Chicago Cubs: The new ‘Daily Double’ of Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo

Will Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo be an all-time Cubs great leadoff duo?

First-year Chicago Cubs manager David Ross has not changed much of what he had originally planned for the team before the pandemic hit and derailed the 2020 season. Fortunately for fans, that includes his notion of who’s going to be hitting in the one and two spots in the lineup.

Ross still believes that Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant and first baseman Anthony Rizzo are the key to getting it started but he did add that he would have to take into account how all the other Cubs are hitting as well, coming off the lengthy break.

Here’s something some of the other sportswriters have failed to pick up on about pairing Bryant and Rizzo together at this time in their careers; it is uncannily extremely similar to the 1984 Cubs season when the two leadoff hitters were nicknamed the ‘Daily Double’ and the Cubs almost won it all.

You’ll be surprised how similar these four players are to each other and maybe it’s a clue to how they’ll perform during this year’s 60-game season. If Bryant and Rizzo can get the offense fired up like the original ‘Daily Double’, this year could end up end up being a treat.

Chicago Cubs: The unstoppable duo reborn

The duo of Dernier and Sandberg was unstoppable in 1984, as the temperature of fans rose sensing they had a winning team on their hands. Fans and opposing teams watched in disbelief as the ‘Daily Double’ pushed themselves and others around the bases in offensive heaven that year. Sometimes it just takes a certain pairing, at a certain time in their careers and producing at a certain level to go beyond and win it all. It’s almost like lining up the stars perfectly to bring about a manifest destiny… if you believe in that sort of thing.

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Either way, there is no denying something special may about to be happen again. The similarity between these players is remarkable and it’s almost like the ‘Daily Double’ has been reborn. Here’s how the numbers line up:

In 1984, Dernier was playing his fifth season in the league. This is the first weird coincidence, as I am using Bryant’s 2019 stats from last season, Bryant’s fifth season as well.  If Bryant is going to lead off the season like Dernier did in 1984, Bryant would have to be fast. Dernier stole 45 bases in 1984 and Bryant stole only four last season and just 34 in his whole career.  In 1984, Dernier had 536 at-bats pretty similar to Bryant’s 543 last season.

For the 1984 campaign, Dernier had 149 hits, 94 runs, three home runs, 26 doubles, five triples and 63 walks. That gave Dernier a .278 BA with a .356 OBP, .362 SLG and .718 OPS. Last season, Bryant, by comparison, had a very similar 153 hits, 108 runs, 35 doubles and one triple. The big difference is that Bryant hit 28 more home runs last season than Dernier did in 1984.  But look how close the stats are between Bryant last season and Dernier: Bryant had a .282 BA and a .382 OBP.  Bryant’s big swings for all those home runs can’t be ignored though and he blows Dernier away with a .521 SLG and .900 OPS.

In his 1984 season, Sandberg had 200 hits scoring 114 runs for the Cubs. He hit 19 home runs, 19 triples and 36 doubles. The superstar second baseman pushed the speedy Dernier around the bases picking up 84 RBI that season.  Sandberg’s 1984 numbers included a .314 BA, .367 OBP, .520 SLG and .887 OPS.

Chicago Cubs have a different type of player in Anthony Rizzo

Now, Rizzo is no Sandberg of 1984 for a couple reasons. Sandberg was in his fourth year in MLB while 2019 marked Rizzo’s ninth year as a pro. Considering that Sandberg went to bat 636 times in 1984 compared to Rizzo’s 512 times last season, obviously some of the numbers are a little slanted, like Sandberg’s 200 hits compared to Rizzo’s 150 or Sandberg’s 114 runs compared to Rizzo’s 89.

That being said, there are far more similarities than differences between these two players. Those include comparable marks in RBI (Sandberg 84 / Rizzo 94) or doubles (Sandberg 36 / Rizzo 29). How about slugging percentage? Both the 1984 Sandberg and the 2019 Rizzo earned a .520 SLG average.

Just for giggles, I thought I’d look up Sandberg’s numbers when he had nine seasons under his belt like Rizzo did in 2019 and see how the numbers stack up. Obviously this is almost five years after the 1984 season but the results were really close.

Sandberg’s ninth season looks like this: .290 BA, .356 OBP, 30 home runs, five triples, 25 doubles with 85 strikeouts. Last season Rizzo had a .293 BA, .405 OBP, 27 homers, three triples, 29 doubles and 86 strikeouts. You could almost say Rizzo is on his way to a Hall of Fame career with stats that look almost identical to Sandberg’s.

Looking at the numbers in comparison, the new ‘Daily Double’ of Bryant and Rizzo can be even more deadly than Dernier and Sandberg were in 1984 for the Cubs. Add to the fact that this is a shortened season and the Cubs have the one of the top five easiest schedules in MLB and it looks like it’s time again for the… ‘Daily Double!”