Chicago Cubs: What to make of Anthony Rizzo’s home run slump

Chicago Cubs: Rizzo’s approach and results

The first thing to always note when talking about Anthony Rizzo’s approach at the plate is his ability to choke up on the bat with two strikes. The fact that he is so good at putting the ball in play and having great at-bats by fighting off pitches down in the count alone is exchanging power for contact. It does not take an expert to know hitting for power is harder when choked up on the bat.

Yet, Rizzo has some tremendous power when he swings for the fences. We have seen some titanic blasts from him over the years and has hit 30 to 32 homers four times. It is probably safe to say that Rizzo could be a 40-plus home run guy if he sold out and sacrificed his average and on-base approach and swung for the fences more.

So looking at this particular stretch itself, contact numbers can tell a lot. In the month of July, Rizzo is hitting the ball the opposite way 34.3 percent of the time with 32.4 percent of batted balls being line drives and only 23.5 percent being flyballs. Over a full season, he goes oppo roughly 21 percent of the time and is 25.9 percent on the 2019 season. If the season ended today it would be a career-high. In terms of fly balls, he is roughly 38-41 percent on a year.