Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo excited to play for Joe Maddon

It’s always a great thing to see young phenoms such as Anthony Rizzo excited to play for a new manager who has postseason experience – in this case, former Tampa Bay Rays skipper Joe Maddon, who signed a five-year deal to manage the Chicago Cubs earlier this offseason.

If you’ve been paying attention to either this website or the organization as a whole, this farm system happens to be the best in all of professional baseball. We witnessed the rise of guys including Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Arismendy Alcantara, Kyle Hendricks and Tsuyoshi Wada this season – all of whom made their big league debuts.

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The scary thing about this farm system that Maddon now has at his disposal? There’s still a handful of top-of-the-line talent just waiting to make the Major League roster. At one time, Rizzo was a member of that elite core of prospects making noise down on the farm and now, he is proving to be a future MVP candidate.

According to the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan, Friday, Rizzo said he was very excited to play for Maddon after a brief phone call between the two individuals. When asked about what was said between the two, Rizzo spoke about Maddon’s “whole philosophy of not over-working and not doing too much” – which appeared to have impressed the 25-year-old slugger.

"“And getting your work in, in a professional manager, is just something I always preach of because you’ve got to stay fresh in this game. That’s what I believe in, and just kind of a family style I feel like he’s going to bring, I think is going to be unbelievable.” Rizzo via the Chicago Tribune"

Not only did Rizzo praise his new manager, but also spoke about his previous skipper in Rick Renteria. Rizzo, just like most of us who love and follow this sport, understands that this is a business.

"“Obviously tough losing Rick, but it’s a business. With Joe, I can’t wait to start working with him. Just speaking with him, everything he says is just so on point with how I view the game of baseball as well.”"

It’s no secret that Rizzo just so happens to be the face of this up-and-coming franchise. He’s going to be the guy, besides the manager, that everybody is going to turn to when they need to be steered in the right direction.

The fact that Rizzo and Maddon happen to be on the same page should give this team and fan base an even larger reason to be excited for the 2015 campaign to roll around.