Don’t look now, but Tim Anderson is on an absolute tear a week into the 2019 season. Sunday in a loss to Seattle, he collected 4 more hits. It was his 3rd consecutive game with at least 3 base knocks. His slash line currently sits at .517/.533/.793, and he is already at a 0.8 WAR. It’s early, but like Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson looks like a completely different player.
While his current pace is obviously in no way sustainable, it’s not hard to see that Tim has improved his approach at the plate. In Spring Training, he talked constantly about how one of the biggest adjustments he wanted to make was to lay off breaking balls out of the zone. He has always had swing and miss in his game, and likely always will, but so far he has done a much better job of not chasing pitches while down in the count. This has shown a direct correlation to his ridiculous batting average. He is willing to wait longer for his pitch and drive it hard.
Lucas Giolito said it best the other day: this is the Tim Anderson White Sox fans have been waiting to see. If he can continue to consistently get on base, he will consistently wreak havoc on the base paths. So far he has been unusually quiet in the stolen base department given how often he has reached safely so far. I’d expect that to change sooner rather than later. Especially if he continues to get on for whoever bats behind him.
The White Sox aren’t a contender yet, but if Tim can become the guy everyone thought he could be, it just makes that window that much closer to not only opening, but staying open for a long time.
