Shots Fired: Kasper Declares Anderson Better than Baez
This shouldn’t be a surprise, cause, well… It’s the truth. I know you’ll hate me for it, but Tim Anderson is a better baseball player than Javier Baez is – right now. Len Kasper doubled down on this talking with Jason Benetti.
Referring to my last tweet, i wasn’t trolling. So chills pic.twitter.com/ENW3scD6hH
— Julian 🎄 (@Julian4948) December 8, 2020
A lot of Cubs fans get overexcited with the flashiness of Baez. They love the passion he plays with on a daily basis, and of course *the tags*. Thing is, there much more to the game, and I hate to break it to you… Anderson is just as exciting, just as flashy, but instead of tagging he actually hits the ball consistently.
- Anderson
- 2020: .322/.356/.529 10 HR 143 wRC+ 22.6% K%
- 2019: .335/.357/.508 18 HR 130 wRC+ 21% K%
- Baez
- 2020: .203/.238/.360 8 HR 57 wRC+ 31.9% K%
- 2019: .281/.316/.531 29 HR 114 wRC+ 27.8% K%
- Combined 2019 & 2020
- Baez – .258/.298/.481 99 OPS+
- Anderson – .331/.357/.514 132 OPS+
Baez has a bit of a lead defensively, but Anderson has closed that gap. In 2019 Baez had a 26 DRS to Anderson’s -12, and in 2020 Baez posted a 7 DRS to Anderson’s 3. Looking at UZR and UZR150, Baez still has a commanding lead, but both of those stats are heavily swayed in smaller samples (less than two full seasons). But, it is worth noting, Baez’s stats show a rather commanding lead there.
Essentially, it comes down to this… If you were drafting a team, who would you select? TA7 or El Mago?
The *fan* in you would more than likely pick the player that’s on your team. A White Sox fan would pick Anderson and a Cubs fan would obviously choose Baez – most often. I’m a Cubs fan, I took so much crap defending Baez when he struggled and he struck out in 30% (or more) of his plate appearances. If you recall, I used to write most articles on Baez and crazy stuff he’d do. I’d argue with anyone that would continue the conversation about how there was something special about him.
But today, gun to my head, I pick Anderson as my shortstop.
Now, sometimes that excitement that Anderson brings causes some extra curriculars. But that’s the same with Baez.
Problem is, pitchers can and will consistently get Baez to get himself out. They can’t do that with Tim Anderson. Here’s Trevor Bauer talking about how he can get him out every at bat. Say what you will about Bauer, his persona, whatever else, but the dude might be the smartest person in the game of baseball today.
You don’t have to have a master’s degree in Major League pitching to know that this is how you get Javy out. Breaking balls away, and away, and away and you’ll eventually get him out.
Notice, even when Bauer makes a video about dominating Baez, he does give him credit on his baserunning. This is the double-edged sword with Javy. He’s a good baserunner and he sees things that not a lot of others see. So he takes chances.
We remember the crazy times Baez’s chances worked out for him and the Cubs. We forget (or suppress) the times they don’t work.
I really don’t mean to crap on Baez, seriously. But if we were looking at the past two seasons, knowing the Cubs have suffered to score runs, wouldn’t you want the better player and better hitter on your club? This isn’t to offend, it’s just the truth. We don’t have to be so meatheaded that we can’t accept another player is better than our player.
Well, most of us anyway… I did see someone suggest trading Baez is like the Angels trading Mike Trout (do you even baseball, bro!?).
I’d just be glad we have one of the best players in the game in Baez. Also, don’t crap on Kasper for this. He’s telling the truth, he isn’t trying to score points as he said it while working for Marquee as well. We don’t have to like it, but we shouldn’t damn someone for saying it.
