Anderson. Davidson experiencing growing pains with White Sox
Playing major-league baseball is hard enough. Playing major-league baseball with a high frustration level is almost impossible.
Chicago White Sox manager Rick Renteria sensed that two of his younger players - Tim Anderson and Matt Davidson - have been feeling overly frustrated the past week, so he's doing something about it.
For the second straight game Friday, Anderson and Davidson were not in the Sox's starting lineup.
"I'm trying to allow both young men to kind of take a breath," Renteria said. "They've both been playing every single day. I think sometimes you've just got to allow them to take a step back and watch the game a little bit and then reinsert them back in there, let them start enjoying it again."
Anderson is 2-for-21 on the White Sox's homestand, which has dropped the 24-year-old shortstop's batting average to .246.
In Monday's game against the Yankees, Anderson started wearing glasses. He hit a 3-run homer against New York but was 0-for-8 with 4 strikeouts in his next two games before being benched.
With a major-league high 18 errors in 281 total chances, Anderson has been equally disappointing in the field. As a rookie last year, he made 14 errors in 400 chances.
"I'm not where I want to be," Anderson said of his season as a whole. "But I know what it takes to get to where I want to be. I feel like what I'm going through right now has really set myself up to be great. Just believe in myself and keep working."
At the plate, Anderson has not been able to handle high fastballs and breaking pitches out of the strike zone away.
After posting a .283/.306/.432 hitting line with 9 home runs and 30 RBI in 99 games in 2016, Anderson is slashing .246/.271/.367 with 7 homers and 24 RBI in 69 games this season.
"You keep doing something over and over, you will get tired of it," Anderson said of his approach at the plate. "It's definitely something I'm working on. Just keep getting better each and every day."
In his first full season with the White Sox, Davidson is slashing .250/.291/.527. He leads the Sox with 17 home runs and is also first with 96 strikeouts, in only 220 at-bats. The 26-year-old designated hitter/third baseman is 3-for-24 on the homestand.
The way Renteria sees it, taking a break can only help Anderson and Davidson.
"I think what happens, you start getting too frustrated and you continue living those frustrating moments and you forget there is more than just frustration," Renteria said. "But you step away and you see everybody else doing what they do and you realize at any high level of the game, major-league baseball, three out of ten is pretty good. There are a lot of guys that aren't necessarily going to hit .300 but that doesn't make you any less a player.
"I think you've got to be able to step away from the situations early in the moment and understand it's a tough ballgame to play, it's tough at the major-league level to be able to compete and have success. It's all right. You can still get back up and go out there and do what you've got to do."