Blue Jays 14, White Sox 5: Let’s talk about Tim Anderson
Tonight summed up the state of Tim Anderson’s game in a funhouse mirror.
In the field, he committed an inexplicable error with two outs that allowed an unearned run to score. It wasn’t a challenging play. He charged a routine Randal Grichuk two-hopper, but he awkwardly tried to glove it with the open side down, and it clanged away to extend an inning. It’s his first error in the books, but it’s his second straight night with a misplay, and it allowed the Blue Jays to take a 3-1 lead after three.
At the plate? Anderson went 3-for-4 with a homer, two stolen bases and three runs scored. He put together a particularly thrilling sequence in the sixth inning, reaching with a sharp single, stealing second, stealing third and scoring on an Adam Engel groundout.
The two errors are maddening. The three homers and three stolen bases in four games is exciting. All in all, that kind of offense will buy time for his defense, and these are the kinds of things a White Sox fan can take into consideration from one day to another.
The pitching? Forget about that immediately.
Miguel Gonzalez was touched up for six runs over five innings, yet the following two pitchers left with higher ERAs. Hector Santiago and Gregory Infante combined to allow seven eighth-inning runs while allowing just two outs.
Gonzalez’s line — 5 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K — could have been better, as Anderson’s error led to an unearned run, and Engel couldn’t quite seal the deal on a diving attempt short of full extension. It shouldn’t have been much better, because Gonzalez gave up two homers and four other extra-base hits.
Santiago did his thing for two innings, but Renteria couldn’t get a third inning out of him. Infante was the one who was truly torched, retiring just one of the six batters he faced. Juan Minaya had to come in to finish the inning, but even he allowed a couple of inherited runners to score.
The White Sox offense had moments, scattering their five runs across five innings. They just came up short with their counterpunches, which will probably be a theme of the season. While they struck out plenty against J.A. Happ early, they started putting together better at-bats throughout the night. Avi Garcia topped them all with a fifth-inning solo shot that measured 481 feet, a White Sox record in three-plus years of Statcast. However, Yolmer Sanchez made it seem a little less impressive by going 442 feet to right.
The Sox just left a few opportunities on the table. In the second inning, the Sox had runners on the corners with one out after Delmonico’s RBI single, but Yoan Moncada and Garcia struck out on six pitches apiece. They had the same situation in the seventh after Jose Abreu first-to-thirded Moncada with a single, but Matt Davidson’s weak bouncer to the mound resulted in Moncada out at the plate, and Welington Castillo grounded out.
Still, even if they cashed in all the runners they stranded, they would have lost by a run. Then that Anderson error would have counted.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, and 2-for-19 over their first two games this series.
*Davidson had the roughest night, going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and six stranded. The three Ks were all backwards. Frustration mounted, and for good reason: Two of them were the most borderline of calls, and the last one wasn’t even close.
*Moncada and Delmonico joined Davidson with three strikeouts, and Tyler Saladino struck out in his first two at-bats of the season.
Record: 2-2 | Box score
Error aside, as frustrating at it was, it’s not hard to see the amount of talent Anderson has. He single hamdedly manufactures their 4th run tonight.
I think you are right Jim, it’s going to be a long season of younger players learning how to get the job done with RISP.
Mmmmmm….haaaaaaaam.
Well, good to hear Davidson’s Ks weren’t necessarily a result of bad habits so much as an over-generous strike zone. Allows us to maintain hope. As for Timmay, even Alexei sometimes had a maddening habit of botching the routine while making the spectacular look easy. It was something he worked out of, and Tim certainly has the talent to do the same. If he puts together a 20-20 season like so many of us thought he could (heck, we could dream on 30-30 right now), it will give his glove time to catch up.
For the first 2 Ks, I feel like he’s gotta protect the plate a little better with 2 strikes. Choke up on the bat and chop it foul.
But that third K was just a horrible call. It was the last pitch of the game, so I assume that the ump just wanted to go home. If that happened two innings earlier, I can only assume Davidson would have said something to get thrown out after that call.
For someone with the inability to talk walks and the tendency to swing at tons of junk as recently as last year, I’m happy with Davidson getting a backwards K on a questionable strike.
This is what counts as progress in a rebuild, I guess.
Progress in any year. Davidson with a 37% k rate is useless. Davidson with a sub 30% k rate like he had in Spring Training could hit 40 dongs and be a very useful player.
If Davidson could even cut down to 32%, that would make a pretty big difference, but even more important is getting his BB% up. A sub-.300 OBP isn’t gonna cut it even if he does hit 40 dongs.
Right, which is part of why him taking questionably strike threes is 100% OK by me.
Yeah, there’s certainly a change in his approach this season. Hopefully he keeps it up and rounds into something serviceable.
Counter punches missing the c Jim. Your recap is certainly better but I beat you to the printers. Lol
Better than missing the “o” I guess.
So far this year Timmay has played the roll formerly held by Eaton: sometimes a car wreck, often a unicorn and I can’t look away.
no tootblan for moncada trying to score in the 7th?
Nah. Looked like a contact play, it resulted in the same amount of outs and they were going to need a hit to score afterward regardless.
LOVE Anderson’s aggression on the basepaths. I’m really wondering what we’ll see from Moncada in the stolen base department. He’s obviously super fast but with Avi behind him who is not the most patient batter, I wonder if Yoan will be hesitant to run. It’d be a shame if he couldn’t. With Tim it just looked like something clicked in his head that said “What the hell am I waiting for?” and Yoan needs that too. Limited sample size this year. I think I’ve counted three times with him on first in stealing situations and he hasn’t flinched yet. I’ll gladly take the price of a few caught stealings over making things happen like Anderson did tonight. Plus it’ll take my mind of his 3K’s.
They both should be selective as to stolen bases. Greater value will be in going from first to third.
I don’t agree that’s an absolutely accurate statement. There’s a break-even point that can be calculated for SB vs CS depending on the game situation. And obviously going 2B to home is more valuable than 1B to 3B.
In general for extra bases, we should be less risk-averse than the status quo.
I agree. It seemed as if PDP was suggesting that stolen base attempts by Moncada and Anderson were an unqualified good. If Moncada is on first with Avi up, I probably opt, most of the time, to let Moncada drive the pitcher nuts, getting fast balls for Avi, potentially leading to a big inning. 2nd to home is obviously important, but 1st to 3rd is where the Sox have fallen short in recent history. I would love for that to be corrected this year, and it should be.
In 2018, I’d kind of like to see them both with just about a constant green light. Not that they have to go, just that they can take off if they feel they’ve got a chance. Might as well let them try to learn their limits this season.
It certainly feels like the Sox have had the most trouble with the 3B to home part of the sequence. But that might just be cognitive bias.
Timmmayyyy is gonna be looking good in CF
Really? I had no idea the scouting reports on him as an outfielder were so favorable.
How favorable do you think scouts rate his ss defense?
Higher than glove on folding chair. Lower than turbocharged Roomba.
“He has good range and athleticism for the position and needs to improve on cleaning up errors.”
Thus far in this season I am seeing that Timmy is definitely part of the future productive core. Avi’s breakout year was not a fluke. Yomer is a decent everyday player. Moncada is still a work-in-progress. Davidson is a bad Mark Reynolds.
Anderson has looked really good at the plate. This may just be the year he stops having a 2 as the first OBP number. But defensively, I don’t know. I’d hate to make him a DH, because he has the ability to play SS. He lacks the steadiness and I don’t know where he finds it, if he ever does.
I am pretty sure it is a safe bet we won’t see Anderson as a DH this year or ever.
Why would they make him a DH? There are positions on the defensive spectrum between SS and DH.
As to his defense, give the guy a break. We all acknowledged a mulligan for last year because of the painful death of his friend. Per Steely, the mulligan lasts for four games and one error.
Much as I have qualms about Anderson, I’m not going to judge his defense based on artificial surface play which only happens 6 times a season.
I think they indicated last night the infield was real grass.
I was shocked when I check back in to see the score was so high. I watched the first two innings, and MiGo’s curveball and change looked really good, so I thought he’d have a good game…
That last K on Matt was a 0%er
Davidson’s got his eye on setting all kinds of new precedents this season.
In this young season so far we’ve gotten 6, 6, 6, and 5 innings out of our starters, and in general I think we’ve all wanted a 5+ inning performance each time out regardless of results. If Fulmer can join the group and provide at least that kind of floor for the length of his start, that’s at least a small part of the starting pitching battle handled.