27-year old lefty swinging 1B Anthony Rizzo could be turning into the Chicago Cubs‘ version of Mr. May! Mr. May you ask….who is he? Well, when George Steinbrenner was alive and well and the owner of the New York Yankees, he coined Hall of Fame outfielder Dave Winfield as Mr. May, because he couldn’t come through when the game really counted…..in October. This happened in 1981. Winfield played in 105 games in the strike shortened regular season for the Yankees and he was 114 of 388 (.294 avg, .824 OPS) with 52 runs scored, 13 homers, 68 RBI and 11 stolen bases. In May of 1981, Winfield played in 28 games in which he was 34 of 105 (.324 avg, .837 OPS) with 17 runs scored, 3 homers, 20 RBI and 3 stolen bases. But, in the 1981 post-season, Winfield played in 14 games for the Yankees in which he was 10 for 55 (.182 avg) with 4 runs scored, 0 homers, 3 RBI and 2 stolen bases. In the 1981 World Series (won by the Dodgers in six games), Winfield was only 1 for 22 (.045 avg, .268 OPS) with 0 runs scored, 0 homers, 1 RBI and 1 stolen base! Winfield played in 2,973 games in his excellent career and he was 3,110 of 11,003 (.283 avg, .827 OPS) with 1,669 runs scored, 465 homers, 1,833 RBI and 223 stolen bases. He played in 26 games in the playoffs in his career and he was 21 of 101 (.208 avg, .641 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 2 homers, 9 RBI and 2 stolen bases. Winfield did get back to the playoffs in 1992 and he helped the Blue Jays win the World Series.
27-year old lefty swinging 1B Anthony Rizzo played in 155 games for the Chicago Cubs in 2016 and he was 170 of 583 (.292 avg, .928 OPS) with 94 runs scored, 32 homers, 109 RBI and 3 stolen bases. But, so far in the playoffs, he has played in 6 games for the Cubs in which he is 1 for 23 (.043 avg, .197 OPS) with 1 run scored, 0 homers and 0 RBI. So he has now played in 702 games in his first five years with the Cubs and he is 720 of 2,636 (.273 avg, .861 OPS) with 392 runs scored, 133 homers, 416 RBI and 34 stolen bases. But, he has also played in 15 games in the playoffs so far in his career with the Cubs and he is only 7 for 55 (.127 avg, .449 OPS) with 5 runs scored, 2 homers and 2 RBI. The Chicago Cubs aren’t going to win the World Series this year unless Rizzo starts hitting in the near future. He doesn’t want a moniker attached to him like George Steinbrenner placed on Dave Winfield!
