Roger Anderson

​Roger Anderson (born October 29, 1983), is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played 14 seasons in the American Baseball Association for the Chicago Cyclones. He amassed a 98-44 record in 177 starts with a 2.83 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and 913 strikeouts over 1268 innings. He is a 3-time ABA Champion, 2-time ABA Pitcher of the Year and a former ABA Rookie of the Year. His number 18 was retired by the Cyclones.

## Professional Career

### Chicago Cyclones (2006-2019)

Anderson was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2005 ABA Entry Draft by the Cyclones. Before the start of the 2006 season, Anderson was named the top prospect in the league. He started the season on the reserve roster and after 4 convincing relief appearances, Anderson was named a starter in July. He pitched a 3-hit shutout in his debut against the Dallas Rangers. He missed the end of the season following a back injury that made the Cyclones think of the worst, after he was diagnosed with chronic back soreness. Despite his limited playing time, Anderson was chosen as the Rookie of the Year.

Anderson was pretty good in 2007 and was an above average pitcher for the Cyclones, benifiting from the Cyclones great defense. Some attributed his success from the defense behind him, but he was still regarded as a solid pitcher. Exactly one-year after his shutout of the Dallas Rangers, he did it again on the exact same day against the Rangers for his second career shutout. Anderson has a similar season in 2008, with many experts still attributing his success to the Cyclones defense. He kept the same numbers in 2009, but wasn't as lucky and his ERA suffered a bit. He still helped the Cyclones win back-to-back championships.

Anderson has his best season yet in 2010, leading the league in wins with 9 and in home runs allowed per nine innings. He also pitched 4 shutouts in 12 starts and was the pitcher who allowed the fewer amount of runs per nine innings in the ABA. For his efforts, he won the ABA Pitcher of the Year Award. At the end of the season, he signed a 6-year contract extension with the Cyclones.

Anderson probably had an even better year in 2011, but pretty much all pitchers did. The following two seasons, in 2012 and 2013 weren't as successful for Anderson who suffered a bit from bad luck as it seems every batted ball landed with inflated his hits allowed and his ERA.

He bounced back in 2014 in a big way, lowering his ERA below 2.00 for the first time since his Pitcher of the Year award in 2010. However, finger blisters issues plagued his end of the season and he missed two consecutive starts, which most probably cost him the POTY award, as he finished 2nd voting. In his final contract year, he was even better, endingf the season leading the league in walks and hits per inning pitched. He posted a career best in WAR and strikeouts per 9 innings and won his second Pitcher of the Year Award.

Following another award winning-year, Anderson and Chicago management disagreed in trade talks and hit free agency for the first time in his career. However, Chicago and Anderson came to an agreement soon enough, with Roger signing a 5-year contract with Chicago.

Anderson once again had a terrific season in 2015 with an amazing 2.09 ERA and leading the league with the lowest WHIP, or walks plus hits per innings pitched. Some detractors said he got lucky with an insanely low BABIP, but he was still awarded the Pitcher of the Year Award for his efforts. He followed it up in 2016 and perhaps had an even better season, leading the leagie in strikeouts and WHIP, but his 8-5 record prevented him to win POTY again, losing to Ben Flynn.

The good fortunes had to stop at some point and Anderson had his worst season since 2013 in 2017 with his ERA going higher than 3.00 for the first time in 5 years. He still led the league in strikeouts, but gave up too many home runs, which impacted his overall play. Anderson then led the league in wins with 11 in 2018, a career-high and tied for the league record at the time. His strikeout numbers kept dropping and he walked more, meaning his slider didn't drop as much and hitters had less swing and a miss. The trend continue in his final contract year and despite a 8-3 record, Anderson was seen as a worse than average pitcher due to his low strikeout rate.

## Retirement

Anderson shocked the world by announcing his retirement at 35 years old. His 2014 to 2018 stretch, amongst one of the best five year stretch ever by a pitcher wasn't that far behind and many thought that he would come back with the Cyclones for a couple more years, but he decided to walk away to spend time with his family. He retires as one of the ABA's greatest pitcher to ever play, with the second lowest career ERA at the time behind only rival Ben Flynn. His number 18 was immediately retired by the Cyclones organization.

### Hall of Fame

Anderson will of course reprensent the Cyclones in his Hall of Fame bid. Many experts said he'd be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

## Awards

2X ABA Pitcher of the Year (2010, 2015)

ABA Rookie of the Year (2007)

3X ABA Champion (2008, 2009, 2015)