More Kris Bryant and Javier Baez fun to share. Will you ever get tired of this? I know I won’t.
We’ll go with Bryant first, as he hit his league-leading 14th homer yesterday. There’s no video of the bomb, but I like to imagine that it was a deep drive to center field, and, about halfway to the wall, the ball transformed into a bald eagle, flying over the scoreboard while ‘Free Bird’ kicks up in the background. Then the eagle flies back to home plate, grabs a guitar, and rocks out an incredible solo while Bryant does one-handed push-ups and mugs for the camera.
On the season, Bryant’s line is up to .337/.431/.641, and he pretty much leads the Southern League in everything.
As for Javier Baez, his super hot week culminated in PCL Player of the Week honors, which is a long-awaited plaudit. After going 3-4 yesterday with a couple doubles, Baez has his season line up to .225/.287/.437, which is pretty incredible given how low it had sunk. The median OPS in the PCL is right around .800 (and it would be lower for guys who play in pitcher-friendly, non-western ballparks like Iowa’s), and Baez is the youngest player in the league. He’s right on the cusp of going from “disappointing” to “OK, that sounds about right.” From there, “oh, hell yes” is just around the corner.
A nice Baez bonus? He made two fantastic plays in the field yesterday at shortstop:
It’s worth remembering that Baez still has to keep developing on the defensive side, too. It sounds like it’s going well, which is an under-discussed part of the Baez story. Sure, he might wind up moving off of shortstop in the near-term, but it still matters.
Instant prospect battle: over their last ten games, Bryant and Baez are neck-and-neck in their absurd batting lines.
Bryant: .394/.474/.758
Baez: .439/.444/.927
Hooray for nice things!