Is Kris Bryant going to win MVP?

[imb]

babe ruth? who is she

[Clem Fandango]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17430087/mlb-viewers-guide-september

There are excellent cases to be made for Daniel Murphy, Nolan Arenado and Corey Seager. But the NL MVP award feels like it's Kris Bryant's to lose. The Cubs' mad masher is on pace for 44 homers, 39 doubles, 136 runs scored, 188 hits, 81 walks and very close to a .300/.400/.600 slash line. For the best team in baseball. The only men since 1900 with a season like that were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Whoa.

 

http://img.pandawhale.com/93867-holy-shit-gif-Key-and-Peele-Im-WXJ4.gif

[Cubswin11]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17430087/mlb-viewers-guide-september

There are excellent cases to be made for Daniel Murphy, Nolan Arenado and Corey Seager. But the NL MVP award feels like it's Kris Bryant's to lose. The Cubs' mad masher is on pace for 44 homers, 39 doubles, 136 runs scored, 188 hits, 81 walks and very close to a .300/.400/.600 slash line. For the best team in baseball. The only men since 1900 with a season like that were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Whoa.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0y90d8itR1r1onmy.gif

[seanimal]

babe ruth? who is she

 

a british nurse who cared for soldiers during the great war. really compact swing

[Thrilho]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17430087/mlb-viewers-guide-september

There are excellent cases to be made for Daniel Murphy, Nolan Arenado and Corey Seager. But the NL MVP award feels like it's Kris Bryant's to lose. The Cubs' mad masher is on pace for 44 homers, 39 doubles, 136 runs scored, 188 hits, 81 walks and very close to a .300/.400/.600 slash line. For the best team in baseball. The only men since 1900 with a season like that were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Whoa.

lol espn. Bonds averaged .349/.559/.808 from 2001-2004. Maybe they're excluding the steroid era? Only counting guys within .010 of a 1.000 OPS? Guys who don't play on the east coast don't count maybe? Or just trying to draw clicks from NYers who want to see Ruth & Gehrigs names in print.

 

KB is the guy for sure. Seems like a shoe in MVP right now, and to me the most valuable player/contract in the league. But seems like they'd want to choose their words more carefully when running his season up against the history of the league.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

They're using "on the best team in baseball" as an additional filter, it looks like.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17430087/mlb-viewers-guide-september

There are excellent cases to be made for Daniel Murphy, Nolan Arenado and Corey Seager. But the NL MVP award feels like it's Kris Bryant's to lose. The Cubs' mad masher is on pace for 44 homers, 39 doubles, 136 runs scored, 188 hits, 81 walks and very close to a .300/.400/.600 slash line. For the best team in baseball. The only men since 1900 with a season like that were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Whoa.

lol espn. Bonds averaged .349/.559/.808 from 2001-2004. Maybe they're excluding the steroid era? Only counting guys within .010 of a 1.000 OPS? Guys who don't play on the east coast don't count maybe? Or just trying to draw clicks from NYers who want to see Ruth & Gehrigs names in print.

 

KB is the guy for sure. Seems like a shoe in MVP right now, and to me the most valuable player/contract in the league. But seems like they'd want to choose their words more carefully when running his season up against the history of the league.

I'm guessing they're talking about players who could check all of those boxes, and Bonds never had a season with 188 hits

[Banedon]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17430087/mlb-viewers-guide-september

lol espn. Bonds averaged .349/.559/.808 from 2001-2004. Maybe they're excluding the steroid era? Only counting guys within .010 of a 1.000 OPS? Guys who don't play on the east coast don't count maybe? Or just trying to draw clicks from NYers who want to see Ruth & Gehrigs names in print.

 

KB is the guy for sure. Seems like a shoe in MVP right now, and to me the most valuable player/contract in the league. But seems like they'd want to choose their words more carefully when running his season up against the history of the league.

I'm guessing they're talking about players who could check all of those boxes, and Bonds never had a season with 188 hits

 

He also never had a season with 136 runs scored.

[Thrilho]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17430087/mlb-viewers-guide-september

lol espn. Bonds averaged .349/.559/.808 from 2001-2004. Maybe they're excluding the steroid era? Only counting guys within .010 of a 1.000 OPS? Guys who don't play on the east coast don't count maybe? Or just trying to draw clicks from NYers who want to see Ruth & Gehrigs names in print.

 

KB is the guy for sure. Seems like a shoe in MVP right now, and to me the most valuable player/contract in the league. But seems like they'd want to choose their words more carefully when running his season up against the history of the league.

I'm guessing they're talking about players who could check all of those boxes, and Bonds never had a season with 188 hits

Good call, I figured it was something like. Taking 200 walks a season is gonna hurt you on counting stats for sure.

[Clem Fandango]

I present to you the list of every major leaguer who has scored the Kris Bryant projected 136 or more runs in a season since 1937:

 

2011: Curtis Granderson (136)

2007: Alex Rodriguez (143), Jimmy Rollins (139)

2003: Albert Pujols (137)

2001: Sammy Sosa (146)

2000: Jeff Bagwell (152!), Todd Helton (138), Johnny Damon (136)

1999: Bagwell (143), Roberto Alomar (138)

1997: Craig Biggio (146), Larry Walker (143),

1996: Ellis Burks (142), A-Rod (141), Chuck Knoblauch (140),

1993: Leonard Dykstra (143)

1985: Ricky Henderson (146)

1982: Paul Molitor (136)

1970: Billy Williams (137)

1949: Ted Williams (150)

1948: Tommy Henrich (138)

1947: Johnny Mize (138)

1946: Ted Williams (142)

1942: T. Williams (142)

1939: Red Rolfe (139)

1938: Hank Greenberg (143), Jimmie Foxx (139)

1937: Joe Dimaggio (151), Rolfe (143), Lou Gehrig (138), Greenberg (137)

 

So since 1980 only 18 people have scored 136 or more runs. Of those 18, 12 of them happened during the prime of the steroid/big offense era. So even during the steroid era when offense was at it's peak performance, scoring 136 runs was still not an easy thing to do.

 

I stopped at 1937 because when they made changes to the ball in 1920 and offense changed forever, there was at least one, if not more, than one guy scoring well over 136 runs a season from like 1920-1937 each year and I got tired of typing them all down. Before 1920 in the deadball era the only guys scoring more than 136 runs were few and far between, but the only guys to do it between 1900 and 1920 were Ty Cobb (twice), Eddie Collins, Ginger Beaumont, Nap Lajoie, and Jesse Burkett.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Here is the list of all major league baseball position players since 1900 that have had a 9-win season before turning 25, according to Fangraphs:

 

Lou Gehrig

Ted Williams

Mickey Mantle

Jimmie Foxx

Ty Cobb

Tris Speaker

Mike Trout

Willie Mays

Eddie Collins

Stan Musial

Rogers Hornsby

Cal Ripken

Arky Vaughan

Albert Pujols

Bryce Harper

Alex Rodriguez

Mike Schmidt

Babe Ruth

Shoeless Joe Jackson

Johnny Bench

Joe DiMaggio

 

 

Save for Shoeless Joe, all of the non-active players are in the Hall of Fame. And not only that, they are among the most hallowed names in the Hall of Fame.

 

Bryant is on pace to be worth 9.6 wins. In the last 50 years, only Trout and Ripken have had such seasons before turning 25.

[Thrilho]

Here is the list of all major league baseball position players since 1900 that have had a 9-win season before turning 25, according to Fangraphs:

 

Lou Gehrig

Ted Williams

Mickey Mantle

Jimmie Foxx

Ty Cobb

Tris Speaker

Mike Trout

Willie Mays

Eddie Collins

Stan Musial

Rogers Hornsby

Cal Ripken

Arky Vaughan

Albert Pujols

Bryce Harper

Alex Rodriguez

Mike Schmidt

Babe Ruth

Shoeless Joe Jackson

Johnny Bench

Joe DiMaggio

 

 

Save for Shoeless Joe, all of the non-active players are in the Hall of Fame. And not only that, they are among the most hallowed names in the Hall of Fame.

 

Bryant is on pace to be worth 9.6 wins. In the last 50 years, only Trout and Ripken have had such seasons before turning 25.

 

Ok this is how you do it =D>

 

MVP MVP MVP

[mikeyt34]

I had Rizzo at 14 to 1 to win the MVP before the season started, only 20 bucks at the Golden Nugget, but if Bryant wins it's a nice consolation prize. Bryant was 10 to 1 at the time I made my bet, guess I should have taken him too obviously. I remember being surprized that Bryant was favored over RIzzo at the time. My 4 to 1 @ $100 for the Cubs to win the penant is still alive and well however, fingers crossed.

[profisme]

I had Rizzo at 14 to 1 to win the MVP before the season started, only 20 bucks at the Golden Nugget, but if Bryant wins it's a nice consolation prize. Bryant was 10 to 1 at the time I made my bet, guess I should have taken him too obviously. I remember being surprized that Bryant was favored over RIzzo at the time. My 4 to 1 @ $100 for the Cubs to win the penant is still alive and well however, fingers crossed.

 

I also did the 4 to 1 for the Cubs, but I was $200 on that and $100 at 7 to 1 for the World Series. I'm hoping for both of us, haha.

[squally1313]

I think the main story here is that Kris is just lucky Todd Frazier isn't in the National League to give him some competition.

 

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/09/02/hawk-harrelson-comparing-kris-bryant-todd-frazier-is-peak-hawk-harrelson/

[Ding Dong Johnson]

the similarities are frightening...

http://i.imgur.com/k4xKnFj.png

[Clem Fandango]

Hawk was right about one thing though, he's no Todd Frazier with the glove, thankfully.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

That's amazing. Well done, Hawk.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

[Banedon]

 

Nobody brought up Todd Frazier?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

Nobody brought up Todd Frazier?

 

[seanimal]

i post this without comment:

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

oh wait i do have a comment; my boner, it is tremendous

[cl smooth]

i post this without comment:

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

oh wait i do have a comment; my boner, it is tremendous

 

sandberg had 12.8 fWAR through his first 3 full seasons as a cub.

 

bryant is still the horsefeathers, though.

[TruffleShuffle]

http://wrigleyville.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/09/09/kris-bryant-most-improved-player/

 

This is where it starts to get exciting. On pitches outside of the zone in 2015, Bryant made contact 49.2 percent of the time. This season, that number has skyrocketed to 60.6 percent. Inside the zone in 2015, he connected on 75.8 percent of swings. This year, that number jumped substantially to 81.2 percent. Overall, his contact rate jumped from 66.3 percent to 73.8 percent. It’s a lot of numbers to digest, but the takeaway is that Bryant made contact over 11 percent more often this year than last year. This in isolation is an incredibly significant improvement in a single season. It’s even more eye-popping when put in the context of swinging-strike percentage, where his number dropped from 16.5 percent last year to 12.7 this year. Yes, a 23 percent improvement year-over-year in the rate of strikes when Bryant graces us with his majestic stroke. If this hasn’t excited you yet, I haven’t done my job very well.

 

Now, after we’ve taken a moment to allow our heavy breathing to abate, let’s go over what this has meant from a results perspective. We now know that Bryant is making significantly more contact on all types of pitches, which means there are two things we need to know: first, is the quality of Bryant’s contact suffering in any way? Second, has this directly led to a reduction in strikeouts, and thus a higher degree of efficiency at the plate?

 

Bryant’s contact quality is a highly complex topic, and we could probably write several more pieces on that alone. The long and short of it is, he has reduced his medium quality contact from 47.4 to 40.8 this season, marking a rather dramatic reduction. 1.9 percent of that has been added to his soft quality contact column, an expected side effect of making contact more often. However, that still leaves room for a nearly five percent improvement in his hard contact rate. When you consider he’s making contact 11 percent more than last year, and combine that with a five percent jump in his hard contact, his 85 point (.488 to .573) jump in slugging suddenly comes into perfect focus.

 

His improvement in hard contact and slugging are impressive, but I don’t know that they are of historical consequence. However, his reduction in strikeout rate—from 30.6 last season to 21.6 this season—is of considerable historical relevance. Since 1900, here is the list of players (minimum 300 PA’s) that have improved their strikeout rate by nine percent or more from their rookie season to their second season:

 

Kris Bryant

Nelson Santovenia

Erv Dusak

Adolfo Phillips

Mike Schmidt

Chuck Hinton

Gibby Brack

Tony Clark

Eddie Taubensee

Bobby Higginson

Sam Chapman

George Springer

Tim Foli

 

That’s it. Only 12 other players in history have achieved the level of strikeout reduction Bryant has achieved this year. If you sort the list by players with a qualified number of plate appearances in each season, it shrinks to one: Kris Bryant. Following this logic, you could argue that Bryant has had the single greatest year-over-year reduction in strikeouts in major-league history. I think the swing changes worked.

[Tim]

I think Schmidt might just be the new comp. And I'm not even kidding.