Down goes Tim Anderson.
Again.
The Miami Marlins designated Anderson for assignment on Tuesday afternoon, pulling the plug on a failed attempt to capture a rebound season. Anderson was mired in a 2-for-27 slump that knocked him down to .214/.237/.226 on the season, and he'd committed a costly error on what should've been an inning-ending double play in the Marlins' fall-from ahead loss on Sunday.
Anderson's defense had actually rebounded somewhat according to Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average, but not nearly enough to offset the complete collapse in power. Anderson collected just three extra-base hits over 65 games and 241 plate appearances with Miami, and they were all doubles.
With Anderson joining José Abreu in the DFA line, the deck is further cleared for a White Sox player to own the bottom of the WAR leaderboards. Per FanGraphs:
- Martín Maldonado, -1.9
- Elehuris Montero, -1.8
- José Abreu, -1.5
- Andrew Benintendi, -1.5
- Jack Suwinski, -1.3
- Jack Suwinski, -2.2
- Martín Maldonado, -2.0
- Andrew Benintendi, -1.8
- José Abreu, -1.6
- Elehuris Montero, -1.4Javier Báez, -1.4
Anderson ranked seventh on both lists.
While Anderson suffered through extraneous indignities that hovered over his sad final year with the White Sox, the attempt at a fresh start lays bare the idea that his legs really let him down. It started with the groin injury in 2022 that interrupted a .356/.393/.503 start to that season at the end of May, and a knee injury halfway into April might've cut short his last best chance. The other stuff probably didn't help, though.
Spare Parts
Craig Monroe, who served as the lead TV analyst alongside Jason Benetti on Detroit Tigers broadcast, was suspended after a woman alleged on social media that Monroe sexually molested her when she was 12, and Monroe was living with her family while playing for High-A Port Charlotte in the Texas Rangers system.
Obviously the projection systems didn't have a whole lot to work with, but it's still funny how Garrett Crochet's first half has confused the hell out of the algorithms. Nobody comes close to the kind of revision his 2024 season has forced.
Patrick Dubuque followed Sunday's White Sox-Rockies game, and it took him into some deep and abstract places.
It feels like these two teams are going to play forever, and moreover that they should play forever, against each other, separated from the rest of baseball. An endless string of day games, a pointless cultural artifact designed to exist, and to pull us, outside of time. Men like Crochet can earn the right to leave, but not for prospects—no young man should be plunged into this kind of indentured servitude. If he’s to be freed, add someone willingly, a Dallas Keuchel or a Julio Teheran, someone willing to pass from their former baseball lives to the next, to live and play like ghosts.
Sox Machine contributor Greg Nix recently launched Chortle, a humor newsletter. Here, he sees the success of the pitch clock and decides that more is better. My favorite is the mound visit clock:
We’re giving managers three seconds to get from the dugout steps to the pitcher’s mound for a pitching change. Otherwise, it’s an immediate ejection for both manager and pitcher. This helps with baseball’s pace of play initiative, as well as one of the league’s other recent goals: more action on the infield. The specific action here, of course, will include a lot of old men falling down. In other words, Must See TV.
I'm not sure this works as envisioned for managers, because I can imagine Bruce Bochy accepting his fate and walking down the dugout tunnel instead of playing the little game. Pitching coaches, on the other hand? Imagine you're Jonathan Cannon, and you just issued your second walk of the second inning. You circle the mound to grab the rosin bag when the crowd erupts, and when you turn around, Ethan Katz is charging in your direction at full tilt. I'm picturing this from the vantage point of the upper deck, and it's so stupid. I love it. Support Greg's work.
