OK, maybe this isn't the toughest year of a rebuild.
The White Sox are in sole position of first place after their 14-7 thumping of the Kansas City Royals on Thursday. Corey Kluber went the distance, but his first-inning homer was all the Mariners needed to beat the Indians. In Minnesota, Zach Duke blew a two-run lead in an extra-inning loss to the Orioles. The Tigers were rained out.
Just 161 games and 180something days to go.
If this were hockey, here's who I'd put down for the three stars of the game:
Matt Davidson
Since he's only the fourth player in MLB history to pull off the good kind of hat trick on Opening Day, let's start with him. He hit three homers and crushed all of them, exciting the Statcast folks. Enjoy.
Just as importantly, Davidson drew a walk without striking out. He only had 16 zero-K games out of 107 starts last year, and he only strung together K-less starts twice.
During the broadcast, Jason Benetti resurfaced the stories from spring regarding Davidson's relationship with Paul Konerko. Emulating Konerko did Gordon Beckham no favors, but now that Konerko is free from his own burdens during his playing days, maybe he's better able to help clear others' heads.
Tim Anderson
Anderson's day started on the wrong foot. Whit Merrifield hit a one-hop smash to Anderson's left, and it deflected off the bottom of his glove and into center field for the second of four hits and four runs to open James Shields' day. The official scorer originally charged him with an error, but changed it to a single.
It's a tough play, especially as the second batter in the first inning of regular-season environment. He had the right first step and right angle, but his glove didn't anticipate the correct hop, so the initial ruling of "error" seemed harsh, and it was quickly reversed.
Error or not, it's the kind of play he'd need to make when he's hitting (or not hitting) like he did last season. It's forgivable when he comes back with a pair of homers, a walk and some terrific baserunning. I'll call the walk a rarity, but he should be able to get extra bases one way or another.
James Fegan said Rick Renteria was more excited about Anderson scoring from first on Yolmer Sanchez's three-run single. The manager has a point, because look at this jump:
Anderson read Burch Smith's book to such an extent that Sanchez's single up the middle went safely behind him. He scored standing up.
For the time being, I'm a bigger fan of the homers. Anderson has talked about prioritizing fun, bringing swag to the South Side, and being the Michael Jordan to Yoan Moncada's Scottie Pippen. All that could seem premature for somebody who was just about replacement-level last year and walks thrice a month, but I think he has the cart and horse in the right order. White Sox baseball is a lot more fun when Anderson is feeling it.
Adam Engel
As Engel staked his claim to center field with a dynamite spring, we started talking about how much he'd need to hit in order to serve as a credible major-league center fielder. It seems like .220 is the idea, and the projections suggest he could gain that 50-60 points of average by lowering his strikeout rate nearly 10 percent.
The projections only have him getting halfway there in both categories. The good news, oddly, is that a strikeout rate in the upper-20s is still problematic for a player without a ton of home-run clout, so it's not like Engel is asked to get good at something, just less bad.
One game in, Engel has a 20-percent strikeout rate. He was productive in his other plate appearances. He doubled off Danny Duffy for the Sox' first hit, singled for a second hit, then added a pair of walks.
The single is the kind of hit that depicts Engel's personal battle to replace strikeouts with contact. On a 1-1 count, Duffy threw a changeup that fooled Engel badly, resulting in an ugly swing.
After buzzing Engel up and in with a fastball, Duffy tried the same changeup away. This time, it was still off the corner, but a little bit closer to the plate. Also, Engel waited back a little more. The result? A first-and-thirding single:
The mechanics behind that particular hit are in the eye of the beholder.
One person can look at that and see why he only hit .166 last year, while another thinks Engel has found a way to increase his plate coverage. Whatever the case, that's one at-bat where Engel converted a strikeout into a single. He'll just need to do that two or three dozen more times.
