taught Henry how to throw a slider. He throws his new weapon with the classic horseshoe grip, and it has generated a fair amount of strikeouts in the 2022 campaign so far. He’s caught the eye of pitching coach, John Habyan, who spent parts of 11 seasons pitching in the Majors. “Isaiah is a converted position player, but he has a big arm and a good feel for his changeup. I’m really excited to watch him as he continues his transition into a pitcher.”
The early returns have been solid on the bump for the Texas native. In his first eight games (five in 2021 and three in 2022), he has a 3.00 ERA and has held opponents to a .219 batting average. In fact, in his first 6.1 innings in the minors, Henry only allowed two hits, and he kept the opponent scoreless. He’s also been able to miss bats with ease, fanning 14 hitters in the 27 outs he has recorded. Sometimes, it’s more about what you need to learn off the field, rather than on the field. The hardest part about making this transition for Henry? “It’s conditioning the arm. The running conditioning and all that wasn’t as bad, but conditioning the arm is very different. And you can’t hide a hurt arm on the mound. You can hide that in the outfield, but you can’t hide it when you’re pitching.” Those words are echoed by Manager Tony Peña Jr. “When you first transition to pitching, the most difficult thing to deal with is understanding the soreness from pitching. It’s different then when you’re a position player. That process takes time for players to understand and it takes time to adjust to that change.” Luckily, Henry has had some great teammates to look up to, including his throwing partner, Chase Wallace, who started the 2022 campaign in Columbia before getting called up to Quad Cities near the end of April. “I always ask him questions. I don’t think he even knows it, but I am always asking, ‘what do you do here?’ or ‘how do you deal with this?’ There are some things that aren’t serious enough to talk to trainers or coaches about, and he’s been great to talk to about that stuff.” Like any great journey, there may be bumps in the road, but Henry is ready to put on his fresh set of tires as he drives his way up to the show. The great part about that for the fans at Segra Park? They get to witness the young prospect hone his stuff first-hand with the Columbia Fireflies. That is what Minor League Baseball is all about.
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