Anderson at 2B? Works for Grifol
Ready for anything, Caruso and Beverley are lifting Bulls to a respectable level
GLENDALE, Ariz. — White Sox manager Pedro Grifol didn’t need an explanation as to why All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson played second base Monday night for the first time in his professional career.
“He felt comfortable,” Grifol said of Anderson, who hit an RBI triple in Team USA’s 12-1 win over Canada in the World Baseball Classic. “We feel comfortable with him feeling comfortable.”
Anderson, who played in only 79 games for the Sox last season because of injuries, has received rave reviews from U.S. teammates for his zest, as well as his production.
“He’s playing with that edge that I talked about,” Grifol said. “I’ve seen it from the other side [with the Royals]. That’s great for me to see. I just want him healthy, that’s all.”
Grifol was just as pleased with the performance of right-hander Lance Lynn, who pitched five innings of two-hit ball.
“He’s a big piece to what we’re about,” Grifol said.
Team USA plays Columbia on Wednesday, with a chance to advance to the next round this weekend in Miami.
Clock control
Right-hander Michael Kopech started his delivery Sunday against the Angels with as many as 13 seconds left on the pitch clock. Grifol was pleased that catcher Seby Zavala went to the mound to help Kopech regain his rhythm and prevent fatigue sooner.
“When you see someone getting quick with their delivery or tempo, you can see their minds racing,” Zavala said. “You do whatever you have to do to slow the game down for them.”
Zavala described the clock — which forces pitchers to start their delivery within 15 seconds of receiving the ball from the catcher — as an added distraction. The new limits on pickoff attempts also place a premium on nailing runners on steal attempts. Zavala caught the Angels’ Jordyn Adams on one such attempt.
Another potential ploy is a pitchout — “definitely a tool we’ll keep in our back pocket,” Zavala said. “But if pitchers are quick to the plate and we have strong throws to second, the pitchout is not really a factor.”
Cranking up the heat
With spring training entering its final two weeks and a few jobs at stake, Grifol plans to hold a meeting before Friday’s game against the Cubs to let the Sox know what he expects.
“I’m looking to turn up the urgency a little more,” he said.
Grifol usually calls meetings every seven to 10 days, which means he could hold another one a few days before the season opener March 30.
“We’ll turn up the urgency a little bit, and hopefully that will take us right into Houston,” he said.
Infielder Romy Gonzalez, who hasn’t played since March 8 because of general soreness, is scheduled to return Wednesday.
“He played every day, had a day off. It was time to give him a blow,” Grifol said. “Now he’s got to crank it back up and go.”
The concerns were real when Bulls coach Billy Donovan announced his newlook starting lineup late last month. Putting Alex Caruso and Patrick Beverley in for Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams, he was giving away about 5 inches and 40 pounds.
But as the Bulls have been reminded, you can’t measure heart and guts.
Caruso and Beverley, who joined the core of Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, approach defense as a craft rather than a chore. They embrace disruption and turn 50-50 balls into 80-20 in their favor.
The Bulls have gone 5-3 since the new lineup was installed, and Donovan wants his players to understand that with 15 games left in the regular season, their attitude about winning can’t waver.
“You have to be really internally motivated and driven, especially in this league, because it’s really hard,” he said. “It’s 82 games, and they keep on coming. You have to get yourself to a place emotionally every single night. That’s really hard to get to.”
Donovan knows what it looks like. He coached Kevin Durant for a season in Oklahoma City. He had Russell Westbrook in his prime and a season of Chris Paul.
Beverley and Caruso don’t have the offensive talents of those three players, but they do know how to get a team motivated.
“Being around Kevin Durant for even a year, or being around Westbrook for four years, their ability to go up to this level all the time — it’s not that they played perfect, but just the readiness part of it,” Donovan said. “We cannot be a team of, ‘Well, we can take the foot off the pedal. We’re OK.’ ”
They have been many times like that this season, resulting in the Bulls blowing more than a handful of leads of 15 points or more.
Caruso and Beverley aren’t perfect, either, but they have helped answer some serious questions already — specifically in how the Bulls match up against bigger starting lineups. Donovan swapped Caruso for Williams for the game against the Suns on March 3 — a good plan on paper, to match Williams against Durant. But the Bulls still lost.
Otherwise, it’s been Caruso and Beverley, with both guarding bigger players at times. It’s easy to see why Caruso, at 6-6, has no issue defending one through four, but don’t discount what Beverley, at 6-2, does against bigger players, especially if they try taking him into the post.
“I like to consider myself one of the strongest guards in the NBA, so it’s not like back in the day when you had to guard the Rodney Stuckeys and the Chauncey Billupses,’’ Beverley said. “Most guys now just want to go out there and shoot a ton of threes. The height has changed at certain positions. The physicality has changed also. I’m fine with all of it.”
Beverley and Caruso are both well-versed in film study, looking for tendencies and weaknesses not only in assigned matchups but also those that could come their way on a switch.
“I like to think there’s some type of calculated plan with it,” Beverley said. “I don’t just go out there and try to impose my will on guys, because every guy is different. I will say Billy and this coaching staff, they do a great job preparing us for our daily matchups, so preparation mixed with IQ mixed with strength. That’s a pretty good combination.”