Rizzo is Putting Together His Best Season Ever
2018 did not start the way Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo expected. After the first seven games of the season Rizzo was slashing a horrible .097/.243/.194 and had struck out (7) more times than he had reached base (5).
But that was a small sample and a couple of games back-to-back-to-back games where he stacked like six hits could have turned all those numbers around. Except that didn’t happen. Rizzo continued to spin, ending the first month with a .149/.259/.189 line.
Even fast-forward to the end of May his .237 avg had many fans asking what is wrong with Rizzo!?
The thing is, his start really hid the fact that Rizzo was putting together a decent season. Here’s a look per month.
May – .303/.408/.576 .984 OPS 7 HR
June – .270/.345/.440 .785 OPS 4 HR
July – .293/.394/.478 .873 OPS 3 HR
August – .341/.427/.659 1.086 OPS 7 HR
In fact, since the beginning of May, Rizzo has been the best Cub slashing .301/.393/.536 with a .928 OPS. Yes, this is even better than Javier Baez (.301/.328/.561 and a .889 OPS).
If we wanted to go a bit further, removing just those first seven games, Rizzo has hit .289/.381/.500 on the season.
Let’s compare to Rizzo’s Best season as a pro, his 2016 campaign. That year Rizzo hit a remarkable .292/.385/.544 with a .928 OPS, 32 HR and 109 RBI. Erasing that first month, Rizzo is on pace to meet or beat every one of those numbers. If the Cubs get anything similar to the last four months of Rizzo in September, it isn’t crazy to believe that he will meet or surpass his best season.
I believe that Rizzo’s start was so bad, and it took him so long to even get his numbers up to a respectable level that a lot of people – fans and media – sort of ignored his season. But here we are, with Rizzo winning the NL Player of the Week for his performance from August 19th – 25th. Maybe now we should recognize just how good Rizzo has been all season long.
