Don't Expect Too Much, Too Soon, from Chicago Cubs Prospect Anthony Rizzo

For every young star who bursts his way onto the big league scene like Joey Votto, there are numerous rookies who struggle.

Ryne Sandberg, if you recall, started out his major league career with the Cubs in an 0-for-40 funk. Uber-prospect Mike Trout, who is destroying American League pitching this season, had a .220/.281/.390 slash line in a small sample size last year.

This cautionary tale of unrealistically high expectations applies to Cubs first-base prospect Anthony Rizzo, who CSN Chicago's David Kaplan suggests will be in the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Mets.

A good looking prospect, he is. A savior, he is not.

With the Padres last season, Rizzo hit .141/.281/.242 in 49 games. His general manager then was Jed Hoyer, who just so happens to be his GM now. Hoyer admits he probably called Rizzo up too soon.

Meanwhile, Rizzo has the Triple-A thing down pat.  The left-hander is hitting .345/.408/.702 this season for the Iowa Cubs. But those results have only increased the pressure on the player, as he is being talked about in Cubs circles as if he's the second coming.

Look, being a major league rookie is hard enough without the weight of a struggling franchise heaped upon your shoulders. No matter how well he performs, Rizzo is not going to transform this current Cubs ball club into a winner. 

Still, he is considered the brightest bulb on the Cubs porch and a key component of the Theo Epstein long-term plan to build a consistent winner.

Rizzo has a good eye at the plate and a powerful swing. He also plays a solid defensive first base. And he appears to have fixed the flaws in his swing, using the whole field at times. But we won't know for sure until he faces major league pitching on a regular basis.

If he comes up and struggles once again, don't despair, Cubs fans. You have to give the kid some time and patience. Let him work out any issues he still may have at the big league level that Triple-A pitching is not going to expose.

If Rizzo hits around .250/.330/.420 the remainder of the season with the real Cubs, that would be fine with me. The main thing for now is that he continues to develop and is ready to be a clean-up hitter in the Cubs order once the team is ready to win.

But he comes into a no-win situation. If he hits, people will say that was expected. If he struggles again, people will say he's a bust. Neither is fair, of course, but that's the way it works, especially when the Cubs haven't had a run-producing left-handed bat in a long, long time.

Player development is a process, Cubs fans and like the team, takes time to mature. Still, it will be very cool to watch the key piece of the Cubs' future at Wrigley Field this week.