Peak Anthony Rizzo was a marvel of consistency for the Chicago Cubs

There has been a tremendous outpouring of love from Chicago Cubs fans to North Side legend Anthony Rizzo this week, for what he did on and off the baseball diamond. One thing that deserves a lot of kudos was his incredible consistency as a hitter in his prime years as a Chicago Cub.

Rizzo wore the blue pinstripes from 2012-2021. His first few years as a young hitter were up and down due to his getting acclimated to MLB pitching, and in his final years, he was battling nagging injuries. It's safe to say Rizzo's prime years were from 2014 through 2019. Over those six seasons he slashed .284/.388/.513 with 179 home runs, 592 RBI, a .901 OPS and 139 OPS+ in 911 games. It was over those years that he won a Silver Slugger and was a three-time All Star selection (not to mention his defensive accolades).

Those six seasons saw him put up incredibly consistent numbers every year. Here is a breakdown:

• 2014 .286/.386/.527 - 32 HR - 78 RBI - .913 OPS - 152 OPS+ in 140 games
• 2015 .278/.387/.512 - 31 HR - 101 RBI - .899 OPS - 146 OPS+ in 160 games
• 2016 .292/.385/.544 - 32 HR - 109 RBI - .928 OPS - 143 OPS+ in 155 games
• 2017 .273/.392/.507 - 32 HR - 109 RBI - .899 OPS - 131 OPS+ in 157 games
• 2018 .283/.376/.470 - 25 HR - 101 RBI - .846 OPS - 124 OPS+ in 153 games
• 2019 .293/.405/.520 - 27 HR - 94 RBI - .924 OPS - 139 OPS+ in 146 games
  

There are a number of things to unpack with these stats. It's funny that he had 32 homers in three out of four seasons, 109 RBI twice in a row, and had an .899 OPS twice. Add to the fact that he was one homer short in 2015 from having four straight years of exactly 32 bombs. Note the OBP from 2014-2016 being within .003 points of each other. It's the model of consistency.

Diving deeper into his home run count from 2014-2019, he hit the following totals in homers at Wrigley Field per season: 14, 11, 12, 15, 13, 13. What makes this level of consistency noteworthy is that, as Rizzo even mentioned on 670 the Score on Wednesday, it's hard to slug as a lefty at Wrigley Field with the wind patterns. It's impressive to be as consistent as he was in that department.

For a fanbase that, to this day, is desperate to see its team have a consistent offense, it's easy to see why Rizzo was so valuable to the Cubs. Not only consistent numbers, but consistently All-Star level ones. He easily could have been an All-Star more than three times had he not had the similar issue that Derrek Lee had back in the day with so many good first basemen in the National League.