn and Aaron Hicks lately, so maybe there's just something in the water in Baltimore. 

I'm really happy with the number of people that are just figuring it out this year for the Orioles. I thought Kyle Gibson was headed for a Jordan Lyles-esque stable veteran season, where he'd just be around to push the kids upwards, but he's actually having some extremely good starts, and is sitting on an 8-4 record and a 3.94 ERA. Tyler Wells, in the continued absence of John Means, has been the young, homegrown ace this team's needed, with a 3.20 ERA and 82 Ks. Felix Bautista has a 1.08 ERA and 19 saves already, meaning Jorge Lopez skipped town at the exact right moment for the big man. And Yennier Cano's ERA has dipped below 1 again.

This is a very strong Orioles team that is heading for a Rays series right after the Rays have lost a ton of ground over the AL East. The Orioles are just 5 games back from the top of the division. Wouldn't it wonderful if this happened? 

Coming Tomorrow- I came to a Phillies game and he started figuring it out. Also a beginning of June thing.