Anthony Rizzo Didn’t Only Beat Cancer

library(Lahman)
library(dplyr)
library(data.table)
library(knitr)
library(kableExtra)

# Subset master table to only playerID and player names since that's all we need.
master <- select(Master, playerID, nameFirst, nameLast)

# Find primary positions
fielding <- Lahman::Fielding

PrimPos <- fielding %>% 
  subset(select=c("playerID", "yearID", "teamID", "lgID","G", "POS")) %>% 
  group_by(playerID, yearID, teamID, lgID, POS) %>%
  summarise(G = sum(G))

PrimPos <- PrimPos %>%
  group_by(playerID, yearID) %>%
  slice(which.max(G))

PrimPos <- PrimPos[,c("playerID", "yearID", "POS")]

# group by in case players played on multiple teams in one season
batting <- Batting
batting$teamID <- NULL
batting$stint <- NULL
batting$lgID <- NULL
batting <- batting %>%
  group_by(playerID, yearID) %>%
  summarise_all(funs(sum))

# Join to Master and Fielding to get the player names in master and position from fielding
batting <- left_join(batting, master, by = "playerID")
batting <- merge(batting, PrimPos, all = TRUE)

batting <- subset(batting, AB > 0 & yearID >= 1970 & POS != 'P')

# Add some statistics to batting table
batting <- batting %>%
  mutate(BA = 0 + (AB > 0) * round(H/AB, 3),
         TB = H + X2B + 2 * X3B + 3 * HR,
         SA = 0 + (AB > 0) * round(TB/AB, 3),
         PA = AB + BB + IBB + HBP + SH + SF,
         OB = H + BB + IBB + HBP,
         OBP = 0 + (AB > 0) * round(OB/PA, 3) )

# Add a column for the number of seasons played
batting <- batting %>%
  group_by(playerID) %>%
  mutate(years = seq(n())) %>%
  mutate(seasons = n())

batting <- as.data.frame(batting)

# Players with a bad first season
bad.first <- subset(batting, AB >= 50 & BA < .150 & years == 1 & yearID >= 1970)
bad.first.player <- bad.first[,1]
length(bad.first.player) # 34 players

batting$bad_first <- batting$playerID %in% bad.first.player

bad.df <- subset(batting, bad_first == TRUE)
bad.df <- setDT(bad.df)[order(playerID, years),]
bad.df <- as.data.frame(bad.df)

# Players with a bad first year that only played 1 season
bad.one.season <- subset(bad.df, seasons == 1)
bad.one.season[is.na(bad.one.season)] <- 0
nrow(bad.one.season)

# Players with a bad first year that only played at least 2 seasons
bad.mult.seasons <- subset(bad.df, seasons > 1)
bad.mult.seasons[is.na(bad.mult.seasons)] <- 0
bad.mult.seasons <- as.data.frame(bad.mult.seasons)

unique.bad <- bad.mult.seasons %>%
  group_by(playerID) %>%
  summarise(n_distinct(playerID))

# 26 offensive players with a poor first season that played at least 2 seasons
nrow(unique.bad)

# Count the number of players that played multiple seaons; at least 50 AB in season 1
mult.seasons <- subset(batting, seasons > 1 & AB > 50)
mult.seasons[is.na(mult.seasons)] <- 0

unique.players <- mult.seasons %>%
  group_by(playerID) %>%
  summarise(n_distinct(playerID))

# 3177 offensive players that played at least 2 seasons
nrow(unique.players)

Note:
All code can be toggled on the right
The data used is from 1970-2015

There’s no doubt about it, Anthon Rizzo is a class act for Major League Baseball. Every time I view or read something from Chicago media, the Anothony Rizzo Family Foundation has just donated millions of dollars to help fight cancer, he’s visiting children at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago's northside, or he’s spending his off days riding a bike on Chicago’s lake front path just like any other person in Chicago.

Rizzo, a sixth round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox in the 2007 MLB Draft, found out just a year later that he’d be diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. There is no need to explain how difficult it is to get drafted by a MLB team in the first place, but I can’t imagine how much more difficult it would be after going through six months of chemotherapy. As of today, we all know the ending of the story that includes a successful MLB career, a World Series ring and a fan base in Chicago that loves him. However, little do people realize that Rizzo actually started his MLB career off terriblly and succeeded in a way that only a few other MLB players have ever done. In other words, Rizzo beat more than just cancer.

With 128 AB in his rookie season, Rizzo batted just .141. Since 1970, only 34 offensive rookie year players have been given an opportunity to have over 50 at-bats while batting less than .150. Of those 34 players, 8 of them played only one season in the Majors and 26 played at least two seasons. In total, 3,177 offensive players have played at least two seasons while having at least 50 AB in his rookie year. In other words, Rizzo was in the bottom 1% of multi-season players going into his second year.

To sum things up, Rizzo not only overcame cancer, he overcame some big odds against him ever succeeding after a poor rookie year.

rizzo <- subset(batting, playerID == 'rizzoan01')
new.rizzo <- rizzo[c('nameFirst','nameLast','yearID','G','AB','R','H','X2B','X3B','HR','RBI','BB','SO','BA','PA','OBP')]

kable(new.rizzo) %>%
  kable_styling(bootstrap_options = c("striped", "hover", "responsive"))
rownames(new.rizzo) <- 1:nrow(new.rizzo)
  

	nameFirst	nameLast	yearID	G	AB	R	H	X2B	X3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	PA	OBP
1	Anthony	Rizzo	2011	49	128	9	18	8	1	1	9	21	46	0.141	154	0.286
2	Anthony	Rizzo	2012	87	337	44	96	15	0	15	48	27	62	0.285	369	0.344
3	Anthony	Rizzo	2013	160	606	71	141	40	2	23	80	76	127	0.233	697	0.330
4	Anthony	Rizzo	2014	140	524	89	150	28	1	32	78	73	116	0.286	623	0.393
5	Anthony	Rizzo	2015	160	586	94	163	38	3	31	101	78	105	0.278	710	0.394