Tim Anderson, Chicago White Sox
This past offseason for the White Sox revolved around trying to convince Manny Machado to play for them. And even though shortstop Tim Anderson is signed through at least 2022, Machado would’ve played shortstop had he landed in the Windy City.
When he finally made his decision to play for the San Diego Padres, Anderson could finally exhale and focus on the season ahead with much more certainty. That has led to one helluva start in 2019.
There are seven qualified hitters with a batting average of at least .400 right now. Anderson leads them all with a .514 mark through his first 38 plate appearances. His 255 wRC+ is second in the league, with some guy named Mike Trout (288 wRC+) the only one better than him. So many things jump out here when it comes to regression, but none more than his .607 BABIP. It jumps out even more when it’s paired with a 60.0% ground-ball rate and 26.7% hard-hit rate.
When looking at Anderson’s performance on ground balls so far this year, his 188 wRC+, .500 average, and 11.1% hard-hit rate all scream obvious regression. Especially since he’s never posted a wRC+ higher than 67 for this batted-ball event in any of his previous three MLB seasons.
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