Chicago Cubs: 3 players who must step up after slow start

Anthony Rizzo

It pains me to see Anthony Rizzo in the state he’s been playing this year. I’ll give him a small benefit of the doubt, knowing that he hasn’t been fully healthy for part of the season. However, can anybody else bear to watch the lack of production out of one of the leaders of this club?

23 games is a small sample size, but if we were to go off of the mantra, “What have you done for me lately?” as other leagues do, Rizzo’s downfall this season has been startling. For starters, his batting average is about 100 points lower than any of his last four seasons.

Again, it’s a small sample size. But, Rizzo has got to get it going — and fast.

I’m wondering how long the Cubs will be able to skate by and survive with the lack of offense, and typically a gigantic portion of it comes from number 44. We are talking about a guy who is coming off his third straight 100 RBI season. This year he’s on pace to finish below the century mark, and that would feel like somewhat of a disappointment for someone like him.

The good news is, he’s been known to hit home runs in bunches. His four on the year don’t look great, but a few good games strung together will change that in a hurry — it’ll also bump up that average quite a bit.

The biggest thing Rizzo can do at the moment is to give his club some extra base hits. At the moment, he has zero on the year. His last three seasons have featured at least 32 doubles — 43 in 2016.

If anybody can bounce back, it’s somebody who faced the odds of a deadly disease like cancer and came out on top.