Anthony Rizzo
From BR Bullpen
Anthony Vincent Rizzo
- Bats Left, Throws Left
- Height 6' 3", Weight 220 lb.
- High School Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
- Debut June 9, 2011
- Born August 8, 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, FL USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Anthony Rizzo reached AA in 2010 and made his major league debut one year later.
Rizzo hit .468 as a high school senior. He was picked by the Boston Red Sox in the 6th round of the 2007 amateur draft; Laz Gutierrez was the scout. He went 6 for 21 with a homer, walk and 6 runs in six games for that year's GCL Red Sox. In 2008, the Floridian hit .373/.402/.446 in 21 games before being sidelined by Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and missing the rest of the year.
Returning to health in 2009, Rizzo batted .298/.365/.494 in 64 games for the Greenville Drive and .255/.371/.420 in 55 for the Salem Red Sox. For the year, he had 37 doubles. He led Red Sox farmhands in OBP (.368) and Carolina League managers rated him the best defensive first baseman in the circuit. Baseball America rated him as the #12 prospect in the Carolina League, between Danny Duffy and Chase d'Arnaud.
Rizzo split 2010 between Salem (.248/.333/.479 in 29 G) and the Portland Sea Dogs (.263/.334/.481 in 107 G), hitting 42 doubles and 25 homers, scoring 92 runs and driving in 100. He was then dealt with former first-rounders Reymond Fuentes and Casey Kelly to the San Diego Padres for star slugger Adrian Gonzalez.
Rizzo was sent to the Tucson Padres of the AAA Pacific Coast League to begin 2011 and hit extremely well in the early going, confirming his status as a top prospect. In 52 games, he was hitting .365/.444/.715, with 20 doubles and 16 homers, when he got the inevitable call to The Show. At the time, he was tied with Bryan LaHair for third in the PCL in home runs, led in RBI (5 over Mike Carp), was third in doubles and was 5th in slugging.
He made his debut with San Diego on June 9th, playing first base and hitting 7th against the Washington Nationals. He reached base 3 times in 4 plate appearances, with a triple and a pair of walks, as the Padres won, 7-3. In his first at-bat, he struck out against Liván Hernández but tripled his next time up against the Cuban veteran. Two days later, he hit his first career homer, off John Lannan; that homer was a prodigious blast, landing in the hard-to-reach right field bleachers at PETCO Park. However, he struggled after that promising debut, and by July 21st, he was hitting only .143 in 98 at bats with 36 strikeouts when the Padres decided to send him back down to Tucson for more seasoning. He was replaced on the roster by Kyle Blanks. He ended the season with a batting line of .331/.404/.652 in 93 games at Tucson, and .141/.281/.242 in 49 games with the Padres.
On January 6, 2012, Rizzo was traded to the Chicago Cubs along with P Zach Cates, in return for P Andrew Cashner and OF Kyung-Min Na. It marked the second time in two years that Jed Hoyer, now the Cubs' GM had traded for Rizzo and he explained that he saw him as the team's first baseman of the future, adding however that the minor league veteran LaHair, who had just earned the PCL's MVP award, was the team's first choice to man first base in the coming season.
[edit] Sources
- 2010 Red Sox Media Guide
- 2010 Baseball Almanac
