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Kris Bryant is all of a sudden leading MLB in homers
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes Kris Bryant’s recent dingerific stretch, MLB’s poor handling of Jose Reyes’ return, and the Dodgers succeeding because of wasted money.
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
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Through his first 63 games, Kris Bryant was having himself a fine season. The Cubs’ third baseman was batting .273/.360/.514 with 15 homers, and on pace to top his impressive rookie campaign from last summer. Then, he got even better: Over his last 18 games, Bryant has mashed 10 more homers while batting .297/.405/.828, and is now leading not just the National League, but the majors in dingers. He moved out of a tie with Mark Trumbo with his 25th homer, struck on Tuesday, when just a few weeks ago he was “only” sitting in the top-50 in the league.
On the same day Bryant took over the homer lead, he was named the starting third baseman for the National League All-Star team. While that has a lot to do with Cubs’ fans stuffing the ballots — how else do you explain Addison Russell as the starting shortstop for the NL? — it also has much to do with Bryant being awesome. He doesn’t have Nolan Arenado’s glove, but his bat is the superior one, especially given his recent play. You could make the case for him as the most valuable third baseman in the National League, and the seasons that he and Anthony Rizzo are having have helped the Cubs survive Jason Heyward’s uncharacteristic and alarmingly lengthy struggles.
Bryant will have to keep on crushing the ball, as the Cubs have been good, but not great the last couple of months — they’re just 27-25 since tying their franchise-best start of 25-6. That obviously isn’t Bryant’s fault given his season — especially lately — but it is (a little unfairly) on him to keep this stretch going as long as possible while Chicago tries to figure out how to fix what’s wrong with them.
- David Ortiz snapped his bat over his knee after hitting a single, because who needs a bat that only lets you go 1-for-5 with a single?
- The Giants’ bullpen might be bad.
- Wil Myers is finally transforming into the player he was supposed to be, even though no one is noticing that because he plays for the Padres.
- Corey Seager’s emergence has been a significant part of the Dodgers’ recent success.
- The Yankees sound like they might be changing their plan of not selling at the deadline.
- MLB knows they don’t have to celebrate Jose Reyes’ return to the Mets, right? Someone should let their social media and video people know this, maybe by reminding them of the league’s recent commitment to stopping domestic violence by its players. You know, like the kind committed by Reyes against his wife that gave the Mets a chance to bring him back to New York in the first place.
- Remember, too, that Mets fans aren’t the only ones who would cheer someone like Reyes in his return. It’s something that’s going to happen when you conflate redemption and growth with sports.
- Read Stacey May Fowles on Reyes and the question of responsibility. If you’ve already read it, read it again.
- All that Reyes love from MLB happened just a couple hours after it was announced that Pirates’ infielder Jung Ho Kang is being investigated for sexual assault.
- Excuse the sudden transition, but there is also non-horrifying baseball news from Tuesday. Here are the full 2016 All-Star Game rosters. Well, besides the Final Vote winners, which you can vote for here.
- The Dodgers have wasted millions and millions (and millions) of dollars on their roster the past few years, but that’s a side effect of a plan that’s sort of working.
- Have the White Sox achieved normalcy after a lengthy stretch of failure?
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