Dynasty Mailbag: Are You Worried About Gunnar Henderson?

It’s that time of the week. Today’s mailbag will be light. Teams are figuring out their position in the league standings, so it makes sense. It is only a matter of time before the questions start pouring in. It gives me more time to work on something that I am cooking up. As always, I will post a tweet on Monday. Make sure to follow me. I need the ego boost (@RhysBWhite) everyone!

Ah, one of my favorite things: when a highly-touted prospect fails to hit the ground running, and people start to wonder if there is cause for concern about their long-term value. This isn’t meant to make fun of @arbysbutt (great handle, by the way). Many people are wondering about this, and he was just brave enough to ask.

While his hard-hit rate has decreased from 53.7% in 2022 to 41% in 2023, it’s important to note that he’s not the type of player who consistently maintains a hard-hit rate above 50% throughout an entire season. He was never going to be the type of hitter who routinely posts 30 home run seasons, and his hard-hit rate is in line with what I would expect from Gunnar.

Time for everyone’s favorite: the Baseball Savant circles. His chase rate is elite, sitting in the 89th percentile, and he is walking at a frankly ridiculous rate of 19.7% of the time. The plate approach is still effective and it has exceeded my expectations at this point.

Henderson is doing what we expect of him – getting on base and hitting the ball hard. The home runs will come, but it might be a bit tougher to hit them at home with the new world we live in. Baltimore has a crazy deep left field. His home park may hurt him a little bit because balls that would be considered home runs in other parks may fall as outs.

To answer the question at hand, I am not changing my thoughts on Henderson. His value has remained where I expected it to be at the start of the season, and it is still extremely high. 

Third base may be a challenging position, but with time and practice, Henderson can overcome any obstacles and excel against the best pitchers in the world. If anything, I think this minor setback presents a tasty buying window.

This is like asking me to choose a favorite child, although I don’t have children, so I can only imagine it’s a similar dilemma. Bibee and Williams are both power arms in the Guardians organization, known for their powerful arms and impressive pitching abilities. I would honestly say that I prefer Williams, but only by a small margin. This is because I believe their products are slightly better in quality.

Bibbe has pitched well in his brief Major League Baseball sample. Outside of a bad start against my favorite team, the Tigers, Bibbe has been great. Despite that strong start, he currently has a 4.30 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 14 ⅔’s innings. His time in Triple-A was fantastic as well, with 15 innings pitched and 19 strikeouts.

Gavin Williams, on the other hand, has been phenomenal in both his Double-A and Triple-A appearances this year. Over the course of two levels, he has recorded 41 strikeouts in 30 ⅓ innings of work. When it comes to their fastballs, Bibee and Williams are evenly matched.

Both can throw in the upper 90s, which often results in strikeouts. I just love Williams’ repertoire more. His curveball and slider are better than Bibee’s secondary pitches. I am more convinced that Gavin Williams will eventually become a reliable SP2 in fantasy baseball than Bibee.

I mean look at this. I can’t go anywhere without Aram popping up, unless he reads this…sup man. Anyways have a great weekend, be nice to your mothers because if you don’t, I will be.