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Well someone has to make a game thread because something interesting is happening. Tim Anderson is now at 2b, presumably to clear playing time for their long-term solution at SS, Elvis Andrus.

Yea but Dan, have you seen Hahn in FA? Great stuff from Dan Z nonetheless. Pay attention to when he talks about projecting Moncada and others as he's the man behind ZIPS. Much more at the link.

I created this thread because my discussion about Anderson's OBP/OPS sucking kinda hijacked the Giolito thread. Hopefully everything gets moved here. To sum up my thoughts: Anderson's OBP and OPS, while league average for a SS, still suck. That doesn't make him good, it means the league average SS sucks as well. I think that Anderson is fine as a 9 hitter until they can find someone better. That may or may not happen. If it does, and Anderson is still under contract, he should become a super sub(2B/SS/3B/OF) for 130 games/ season.

https://www.mlb.com/news/could-outfield-be-in-tim-andersons-future/c-278979304

One of the few bright spots of our season at the Major League level has been Tim Anderson. Coming off what was a rough 2017 for him in many ways, he has made huge strides defensively, increased his walk rate, decreased his strikeout rate, become more of a stolen base threat, more of a menace on the bases, more of a home run threat, and still has a very low BABIP (.276, was .328 last year) which suggests better looking offensive numbers by the end of the season. Defensively, he still botches a routine play here and there, but he also makes rangey, flashy plays and has gotten better as the season has progressed. It's been fun to watch him grow and I'm confident we have our shortstop of the future. That said, looking at where he was at the end of last season, it would probably have been considered a surprise to learn that he has likely been our most valuable player through 75 games. While he still has room for improvement, it is clear that he has begun to iron out irritating mistakes and has become a more complete hitter offensively. I'm sure more improvements will come. Watching him improve has given me more faith in improvements from Moncada, and even in the rebuild as a whole. Yoan is similar to Anderson in the sense that he's young, uber talented, and sometimes frustrating to watch. But seeing Anderson slowly but surely put his main concerns to rest with time has made me feel a lot better about Moncada doing the same, perhaps to an even greater extent.

Here are the stats for shortstop defense in 2018. Clearly, Anderson has shot up from the bottom of the list, where he was around the end of April. There are improvements in UZR, defensive value, and DRS, where he has crept out of the negative range. He has been improving defensively throughout the season while Manny Machado, who many can't wait to kick Tim out of SS, has been abysmal out there. I'd love for us to sign Machado but I think he's a disaster at SS and putting him there on a (supposedly) contending team would be very unwise. Anderson is the better SS defender by far. Manny simply doesn't have the range to play SS.

We're another 30 errors away from that drumbeat REALLY picking up, but it's something we might have to consider.It has worked well when the Marlins/M's moved Dee Gordon to CF, for example. You'd have to play Leury at SS...and probably keep looking for a long-term solution. That would give you a defensive future outfield of Jimenez in LF, Anderson in CF and Luis Robert (they might flip-flop Robert and Anderson at some point, because of Anderson's arm strength for RF). Then you'd have a bunch of pieces like Delmonico, Basabe, Adolfo and Rutherford as either trade bait or DH candidates (along with Davidson, if he doesn't play 1B with Abreu moving to DH). Maybe you make Sanchez the super-sub, sign someone like Moustakas/Donaldson for at least 2-3 years for 3rd...still would have to find a SS long-term.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/rosenblog/ct-spt-white-sox-tim-anderson-salvador-perez-rosenbloom-20180429-story,amp.html?__twitter_impression=true Good stuff on the Anderson vs Perez garbage.