Anthony Rizzo Shouldn't Be The Cubs Cleanup Hitter Right Now

This one is pretty simple, since June 16 Anthony Rizzo has two home runs. Those came on July 19 and July 27, which means the first baseman hasn't homered in 15 straight games heading into Wednesday night's action against the Phillies.

That's pretty weird, considering MLB is hitting a record number of home runs this season. Rizzo's power has disappeared and while he still is posting good numbers (.323/.419/.465 since the ASG) he's also hurting the Cubs offense batting in the cleanup spot and not adding any slugging.

Sahadev Sharma wrote a full breakdown of Rizzo's numbers during the past couple months over at The Athletic.

Here are the Cubs home run leaders since the 4th of July.

And again, this isn't saying that Rizzo is now a bad hitter, he's not, but right now he probably shouldn't be batting cleanup. We've seen Joe Maddon move players into the leadoff role when they're struggling, which at this point may not be a bad idea for Rizzo.

After all, Jason Heyward might miss another game on Thursday because of knee inflammation, so why not move Rizzo up and use his best current skill where it's most important, getting on base in front of Nick Castellanos and Kris Bryant.

Despite the power numbers going down, Rizzo has a .416 OBP since July 1. Right now, he's just not doing enough to merit the fourth spot in the lineup.