Kris Bryant Already Lining Up More Hardware and Other Bullets

Today is a good day.

Baseball America named Kris Bryant its Rookie of the Year for 2015, which, well, obviously. He’s going to get more awards like that before this calendar year is up, but this is especially cool (and it’s the first time anyone has done it in successive years):

  • Folks are wondering about Addison Russell and his hamstring, but there is not update at this time. His status for the NLCS remains “to be revealed.” If nothing else, we’ll know for sure when the Cubs unveil their NLCS roster, which will be due on Saturday.
  • Manny Ramirez remains an important part of the Cubs coaching infrastructure, particularly for the Cubs’ young Latin contingent of players (Tribune).
  • Team chemistry does matter a bit (CSN).
  • I enjoyed the interview video of Tom Ricketts during the celebration Tuesday night here at the top of this CSN article. In particular, his comments about this season being part of the payoff for fans who stuck with the team as it was building to this moment really resonated. I firmly believe that the folks who remained passionately interested during the low years of The Plan are enjoying these last few weeks as much as anyone (and much more than they would have if they’d checked out for a while).
  • A fun and informative read in the Tribune on the psychology of fandom and why you get so excited when you’re around other folks and “your” team is winning. Also in there: you make bad decisions after your team loses. If you’ve been in the comments here or on Twitter after a big Cubs loss, you already knew that.
  • Your Playoff Miscellany from earlier contains a surprising amount of really fun stuff, and I highly advise you check it out, even though the NL was not in action.
  • And if you didn’t see it last night, Eddy Julio Martinez might have signed with the Cubs or he might have signed with the Giants, and MLB might have to make the decision.
  • I mentioned earlier that the Cubs are preserving Kyle Schwarber’s home run ball atop the right field video board, and, on that subject, as well as Jose Bautista’s demonstrative bat flip yesterday, Dan Worthington wins the Internet for a good long while:
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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