If there's one thing Tim Anderson might want to avoid in the future, it's yelling in a way that the catcher might think it's directed at him.
Anderson wasn't screaming at the Royals after his fourth-inning homer on Wednesday, just like he wasn't screaming at them last year when he annoyed Sal Perez with his exuberance. Unlike last year, when Perez had to reach for a directionless profanity-based excuse because Anderson got charged up at all, Maldonado did experience loud words across his bow.
Anderson and Maldonado seemed to settle it like adults on the way to first base after Brad Keller's first-pitch plunking, which you can see on this very informative third-party breakdown of the incident. The Royals bench and bullpen surrounding Anderson at first changed the tone of the proceedings.
The screaming-across-a-guy part is the only change I'd suggest to Anderson. Otherwise, he's intent on playing his brand of baseball regardless of what anybody says.
“I don’t have any rules,” Anderson said. “I play fun, I play to have fun and I play with a lot of energy.”
That's his right. As I wrote last year after Justin Verlander's red-assing, Anderson's seen tough times professionally and personally, so I can understand if he wants to enjoy what he's earned and play how he wants to play. It also seems to be what baseball wants, because it keeps defending Anderson with its marketing arm:
Considering this is Year Four of Anderson getting thrown and/or barked at -- it started with the Twins at the end of 2016 -- the league could do more to protect players like him if it wanted to. We'll find out from Keller's suspension whether it actually wants to. I suspect it won't make the connection.
One of the stated sore spots regarding Anderson is that he isn't good enough to be doing what he does. Perez said so last year; the Royals stuck to "respecting the game" this time around, but most of them were pretending the purpose pitch didn't happen while discussing in depth the reasons Anderson had to take one.
Indeed, he isn't yet good enough to back it up on a reliable basis. Anderson will eventually get humbled by a play in the same series, if not the same game, or even the same sequence. Last year, Verlander took advantage of Anderson's excitement by picking him off second. In between the bat toss and getting drilled on Wednesday, Anderson fumbled a double-play ball, keeping the door open for the Royals to tie the game. Anderson gave the Sox the lead. He also kinda gave it away.
That's what makes the retaliation and postgame pissyness also so stupid. They already stuck it to him on the field, which is where these things are supposed to be settled. They could've pantomimed him booting the ball. They could've thanked him for the error after the game. Instead, Keller committed sanctioned assault and they bemoaned the lack of respect afterward, as if if their franchise had a history of keeping it buttoned-down the past five years.
The Royals and White Sox will next meet up on Memorial Day in Chicago. Anderson's at-bats will be watched very closely, and Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre will champ at the bit to use his I'd-like-to-speak-to-your-manager voice. Hopefully, Anderson will still be commanding the attention for good reasons, even if he stands a chance at taking a step back after every step forward.
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The other fallout from Wednesday's game: The White Sox placed Lucas Giolito on the 10-day disabled list for what they're calling a strained left hamstring. We'll find out shortly in Rick Renteria's pre-game press scrum how serious they think it is, but Carson Fulmer will take Giolito's place on the pitching staff, with Manny Banuelos likely taking his place in the rotation.
Fulmer represented himself well during his lone appearance with the Sox this year, throwing three innings of one-run ball on April 8. Around that one game in the majors, he's struck out 11 batters over seven innings in Charlotte, allowing just a run and eight baserunners. He'll never be the model of efficiency, but he's missing bats better than ever in pro baseball, so this multi-inning relief role could work for him.
The Sox also called up Ryan Cordell to take Daniel Palka's space. Ironically, Palka likely hastened his demotion to Charlotte by snapping his hitless skid to open the season, as I think the Sox would probably do their best to make sure he didn't have some record 0-fer on his ledger.
His broken-bat flare to shallow left field on Wednesday made him 1-for-33; two subsequent poor at-bats made him 1-for-35. He can't get the ball off the ground, except when he's way out in front and ripping it into foul territory down the right-field line. That's something that can be addressed in Charlotte, assuming it can be addressed at all.
Cordell opened the season with the Sox and delivered a pinch-hit go-ahead homer in his first plate appearance of the year. He went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts in his only start with the Sox before they optioned him to Charlotte.
His production with the Knights has been similarly lumpy. He hit for the cycle his second game back in Charlotte, then went 4-for-22 with eight strikeouts over his next five games. He has a superficially impressive .323/.344/.581 line across those seven games, but I don't know if his profile has changed that much. What he does offer is a right-handed bat and the ability to handle center, and definitely upgrades the defense in right.
This is all supposed to be temporary until Jon Jay comes back, but since he's battling vague multi-body-part maladies that collectively sound an awful lot like Brett Lawrie Syndrome, Cordell and Charlie Tilson might be the only outfielders they can count on for the foreseeable future.
