PEORIA, Arizona – When Cubs coach David Ross assembled his first spring lineup on Monday, he included Anthony Rizzo in the front row. This is the same Rizzo who once with fame and humor was proclaimed the best hitter of all time.
No, there is no controversy over the Chicago order.
There is a risk in reading Spring Training formations too much, especially when games begin and veterans are progressively working on the mix. The opening of the Cubs Cactus League was a day off for Ian Ian, who won the lead last season and will stay there on the opening day.
“Ian has a chance to continue in that role,” Ross said before his team beat the Padres 1-0. “He was a guy who had a phenomenal year during the abbreviated season. He keeps growing and discovers his strengths and his weaknesses. I can see that he keeps getting better.”
At the start of Spring Training, a year ago, Ross was quick to declare Kris Bryant his choice for the lead role as one of his first assignments. The manager liked the idea of Bryant’s power mix, ability based and basic career at the top of the order, and the third star base was on board with the experiment.
This decision came before the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the sport, leading to an unknown year with an abbreviated season. And during that 60-game sprint, Bryant was never in full force. An assortment of injury setbacks affected his performance and time on the field, creating an opportunity for Happ.
Happ placed ninth in the Opening Day on July 24 last season and kicked off a local day winning the Brewers. With that emphasis on every win, Ross needed to play the hot hand. On August 18, Happ settled in as the No. 1 batsman, and responded with a homer, two hits and two walks in his first game.
“[One thing] “I really appreciate that Rossy is going to make you run there and keep going,” Happ said. “That was a little different from what happened when I took the lead, and I think that’s what led to last year’s steady success.”
Happ has said a few times that he was happy to take on the “burden” of deviating from some other puppy beaters. To that end, Chicago has had a kind of revolving door, both in terms of staff and production, in the role of table for the past few years.
Think that from 2017-19, the Cubs went through 17 players (in terms of starts) in the lead. This came after Dexter Fowler was a top-ranked training lighter during his trip from Chicago to World Series glory on the 16th. Since Fowler’s departure, the North Siders have been looking for consistency in this work.
Here’s a look at the Cubs’ main production over the past five years:
2016: .267 / .381 / .434, 123 wRC +
2017: .246 / .324 / .422, 94 wRC +
2018: .302 / .366 / .454. 121 wRC +
2019: .212 / .294 / .383, 77 wRC +
2020: .211 / .307 / .418, 96 wRC +
Last year’s numbers are slightly misleading, as Bryant earned a .177 / .271 / .323 bar line in his 16 starts as a top man. Happ started 37 games in that role and scored .239 / .333 / .486 with a 119 wRC +. In 275 career appearances as a hitter, Happ has recorded a .809 OPS with 15 homers.
Overall, last season, Happ reached 0.258 with 12 homers, 28 RBI and a 0.866 OPS in 57 games, but the last few weeks have weighed heavily on his overall display.
Happ was hit in the eye by a foul ball on Sept. 3 in Pittsburgh, missed a day and then taped two homers on his return on Sept. 5 in the opening of a double header against the Cardinals. Including Game 2 that day, the center fielder hit .153 / .247 / .181 in 81 PAs the rest of the regular season.
Happ said the eye problem was more of a mental setback than a physical one.
“It was a tough three-week stretch to end the year, for sure,” he said. “The eye was a challenge, and more than anything, a mental challenge. Because when something like this happens, especially something that is really paramount to your game, doubt can be introduced quite easily if things start to go wrong. sideways. “
Between the season and the playoffs, Happ said he was able to take advantage of downtime to delve deeper into what was suffering him. What he found had more to do with the moment of his swing than anything else.
“I was able to see that there were some weather-related issues,” Happ explained. “I was able to fix this game in our doubles playoff games. And so I felt really good making those adjustments. And this year’s goal will be to make them faster and make them mentally faster. “.
As a main man, he will also be a must.
Because Happ is a changer, Ross has some flexibility as to how he can proceed to training from here. Whether Ross puts right-hander Bryant or Rizzo’s second left-hander in that position, the manager will have different ways of alternating right-handers and left-handers to achieve balance.
“We will put it [Happ] “at the top of the lineup to climb to the base in front of some horses,” Ross said. “As long as everyone stays healthy, we’ll work from him backwards.”