As one of the most merchandisable film franchises ever made, Star Wars figures regularly and prominently in the promotion-friendly world of Minor League Baseball.
This year, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and company have been called up to the big leagues.
On Saturday—Star Wars Day, so designated because of its pun on "May the fourth be with you"—Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson showed off a special bat for the occasion ahead of a game against the Cincinnati Reds.
The bat—designed to mimic trademark Star Wars lightsabers—is red with Darth Vader and Death Star designs on one side, and blue with Luke Skywalker and Yoda designs on the other.
Gunnar Henderson's Star Wars bat goes insanely hard 🤯
The year following a breakout postseason appearance, the 2016 Chicago Cubs won the World Series with six starting position players aged 26 and younger. Eight years later, the Baltimore Orioles, in the year following a breakout postseason appearance, will have five or six starting position players aged 26 and younger once Jackson Holliday returns from his minor league sabbatical with his confidence restored.
Both teams went through deep rebuilds. Both teams built their core by using high draft picks on position players, not pitchers, especially out of college. Both teams had Brandon Hyde on the staff—as a coach with the Cubs and as manager with the Orioles.
One piece of symmetry remains to complete the picture. Like the Cubs, who traded future All-Star Gleyber Torres for Aroldis Chapman, Baltimore must trade from its positional surplus to add a power arm to the bullpen. As then Cubs GM Theo Epstein said when he made the deal even with a 7 ½ game lead on July 25, “If not now, when?” The mission had grown from just making the playoffs to ending a massive World Series drought.
“We don’t win the World Series without Chappy,” former Cubs manager Joe Maddon says.
The Orioles, who last won the World Series in 1983, are in the same position. Taking Holliday off the table, Baltimore can put top prospects Samuel Basallo, Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad in play to get a lockdown late inning arm such as Mason Miller of Oakland or Jhoan Duran of Minnesota. The point is that like the 2016 Cubs, the 2024 Orioles are a world championship-caliber team with an obvious need and obvious surplus.
“The teams have different personalities,” Hyde says. “That Cubs team had a lot of young players and a lot of older players with almost nothing in between. [David] Ross, [John] Lackey, [Ben] Zobrist, Miguel Montero … like fatherly figures to the young guys. But in terms of the everyday players, the talent, the athleticism, the expectations they have for themselves, they are very, very similar.”
Says Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo, a member of those 2016 Cubs, “They’re a really, really good team that probably is going to add pitching. It’s a long season. I know we play them in the last week of September. And I expect those games are going to be very meaningful.”
With John Means and Kyle Bradish returning to the rotation this week, starting pitching is less of a priority than an elite closer, given health and command issues of Craig Kimbrel, the closer who turns 36 this month and has a 6.75 ERA in his past 10 postseason games.
Righthander Grayson Rodriguez is the wild card in the rotation. He went on the IL this week with shoulder soreness, an injury that was not a surprise given the innings jump Baltimore heaped on him last year at age 23 (+62 from his previous high), his mechanics and his elite velocity. Of the 21 starting pitchers to average 96.5 MPH or more from 2019 to ’23, Rodriguez is the 19th to break down. The only elite velocity throwers to escape the IL are Luis Castillo and Cole Ragans.
Rodriguez has the arm to be a potential front of the rotation pitcher and a difference maker in the postseason. He needs more development to get there. He needs to improve his fastball command so that he can spot a fastball when he needs to (he can’t do that now), he needs to improve his hand/wrist placement and release on his four-seamer so that he creates more ride than run and he needs to improve the timing of his delivery.
One Orioles source says Rodriguez “was gassed” by the time he reached the postseason. He gave up five runs on six hits in less than two innings against Texas in the ALCS. The attrition then and into this season shows in the data. With each month, Rodriguez’s release point and velocity have been dropping:
Rodriguez's vertical release point and velocity.
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The left is Rodriguez pitching in April 2023 and the right is Rodriguez in April 2024.
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Rodriguez has a bit of funk to his delivery, which is not advantageous to a power pitcher because of the extra torque elite velocity puts on the arm. He pulls his arm stiffly behind him, pulling the ball past parallel, and does not have the ball raised with his arm in a 90-degree angle when his front foot lands, which often creates stress that first shows in the shoulder. Here’s a look at those key points in his delivery this week against the New York Yankees:
A look at Rodriguez's form while pitching against the Yankees in April 2024.
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Here is teammate Corbin Burnes at those same points. Note on the left the arm position on his takeaway, as the arm is not past parallel and the elbow has begun to bend to raise the ball. On the right, the arm is at a 90-degree angle as the front foot lands.
A look at Burnes's form at the same crucial points.
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For all the talk about Rodriguez’s elite velocity, he does not pitch like a true power pitcher. His changeup and curveball are outstanding. When he needs to get back into a count or rely on a pitch in a big spot, he’s going to rely on his secondary staff. That’s a gift for such a young pitcher. But the numbers show his fastball gets hit:
Rodriguez by Pitch Type, Career
Rodriguez by pitch type in his career.
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Over the past two years, 25 pitchers have allowed a .300 average or higher on at least 500 four-seamers. Rodriguez is the only one who throws 97. Among the 27 pitchers who average 96.5 and higher, Rodriguez’s .340 average allowed is 51 points higher than anybody else.
His fastball ranks in the 87th percentile in velocity this year but only in the 52nd percentile when it comes to run value. Why does such an elite velocity fastball rate as mediocre? Start with his spin rate. It is slightly below average (2,256 RPM; average is 2,288).
Another issue is the way Rodriguez’s fastball comes out of his hand. A four-seam fastball with elite ride has close to true north-south underspin to better fight gravity, causing the pitch to sink less than a hitter expects. Rodriguez’s fastball because of his hand position comes out with arm-side run. It has average drop (a measurement of “ride”) but extreme horizontal movement (“run”). A four-seamer with run is easier to hit than one with ride because it tends to stay on the same plane as the bat path rather than over it.
Rodriguez Fastball Movement
Drop: 12.9 inches; vs. Avg.: 2% Horizontal: 11.7 inches; vs. Avg.: 60%
If Rodriguez can trade run for ride, he will have an elite north-south combination with a top-of-the-zone fastball and devastating changeup. His ceiling is extremely high.
The good news for Baltimore is it appears Rodriguez may be suffering only from fatigue rather than a structural issue. He is expected to be shut down for two to three weeks. Starting May 17, the Orioles face 43 games in 45 days. Assuming Rodriguez returns for that stretch, they will deploy a six-man rotation through that grind, just as they did last August.
“The six-man rotation last August saved our season,” Hyde says.
Like the 2016 Cubs, the Orioles are built to play seven full months. The six-man rotation is just one strategy designed to prepare for October. Another is a firm pitch limit on starting pitchers. The Orioles are adamant about getting their starter out as he approaches 100 pitches, no matter their age or experience or game situation. Dean Kramer and Rodriguez were pulled in the middle of an inning with 101 pitches and Burnes once at 100. That’s as far as any Baltimore starter has been allowed to go.
Rizzo is right to expect a close race. The Orioles and Yankees are not likely to be separated by more than three games when they meet in the last week of the season. By then, the Orioles hope to have a rotation with gas left in the tank and an additional power arm at the back of their bullpen.
The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, locked in for a final game of a four-game set on Thursday afternoon to determine the sole leader of the AL East, were delayed briefly for a reason you probably haven't heard before. A wristwatch was causing issues for Juan Soto in the third inning.
Soto complained to the umpire about something out near the batter's eye. There was some confusion both in the stadium and among broadcasters of the game over what the complaint was. The umpire went to the Orioles' dugout to have them make a phone call to the bullpen to communicate with the perpetrator in the outfield.
An official of some sort was sitting in a walkway near the batter's eye in a white shirt, and he briefly moved back a few feet, thinking his shirt was the issue.
"Someone send him an orange shirt!" color commentator Joe Girardi joked on YES Network.
Shortly after, it was clarified that a police officer stationed nearby was the actual issue. His watch face was reflecting the sun toward home plate, making it difficult for Soto to see where the ball was.
We had a brief delay as Juan Soto complained about the badge/watch of a police officer stationed beyond the centerfield wall. That's a new one!
Year one with the New York Yankees has been good to outfielder Alex Verdugo thus far. The veteran is slashing .267/.358/.446 with four home runs and 13 RBIs a month into the season—all while riding the highest OPS+ of his career.
Verdugo has been good enough, in fact, to both get a lofty assignment from manager Aaron Boone and quickly have it yanked away.
In a Tuesday conversation with Talkin' Yanks, Boone was asked whether Verdugo would hit cleanup when he returned from paternity leave. He responded in the affirmative while implying Verdugo would likely only hit fourth against right-handed pitchers.
On Thursday, the Yankees were scheduled to tussle with the Baltimore Orioles. Where in the order, dear reader, was Verdugo in his return against right-handed Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish?
In the opening game of a series in Baltimore between the two teams jockeying for the lead of the AL East -- the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles -- Baltimore walked away with a win that nearly could have been lost.
In the top of the ninth inning on Monday, Yankees utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera hit a ball deep to left field. The ball, launched 379 feet, would have been a home run in six parks in the majors according to Statcast, but not Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
It was noted by Yankees commentator Michael Kay that it would have been a home run three years ago, calling out the fact that the Orioles reconfigured the stadium to move the left field back a distance.
Instead, it was an easy flyout that led to an Orioles' win.
Wednesday, for the third game in the four-game set, Cabrera hit another ball that went 352 feet to right field. This one was ruled a home run because it got lodged in the right-field foul pole fencing.
"At the moment that I hit the ball, I know it that I hit really well, but I didn't know where was the ball. So if you see my running to first I was like, 'where's the ball?'"
One night, falling short to the dimensions of the field. A few days later, getting past the same park's dimensions, just by the skin of the ball, both events playing into the final scoreline directly.
Going into Thursday's matchup, the Orioles lead the series 2-1, with both teams locked in a tie for the top spot in the AL East.
Three decades have passed since the end of Hall of Fame former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer's distinguished career.
However, antipathy toward shoddy umpiring never leaves former players. Palmer proved as such during the Orioles' 4-2 win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night, which he called for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.
After shortstop Gunnar Henderson was called out on strikes on a pitch outside the zone in the first inning, Palmer lit into umpire C.B. Bucknor.
"You kinda wonder how bad he's gonna be and he's shown us already in the first inning," Palmer said. "All you want is a guy that understands the strike zone."
"He shouldn't be umpiring and he is, and they know it."
According to Umpire Scorecards, Bucknor's 91.6% accuracy on pitches called is tied for the lowest in baseball this season among umpires who've worked at least five games.
"He shouldn't be umpiring and he is, and they know it," Palmer said. "He's been around a long time, it doesn't mean you—it's kinda like pitching. When I couldn't get people out, I became a broadcaster."
Bucknor, who's worked five postseasons and two All-Star Games, has been an MLB umpire since 1996.
New York Yankees outfielder Juan Soto unleashed a mammoth home run during Tuesday's loss against the Baltimore Orioles, and he boldly opted to stare down pitcher Dean Kremer as he began to trot the bases.
When asked after the game about the staredown with the Orioles' starter, Soto told reporters that he chose to glare at Kremer because the right-hander didn't like his "Soto Shuffle."
Soto's sixth-inning solo launched a stunning 447 feet into the seats in left field, and he was clearly fired up about the moonshot despite the Yankees still trailing 4–2, a scoreline that would hold out for the remainder of the game.
If Kremer wasn't a fan of Soto's antics in the batter's box, he's certainly not alone, though the left-handed slugger doesn't seem likely to put an end to his shuffling maneuvers.
The 447-foot bomb was Soto's eighth of the year, and he's up to 25 RBIs on the campaign through his first 31 games.
Orioles star Gunnar Henderson launched a leadoff home run in the first inning of Baltimore's 2-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night, making history in the process and improving his already hot start. Henderson, who is two months' shy of celebrating his 23rd birthday, is now the youngest player to hit 10 home runs before May 1.
That's a very specific stat, of course, but it's a great jumping-off point to look at the way the infielder has leapt out of the gates in what is already his third Major League season, and second in full.
The reigning American League Rookie of the Year is slashing .289/.352/.632 and leads the AL as the only player to break double-digits in the longball department. He's also the leader in runs and total bases. Henderson has stolen six bases, only four off his mark from all of 2023. His WAR already sits at 2.0, highest among AL position players and his slugging percentage is at the top of the charts.
His 10 April round-trippers are the third-most for any Oriole in April, trailing only Brady Anderson (11 in 1996) and Frank Robinson (10 in 1969).
Henderson's contributions have helped Baltimore build up a 18-10 record and positioned them atop the American League East with the New York Yankees. They've also helped ease the pain of Jackson Holliday's rough start and build excitement that this could be a special season for the O's.
