Chicago Cubs: Welcome to the Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rizzo show

Chicago Cubs: A proven veteran on the ball diamond

Meet Daniel Murphy. The guy is all energy and good vibes. People are drawn to him. The team listens when Murph speaks and for good reason. He backs up his talk on the field and at bat as a former MVP runner-up, Silver Slugger recipient and All-Star. He’s an animal all around.

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Now he’s standing next to the Cubs most popular player on the field, Anthony Rizzo. Both guys are almost colliding into each other going for fly balls. In between plays, Murphy leads the chatter on where the next play is going to be. Both players are Type-A,  go for it and swing hard type ballplayers. So how is this gonna work out for the Chicago Cubs?

Murphy did something really smart (go figure) when he first arrived to the Cubs.  Maybe it was planned, but in his pre-interview on the NBC Chicago Sports Infinity Network before his first game, Murphy praised Rizzo before anyone else.

"“You know Anthony really, really grinds out plate appearances; And It seems like he can take his game to another level when tensions are at its highest when the game is on the line and I’ve seen that over and over.”"

Not a bad move for the incoming vet to praise the unofficial team captain in his first on-camera interview as a Cub.  However, this was more than Murphy being a smart teammate, this was Murphy saying, I’m ready to join the Cubs under Rizzo’s leadership – a good sign for the team.