Chicago White Sox: Tim Anderson ‘has made progress’
One player in the Chicago White Sox organization who one day will make an impact, and is very much worth keeping an eye on this season in the minors, is Tim Anderson.
The 21-year old Anderson is a former first-round draft choice in 2013 by the White Sox, and though he’s already been sent out of the MLB camp of the White Sox and to the MiLB camp, the very highly rated prospect has made improvements in his game.
“This kid’s made a lot of progress. The one thing we’d like for Tim to do is to run a little bit more. He’s going to be at the top of the lineup, leading off,” White Sox Assistant General manager Buddy Bell said to Southside Showdown and other White Sox bloggers in a conference call this week. “Jacob May and Tim are going to sort of flip-flop every week to 10 days. One’s going to lead off, one’s going to bat second. We’d like for Tim to understand the strike zone a little bit. I think once he does that, he’s going to be a hell of a player.”
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Bell is correct in his assessment of Anderson, as it is all but stamped he’ll eventually make a big impact for the White Sox in the future.
Anderson never really had the opportunity to make noise with his bat in a consistent manner this spring with the White Sox in the MLB camp, because he was just there to just get the feel of the camp surroundings it seemed, and to be around major league players.
With Anderson, it is just about continuing to understand the game.
“One good thing about him is he’s a really smart kid, so I think he’s going to get it,” Bell said. “We also believe here the more you swing the bat, the more you’re going to understand your strike zone.
“There’s a little bit of a catch-22 there, but hopefully we draft smart guys, and we really believe that Tim is one of those and he’s going to get it. We want him to also swing the bat but understand the strike zone at the same time. There’s more ways of getting on base than getting a base hit.”
This spring, Anderson batted just .167 in eight games (six at-bats) with one hit and two runs scored. He struck out twice and had one total base. That’s fine, because nobody expected Anderson to set a blaze, so to speak, in MLB spring training.
As for Anderson in his short time in the minors, he’s built a career .291 average in four different levels, including 68 games last season with the Winston-Salem Dash (Advanced Single-A), where his average was .297 with 18 doubles, seven triples, six home runs and 31 RBIs.
For the young shortstop, it is just about continued improvement in his all-around game and getting at-bats in ’15 at the minor league level.
“He’s fast and competitive as anyone we have in the organization,” Bell said.
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