Rizzo

[Banedon]

Brett is trying to put my mind at ease...

http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/04/2 ... this-year/

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

His LD% is higher than Castro's.

[sneakypower]

www.northsidebaseball.com/forum/viewtop ... &p=2821700

but yeah, if his babip matched his xbabip (.326), he'd have over a 1000 OPS right now

[CubinNY]

Rizzo has a bad habit of sometimes dropping his hands below his waist as part of his timing. He needs to fix that.

[Soul]

Brett is trying to put my mind at ease...

http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/04/2 ... this-year/

I'm willing to just go with it. Rizzo's been great, forget the average.

[Soul]

...but it doesn't help when he puts up an 0-6 spot with 3 K's, that's for sure.

[Irrelevant Dude]

JD pointed out tonight that Rizzo has been taking a rather large stride lately, so there could be a mechanical issue that needs to be addressed.

[yanrslatr]

Or he's been unlucky

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

If his stride were shorter maybe he'd have 8 HR this month instead of 6. Possible.

[17 Seconds]

while i agree with mostly everything that's been said, i don't think we can just completely dismiss the 27% k rate

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I couldn't be more impressed with Deshaies. Rizzo over-striding would definitely be a leading cause of his extremely high IFFB%, which would also suppress his BABIP. That said, even if he changes nothing he should see significant improvement, as sneaky's normalization to xBABIP shows.

[jersey cubs fan]

How pull heavy has he been?

[sneakypower]

bb-ref has him with 47 batted balls

pulled: 18 (1.111 OPS)
up middle: 15 (1.467 OPS)
opp. field: 14 (.286 OPS)

and fwiw, babip by batted ball types (approx. league average)

LD: .444 (.730)
GB: .105 (.240)
FB: .077 (.150)

[Little Slide Rooter]

As far as advanced stats and such, how does Rizzo compare with Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn and other notable low BA/high OPS types when they were his age? Just curious, because I remember that being his long term outlook, with Howard named specifically as his ceiling.

[Sammy Sofa]

Why didn't you bother to read the article?

[SouthSideRyan]

Why didn't you bother to read the article?

Because that would've taken time away from posting

[lumafia]

Rizzo has a bad habit of sometimes dropping his hands below his waist as part of his timing. He needs to fix that.

No he doesn't. He drops his hands as part of his pre-load, but when the ball is released by the pitcher, they are in the proper location. He has a very efficient track to the ball in relation to his stance.

[Cubswin11]

As far as advanced stats and such, how does Rizzo compare with Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn and other notable low BA/high OPS types when they were his age? Just curious, because I remember that being his long term outlook, with Howard named specifically as his ceiling.

Howard wasn't in the league until he was 24, his first full season was at 26. He put up 25.7% k rate and 15.3% walk rate that year (2006, age 26 year), Dunn's age 23 year (was his second full year, but only played 116 games) he put up 26.9% k rate and 15.8% walk rate.

[mul21]

Rizzo has a bad habit of sometimes dropping his hands below his waist as part of his timing. He needs to fix that.

No he doesn't. He drops his hands as part of his pre-load, but when the ball is released by the pitcher, they are in the proper location. He has a very efficient track to the ball in relation to his stance.

Plus, dropping his hands was part of the reworked swing mechanics that made him not hit .125 and K a ton when he came back up last year if I recall.

[Cubswin11]

Law has some sort of article up on ESPN talking about a Rizzo demotion, it appears

[Bunts Lick Butts]

Law has some sort of article up on ESPN talking about a Rizzo demotion, it appears

In Rizzo's case, however, the Cubs appear to have altered his swing, getting his hands loaded lower and farther back than last year so that he's swinging more up through the ball, which should generate more power but would absolutely reduce contact and lead to more popups, all of which is true so far.

I've been told this kind of swing reflects Sveum's philosophy of hitting, but in Rizzo's case, I didn't think anything in his swing last season needed fixing. The Cubs should let him revert to his 2012 mechanics, which produced a successful half-year in the majors, with a good contact rate and plenty of power for a 22-year-old.

[tfarks]

Who plays 1b in the meantime? He's producing even while working things out in the bigs, too early for the send him down and let him work on his mechanics thing.

[jersey cubs fan]

Law has some sort of article up on ESPN talking about a Rizzo demotion, it appears

In Rizzo's case, however, the Cubs appear to have altered his swing, getting his hands loaded lower and farther back than last year so that he's swinging more up through the ball, which should generate more power but would absolutely reduce contact and lead to more popups, all of which is true so far.

I've been told this kind of swing reflects Sveum's philosophy of hitting, but in Rizzo's case, I didn't think anything in his swing last season needed fixing. The Cubs should let him revert to his 2012 mechanics, which produced a successful half-year in the majors, with a good contact rate and plenty of power for a 22-year-old.

They altered Rizzo's swing from last year? Why?

[Little Slide Rooter]

Who plays 1b in the meantime? He's producing even while working things out in the bigs, too early for the send him down and let him work on his mechanics thing.

Spoiler: show

[CubinNY]

Rizzo has a bad habit of sometimes dropping his hands below his waist as part of his timing. He needs to fix that.

No he doesn't. He drops his hands as part of his pre-load, but when the ball is released by the pitcher, they are in the proper location. He has a very efficient track to the ball in relation to his stance.

Nope.