As you know, Kris Bryant is an excellent hitter. You might even say that he #sparkles.
So it’s no surprise, then, to learn that he won the Southern League’s hitter of the week honors for the second straight week, and third time since the start of May. It’s also no surprise that he responded to the award by hitting his minor league-leading 22nd home run:
That’s definitely a 400+ foot blast, which is pretty standard fare for Bryant. Call me when it’s a 500+ foot homer, or a triple.
Not to be outdone – for the night, anyway – Javier Baez stepped up in the first inning for the Iowa Cubs shortly thereafter, and sent out a monster shot of his own (hopefully MiLB will get a more proper video out soon so that you can see the whole thing):
If you missed Javy Baez's bomb last night, here's a short version while we await the full clip like the ner… https://t.co/6NHo9NvpW6
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) June 10, 2014
As soon as the actual video is up – I’m assuming it will be eventually – I’ll get it in here. Suffice it to say, the announcers were blown away by the display of power.
On the year, Bryant’s line is up to – yes, up to – .357/.460/.722. Baez’s line is now up to .239/.298/.457, which is actually pretty remarkable given how long it was down in the dumps. I won’t blame you for pointing out, however, that Bryant’s slugging percentage is only slightly lower than Baez’s OPS.
Baez is still striking out more than you’d like to see – about 30% during his 20ish game hot streak – but at least he’s hitting the ball as hard as ever. Because of his other abilities and his position, Baez can still be a hugely valuable player at the big league level, even with a 30% K rate, but that assumes it won’t climb when he reaches the big leagues (which it almost certainly would). You’d like to see the adjustments necessary to bring it down to the 25% range. If he could do that in the bigs, he has legitimate MVP upside.
Well, unless Bryant beats him to it.
(Obligatory: they’re just prospects. It’s OK to dream, but not to expect.)
UPDATE: And here’s your more complete Baez homer video …