How Chicago White Sox can shock baseball, make playoffs

Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson must dominate at top of order

When you get a spark from the top of your lineup, your entire team benefits offensively. And the Chicago White Sox badly need big production from two of their most important young players—Moncada and Anderson—if they have any notion about surprising people next year and beyond.

Both possess electrifying speed and can wreak havoc on the base paths if given the opportunity. Anderson, in particular, stole 15 bases last season while only being caught once.

Furthermore, both finished off last season very well. Moncada posted a .276/.349/.818 slash in September, and Anderson went off for one of the best stretches of his career, hitting .327/.345/.814. As such, they’ll look to carry that late-season success into 2018.

The key for both will be consistency for an entire season and improving their approaches at the plate.

Despite showing a decent eye (12.1% walk rate), Moncada struck out about 32% of the time last year. And there doesn’t yet exist a pitch that Anderson won’t swing at; he swung at more than 40% of the pitches he saw outside of the strike zone last year. His walk rate of 2.1% is simply hideous.

If the two can take their walks and simply put the ball in play, utilizing their tremendous speed to their advantage, they can drive opposing teams crazy. And the more they set the table for Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia, the better.