Tim Anderson disappeared from the lineup during the second half of Friday night’s White Sox winner against the Royals, and he’ll stay missing for at least the next 10 days. The Sox placed him on the injured list with a strained right groin, and called up Yermín Mercedes to take his spot on the roster.
Mercedes, whose first taste of stateside ball came in the Pecos League four years into his pro career, will wear No. 49.
Mercedes probably isn’t a true Anderson replacement, as Rick Renteria isn’t likely to play Mercedes at shortstop due to a lack of whimsy. In Renteria’s defense, nobody can call him a buzzkill tonight, for Luis Robert is batting leadoff.
We may as well use this post as the First Pitch.
Lineups:
(Tim Anderson portrait by Carl Skanberg)
It won’t happen, but the headline inspires dreams of Yermin at SS. Dreams of the highlights and the defensive statistics he would generate there.
Damn Renteria’s lack of whimsy for crushing all our dreams!
Dadgummit! We’re only two weeks into the season. Why has it been so hard to field a lineup with more than 7 of our regulars?
And PLEASE let us see more Mendick at SS than Leury. Doesn’t Ricky remember how ugly Sweet Leu looked at short last year? He made Tim look like a gold glover.
That was some kind of homer
I think he caught it off the end of the bat…amazing indeed
Gio is falling behind often. By design?
Now that you mention it, have you seen this Fangraphs article? I apologize if someone shared this already or you were directly referencing it. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/was-gio-gonzalez-falling-behind-on-purpose/
Pitó just doesn’t want to get on base. How on earth does he swing at that pitch?
Madrigal can’t resist the soft dribble GIDP
Luis Robert looks comfortable batting leadoff. Has anyone ever hit for the cycle in their first career leadoff appearance? He’s got a shot at it.
Ricky, if you’d like to just leave in Heuer for the 9th instead of me having to watch Colome struggle to make anyone swing and miss for the 4th time in 5 days, I’d be ok with that.
I, too, would find that strategy acceptable.