No rust on Dodgers’ top two Draft picks
By joshjacksonmilb
By Josh Jackson
You know how, after some time away, your mojo is often missing on the first day back on the job?
Chris Anderson doesn’t. Neither does Tom Windle.
Anderson was the Dodgers’ top pick in this year’s Draft. They grabbed Windle in the second round. Each hurler hadn’t pitched in June — from a final college start and through the process of being drafted, signed and assigned — until Tuesday.
The minute they stepped back on the mound, each was immediately in a groove.
“I was just excited to get back out there, doing what I love to do,” said Anderson (pictured below). “I love to compete and I haven’t been able to do it in about a month.”
Windle echoed the sentiment.
“It was good to get out there after not being in a game,” he said, “after not competing at a high level for a little while.”
As these guys talked about this great relief of getting back on the mound, though, they almost seemed to have forgotten that the return came in their first appearances as professionals.
“It’s the same game,” Windle said. “I tried to take the same approach I had in college. It’s a different background, and there’s a lot more people in the crowd. There’s different scenery, but pitching is the same.”
Anderson and Windle went to high schools this far apart:
They pitched against one another back then, and were on opposing teams in the Cape Cod League last summer.
They’re quite lucky, they feel, to have been both been picked by the Dodgers.
“I’m extremely excited,” Anderson said. “They have a lot of tradition and a great history.”
“They flew us out there [to L.A.] the other week,” Windle said. “We got introduced to the crowd at Dodger Stadium. That was really great, to see the stadium and the goal we’re trying to reach. Hopefully we’ll get there in the next year or two or three.”
