The Time Is Now For Rizzo

The day that Cubs fans have been anxiously awaiting since the team proved to be a flop may finally be here. Rumors of Anthony Rizzo being called up on Tuesday to get his first cracks against the Mets are picking up steam, and it would certainly be a logical time to bring the 22 year old up to the big leagues.

Hope is dwindling as the Cubs are currently sitting with half as many wins as losses at 24-48, any news circulating on the North Side these days is about players who could be leaving in a trade. The power numbers are especially abysmal, the team has only been able to put 57 balls over the fence and 263 men across the plate, good for the 24th and 26th ranks respectively in the MLB. Attendance still technically ranks the 7th best in the league, but those numbers deal in the number of tickets sold and not the number of fans actually filling the seats. Any fan who has watched a few home games can see that Wrigley field is not seating nearly 38,000 fans on a regular basis, the actual number may actually be half that many.

Enter Anthony Rizzo, who has hit 23 long balls to go along with 62 RBI in 69 games at triple A Iowa this season. Needless to say the hype machine has been whirring around Rizzo since he first landed in Chicago this offseason and has only augmented the buzz by putting up arguably the best numbers in the minors thus far. With all of that said, management will be doing the organization a great favor by putting Rizzo on the roster now instead of continuing to wait.

Some critics may remember the lack of success that plagued Rizzo in his 2011 stint with the Padres after putting up similar minor leagues. Rizzo hit 26 homers in 93 games and was called up to San Diego with big expectations, but he went on to hit .141 with only 1 home run in 49 games, much to the dismay of the Padre faithful.  But the differences between the situations are numerous, and even if Rizzo goes on to have the same problems the Cubs will at least know exactly what to expect from what they perceive to be a top prospect that can develop into a franchise cornerstone.

One of the major changes for Rizzo will be in the ballparks where he spends most of his time. Going from the pitcher friendly Petco Park to Wrigley, which has days where the ball seems to be magnetically attracted to the outfield bleachers, is going to be both a stat and confidence booster for the young first baseman. This is also be Rizzo’s 5th year in the minors, the same amount of time that Adrian Gonzalez spent in development and significantly more than the minor league tenures of Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder. Right now the organization believes that Rizzo has the potential to be an elite first baseman, and so the developmental time should be right in line with that of other successful players at the same position. There’s also the more obvious fact that Rizzo is putting up huge numbers right now, and the team would have been hard pressed to hold back such a promising slugger even with some of his previous woes.

Like it or not, by this time next week Anthony Rizzo will most likely have completed his few games in Chicago and will be headed for many more this season. He may or may not have a breakout year in 2012, but odds are that Rizzo is going to produce now or never with the amount of time he’s spent as a professional. Now is the time for the Cubs to bring up Anthony Rizzo, and hopefully it will finally be his time to shine.

No Time For Panic

The Bulls may be heading into the 28th of June with the 29th pick in the draft, but speculation is growing that by the end of the night they could end up moving up from that spot via trade. Such an upgrade would not be free, of course, and any Bull not named Rose seems to be on the collaborative trade block as fans and experts alike plead their case for an exchange for picks ranging from the low twenties all the way up to the fifth spot. There may be parity in the details, but the message is the same; injuries have sent the city of Chicago into basketball panic mode. Suddenly the Bulls are building for the long haul instead of playing to win a championship now. These aren’t just roleplayers or bad contracts being shipped away; Luol Deng and Joakim Noah have been two of the most frequent names mentioned. The clock is ticking for a team with two starters on the wrong side of 30, and so trusting this year’s pick to be a key performer in the playoffs is a dangerous gamble. The Bulls are facing an uphill climb for eight to ten months, but there is no reason to press the panic button and implode the roster.

The 2012 rookie class is no different than any other, which means that even the best players are going to take time to develop. History shows that even if the Bulls will get little help even if they are able to secure the fifth pick, which would require one of their core players and at least one other role player besides. In the last 5 years, the fifth pick has averaged no higher than 14 points per game and two of those players didn’t log a single minute of NBA action. All of those prospects were brought on to bad teams and were given a large number of touches, and so no player that the Bulls would take could touch that number. Removing a large part of Derrick Rose’s support system would eliminate any chance of a championship next season and would further close the window on Rip Hamilton and Carlos Boozer in terms of productive years. The following year would probably be the only shot the Bulls would have to win a championship before Boozer and Hamilton went into serious decline and a large part of the pressure to succeed would be on the production of a second year player. If that didn’t work out, and it most likely would not, then the Bulls would be a similar team to what they are now, with little cap space (factor in signing Taj Gibson and Omer Asik) and a need for a second go to scorer.

The players that will be available in the lottery also aren’t a great fit for what the Bulls need. After the top five the rest of the lottery is riddled with risky tweeners and unproven guards. There may be some good talent at the top, but players like Jared Sullinger or Dion Waiters are never going to carry a team and are both considered top ten picks. Is Harrison Barnes ever going to be a better defender than Luol Deng? Can Meyers Leonard provide the same hard nosed inside presence as Joakim Noah? Even the few that say yes can only do so with limited conviction, because at a certain point every draft pick involves a good deal of guesswork. Trading away a proven All Star caliber player in their prime for a busted draft pick would go down as one of the biggest fiascos in Chicago sports history. Sticking with the current roster is the safest and most responsible bet to stay in the hunt for an NBA championship.

There’s no getting around it, most of the ‘12-’13 regular season is going to be rough for Chicago hoops fans. But Gar Forman believes that Derrick Rose will be back at the end of the season, and if he can return to previous form then the Bulls will be in the title conversation no matter how they finish. Based on the confidence in the front office, it seems unlikely that the Bulls will make a move that alters the roster drastically this offseason. The fans must realize the importance of adopting the same stance and realizing that the Bulls still have team built to bring home a championship next season.