Southside Showdown
Fansided

Chicago White Sox: Tim Anderson’s batting title watch

By Joshua Finkelstein

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 23: Tim Anderson #7 of the Chicago White Sox hits a RBI single in the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field on August 23, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Teams are wearing special color schemed uniforms with players choosing nicknames to display for Players' Weekend. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 23: Tim Anderson #7 of the Chicago White Sox hits a RBI single in the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field on August 23, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Teams are wearing special color schemed uniforms with players choosing nicknames to display for Players' Weekend. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Chicago White Sox could potentially have a batting champion on the team, as long as he qualifies, plate appearance-wise. 

The Chicago White Sox have seen Tim Anderson develop into one of the best shortstops in the game, at least offensively, this season as he is hitting .329/.351/.499 with 14 home runs and 47 RBI.

His .329 average is the key to this article, though, as the 26-year-old is trying to win the American League batting title, currently slightly behind D.J. LeMahieu (.332) and slightly ahead of Michael Brantley (.327).

Other players on the periphery of the league-lead are Hanser Alberto (.323) and Rafael Devers (.321).

Meanwhile, in all of baseball, Anthony Rendon (.337) and Bryan Reynolds (.335) are ahead of all of them, with Christian Yelich (.326) and Jeff McNeil (.322) not too far off either.

Anderson would be in the top 10 in the league if not for a stipulation that each player must have 502 plate appearances to qualify for the title, according to MLB rules.

At the moment, Anderson only has 422 on the season due to missing over a month on the 10-day IL with an ankle sprain.

To get to that 502 number, he would need 80 more plate appearances this season which, with 25 games left in the season, should not be a difficult task to achieve if he stays healthy.

Even if he sat in five of those games, which he probably won’t, he would be able to get exactly 80 more as long as he batted on average four times in each game.

Now, if he suffers an injury that forces him to miss more time that, his chances of qualifying start to diminish severely.

Regardless of whether or not he qualifies, though, it doesn’t take away from the major success he’s had this season.

If Anderson keeps this up in the future, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be qualifying for batting titles every season after this.

Next. Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal Finished Off Phenomenal Seasons. dark

There’s a good chance he qualifies this season, but with stiff competition, it will be interesting to see if Tim Anderson can win a batting title this season.

Home/White Sox News