Brewers: Anderson off to a great start.
Anderson’s earned run average is tops in the NL
While new Milwaukee Brewers slugger Eric Thames has taken the major leagues by storm with his early-season home-run barrage, teammate Chase Anderson has quietly gotten off to a terrific start of his own.
The right-hander heads into his fifth start of the season against the Atlanta Braves on Friday night at Miller Park as the National League’s leader in earned-run average at 1.13. It’s been quite a transformation for a player who wasn’t even slated to be in the rotation when the Brewers broke camp late last month. But Anderson answered the bell while taking the place of an injured Matt Garza, and he has entrenched himself as the team’s best starting pitcher so far.
“I honestly wasn’t worried about what was going to happen with the bullpen or the rotation,” Anderson said Wednesday. “I just came in every day and worked hard, and I look back and say, ‘Wow.’
“It’s an honor I’m in the rotation. I’m not going to take it lightly.”
Anderson, 29, actually has been on a roll dating to about the final two months of 2016. Over his last 16 starts, he’s gone 7-1 with a 2.15 ERA after going 5-10 with a 5.40 ERA over the previous 19.
Anderson credits several factors for the turnaround.
He’s using a solid four-pitch mix that includes a peppier fastball (0.8 mph faster on average than 2016). He’s commanding his off-speed pitches better, in particular a curveball with a different grip he picked up in the spring of 2015. He also is throwing in on hitters more frequently, keeping them more honest and widening the plate.
Perhaps most important has been keeping the mindset of an aggressor.
“I don’t ever look at the numbers. I just try to enjoy playing the game, and when you’re doing well it’s obviously a lot more fun.”
CHASE ANDERSON
BREWERS RIGHT-HANDER
“I think it goes back to the mentality of being the hunter and not the hunted,” he said. “(Pitching coach Derek Johnson) harps on that a lot. He tells me to just go out there and attack the strike zone and that my stuff’s good enough, and that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”
Anderson finished 2016 — his first season with the Brewers after coming over from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Jean Segura trade — with a 9-11 record and 4.39 ERA after making 31 appearances (30 starts, 151 2/3 innings).
He and his wife, Anna, had their first child, Robert, in the off-season and a 10-pound gain that got Anderson up to just over 200 pounds has helped both his fastball as well as his stamina. After averaging right around five innings per start in 2016, he’s gone seven innings once, six innings twice and five innings once in starting 2-0 this year.
“I think it’s just a pitcher gaining experience, getting better at his craft,” manager Craig Counsell said of Anderson’s development.
“He’s in a sweet spot in his career where he has some experience (82 career starts, 442 2/3 total innings), he’s had some failures and had some successes and he’s able to kind of translate and learn from both of those and make himself better.
“To me, it’s just kind of the evolution that you want guys to take and Chase is a little farther along that continuum.”
Anderson could have been salty with the Brewers this spring for a couple reasons.
He reported to camp having just lost his arbitration case, with the Brewers paying him $2.45 million for this year instead of the $2.85 million he’d requested. Anderson made $520,200 in 2016.
Then as camp rolled along, it became evident that Anderson and left-hander Tommy Milone would be the odd men out in their quest to be part of the Brewers’ rotation for 2017.
Anderson was solid with a 1-1 record, 2.79 ERA and WHIP of 1.14 in six appearances (four starts), but it wasn’t until Garza suffered a right groin strain in his final Cactus League start that Anderson locked down a spot as a starter rather than as a long reliever out of the bullpen.
Despite all that, he kept a positive outlook and harbored no ill will.
“My wife is good at helping me keep my perspective on the things that really matter in life,” Anderson said. “How I was raised comes into it. I’m in the major leagues. I’m playing big-league baseball.
“I want to show that I belong on the team and in the major leagues. I’m never going to pout about anything.”
Anderson is tied with Zach Davies for the team lead with 22 strikeouts in 24 innings, and his WHIP of 1.04 is best among Milwaukee’s starters. He also is limiting opposing hitters to a .221 average, and the Brewers are 2-2 in his starts.
Chances are the Clayton Kershaws of the world will wind up grabbing the ERA title away from Anderson at some point this season. But Anderson’s primary focus remains staying healthy, pitching deeper and winning games.
“I’m excited to come to the field every day,” he said. “I don’t ever look at the numbers. I just try to enjoy playing the game, and when you’re doing well it’s obviously a lot more fun.”