Are Henderson, Rutschman and Westburg Orioles’ foundational players? / MAILBAG

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.

Question: Seems to me that determining which Triple-A players are promoted or traded before the deadline is directly linked to whether Mike Elias regards Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg as foundational players worthy of extension. What’s your sense of it? From: Michael Janofsky

Answer: Michael, that’s not my sense. I think Henderson, Rutschman and Westburg are foundational players who are worthy of extensions. I don’t know if or when that will happen. Some of those Triple-A players, whom I assume are Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, could also turn out be foundational players, but I don’t think there’s a connection here.

I think Mayo is likely to be promoted first, but the Orioles have to find a spot for him, and that could happen after next week’s trade deadline.

If there are extensions for Henderson, Rutschman or Westburg, those could come in the offseason, if both the organization and the player are interested.

Question: Watching games this year, I would guess opponents 7-9 hitters have done more damage to O’s pitching compared to 1-3 hitters. Do you have access to these types of stats? From: Jake Powell, Jefferson, Maryland

Answer: Jake, Orioles’ opponents 7-9 hitters are batting .220 against them. According to the stats in BaseballReference.com, the top two hitters are batting .224 and the 3-6 batters are hitting .235.

They’ve had the most success against No. 6 hitters, who are batting.204 and the least success against the No. 3 hitters, batting .248, and the cleanup hitters, who are batting .253.

One of the reasons you might think the 7-9 hitters are doing well is that No. 7 hitters have 12 home runs and the No. 9 hitters 11.