Tim Anderson saying he hates being compared to Javy Baez

Tim Anderson prefers not to be compared to his crosstown counterpart. 

Tim Anderson has emerged as one of the rising stars on a Chicago White Sox team that finally appears set to compete in 2020. The shortstop is coming off a 3.7 WAR season and also led the league with a .335 batting average.

The White Sox already face the uphill battle of being the second baseball team in town. The Chicago Cubs get all the sellouts and have also enjoyed recent postseason success, including a World Series win back in 2016. Meanwhile, the White Sox have not made the playoffs since 2008.

Comparing the two teams also means players at each position are stacked up against one another. This pits Anderson against Cubs shortstop Javy Baez, who is easily the bigger star. Yet the former has made it clear he is tired of the comparisons with the latter.

Tim Anderson is his own player and deserves to stand on his own

The only reason a comparison between the two should come up is that they both play in Chicago. So naturally, Cubs fans and White Sox fans may get into it about who is the better shortstop when in reality both are great players.

To this point, Baez has more accolades including a Silver Slugger Award and a second-place finish in 2018 National League MVP voting. He is also playing more in the spotlight, helping get his name out there to a larger audience.

Anderson has been a steady player himself and has only played in 521 total games through four seasons. Baez has 665 games player and made his debut two years earlier in 2014.

Cubs fans may call Anderson out for bringing up the comparison, but it must come up enough for him to mention it in the first place. He wants to be known for who he is without being compared to someone just because they play in the same city. There is nothing wrong about that.