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Cubs Corner Infield Comparison

Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are two of the most beloved Chicago Cubs players of all time. Due to their mostly All-Star caliber playing coinciding with arguably the greatest years of Cubs baseball, they earned that love. A few years into their Cubs careers I started thinking about the great corner infield duo that came before them, and wondered if the Rizzo-Bryant duo would have a greater Cubs career than the Lee-Ramirez duo. Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez were the consistent pillars of the Cubs in the mid to late 2000s. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant were the consistent pillars of the Cubs in the mid to late 2010s. Both duos played together for 6 full seasons and part of a 7^th. My comparison focuses solely on the main hitting stats of hits, doubles, home runs, runs batted in, batting average, and on base percentage. Obviously, that doesn’t give the full picture, but I think it certainly has some weight to it. Before looking at the numbers here is a quick overview of each of the 4 players accolades during their time with the Cubs:

-Lee went to 2 All Star games, won 2 Gold Glove awards, 1 Silver Slugger award, and finished 3^rd in MVP voting in 2005.

-Ramirez went to 2 All Star games, won 1 Silver Slugger award, and twice finished 10^th in MVP voting.

They helped lead the Cubs to back-to-back division championships, but won 0 playoff games.

-Rizzo went to 3 All Star games, won 4 Gold Glove awards, and twice finished 4^th in MVP voting.

-Bryant went to 4 All Star games, won a Rookie of the Year award and an MVP award.

And of course, they played a major part in helping lead the Cubs to their first World Series title in 108 years.

The easy thing to do, and what I did first was look at the full Cubs career of each player. Since the total seasons range from 7 to 10 and total games 833 to 1308, that won’t give us a great comparison. Despite the wide ranges, I included those total Cubs career stats.

To get a finer comparison I took Kris Bryant’s total of 833 games, since that is the fewest of the 4 players. For each player’s first 833 Cubs games, they all were within 62 at bats of each other, giving us a pretty accurate comparison. While Lee and Ramirez are pretty far ahead in hits and average, and Ramirez ran away with the homeruns and runs batted in, I love how close 3 players are in homeruns, doubles, and walks. The batting average and the fact that Bryant had over 200 more strikeouts than any of the others, may be a sign of how baseball has changed over the years. Insert 3 true outcomes note.

The other two data ranges were to see if there were any major changes from earlier in the careers. I chose 770 games because that was Ramirez’s total for his first 5.5 Cubs seasons, and I chose 500 games because that’s a nice round number. No matter which of those 3 you choose, Lee led in H, 2B, AVG, OBP, while Ramirez led in HR and RBI.

Lastly, I included each player’s best individual season. That in itself is arguable because you can grade a season based on a variety of factors. I looked at FanGraphs WAR (Wins Above Replacement) numbers, while using my own judgment based on looking at the stats of each player.

Ramirez came to the Cubs in 2003 when I was 8 years old, Lee came over the next year, and Bryant and Rizzo left the Cubs in 2021 when I was 26. These are the players of my childhood. The ones that made me love the Cubs. The ones that helped me understand how terrible Cubs baseball can be. The ones that showed me what the Cubs winning the World Series looks like. I had a shirt or jersey of all 4 guys, and they are still some of my favorite players of all time. The point of this was not to make an argument who was the better duo or who was the best player. I simply was curious about how the individual numbers would stack up. It was another way to relive my childhood memories, and nerd out MLB statistics. While the Rizzo-Bryant duo and the World Series (and their sad departures…) is fresh in our minds, some may not remember how good the Lee-Ramirez duo truly was. Hopefully this is a reminder of the greatness and joy of all 4 players.

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