Anthony Rizzo Is Getting a Serious Push for MVP
Chicago Cubs fans know what they have in Anthony Rizzo, and hopefully now that the team is 17-4 in August, he will get recognized nationally for MVP consideration. Cubs play-by-play man, Len Kasper has been very vocal about Anthony’s meaning to the team and MVP chances going back before the season.
The hype, and even local media calling Rizzo the MVP, doesn’t mean much when you look around the league and you see guys like Paul Goldschmidt and Bryce Harper’s performances, but as their respective teams begin to back themselves out of the playoff picture Rizzo is leading the Cubs charge towards it. To prove that, Rizzo has a .310/.412/.620 slash line with 6 HRs and 19 RBIs in 21 August games this year. Compare that to Goldschmidt’s .241/.344/.392 slash line and Harper’s 2 home runs and 6 RBIs, and Rizzo begins to clearly separate himself from the other two main candidates.
Even Jon Heyman from CBS Sports is becoming a believer of Rizzo, and made those thoughts clear on 670 The Score’s Mully and Hanley.
“National League, it’s a little more wide open,” Heyman said. “Harper and Goldschmidt’s teams aren’t in (the playoffs) right now. They’re both around .500. We’ll see what happens to them. I do think that affects the voting, as it should, because it’s Most Valuable Player. It’s not best player. That’s the way it’s always been. There’s been a long history and precedent for voting for a guy whose team is at least in contention or preferable wins (big). That being said, I think you’ve got Rizzo, you’ve got (Andrew) McCutchen. There’s probably one or two others in the mix.
“It’s hard to pick a winner probably among five or six guys. If I was voting today, I’d probably lean to Harper even though I downgrade significantly for the fact that the Nationals are a major disappointment. I do think Rizzo is a bona fide candidate, though, and could win.”
Heyman isn’t alone in his thinking that Rizzo can make a late season surge to win the NL MVP.
Anthony Rizzo deserves to be seriously considered as NL MVP.
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) August 24, 2015
Anthony Rizzo #MVP
— Jim Zigulich (@JZigulich) August 24, 2015
Anthony Rizzo crowds the plate and now he's part the small crowd of MVP candidates: http://t.co/OdCJxz7Xsr #Cubs
— David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) August 21, 2015
Making The Case For Anthony Rizzo As NL MVP http://t.co/6fxTg6a39e
— Anthony DiMoro (@AnthonyDiMoro) August 21, 2015
If those tweets aren’t enough to get you excited for Rizzo’s MVP chances, how about ESPN’s Baseball Tonight crew talking about him creeping up and possibly being the favorite.
This is certainly shaping up to be an exciting finsih to the Chicago Cubs season, and if Anthony Rizzo continues his tear he very well could be the first Cubs MVP since Sammy Sosa in 1998.
If you like this, you’ll LOVE this article: Gigantic Predictions for Cubs Top Prospects
Sources: CBS Sports, ESPN
