Anthony Rizzo was a 6th round pick of the Boston Red Sox back in 2007. You will recall that he was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma soon thereafter, but recovered well and remains cancer free. Rizzo became a key component in the Adrian Gonzalez trade with the Red Sox, and is now on the major league roster.
Rizzo gave us a glimpse of what to expect in his first game: 1-2 with 2 walks, a triple, and a strikeout looking. He comes to the major leagues with a great left-handed power swing, but the ability to drive the ball up the middle and to the opposite field. He has a great batting eye, so he walks a lot but strikes out looking a lot. As with many prospects, the question for Rizzo will be whether he can hit left-handed pitching consistently. While he struggled some with left-handed pitchers in 2010, he has handled them much better in 2011.
Rizzo is here to stay, gentlemen and ladies, and if he is available in your NL-only league (which, in most reserve or farm system leagues I find unlikely), you will need a bid of about $45 to get him. This is a little lower than you might expect, but there are a couple of things at work here. One, if Rizzo cannot hit left-handed hitting, the Padres will send him down for more work. Two, as we get closer to the major league trade deadline, the amount of FAAB we are willing to spend goes down a bit, as the free agent pool could get a little thicker.
Rizzo is likely also deep mixed-league worthy at this point. I would say any 14 team mixed and deeper should be looking closely at Rizzo.
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