Although he didn’t homer yesterday to close out the season, and his nearest competitor did, Kris Bryant had accumulated enough bombs on the year to squeak out a victory in the minor league home run race. Bryant’s incredible 43 homers on the year beat Rangers prospect Joey Gallo by one.
All hail home run king, Kris Bryant. We are but your humble servants and jesters.
Bryant’s 43 homers are the most in the minors in nearly a decade (Brandon Wood in 2005 in the extremely homer-friendly California League (High-A)), and he finishes the season with an absurd .325/.438/.661 line between AA and AAA. And the moment you start to worry about his strikeout rate being in the 27.5% range, you notice that his walk rate is a crazy 14.6% and his ISO is an even crazier .338. No more worries.
Bryant is not being called up this year, and is not participating in an offseason league after his first full professional season, so he’ll get some well-earned rest. And we’ll just have to warm ourselves with the memories of his many past accomplishments during the long, cold Winter.
Now that Bryant’s got the 2014 Minor League Home Run King mantle, we’ll have to see what comes next: Cubs minor league player of the year? Various publications’ minor league player of the year? Consensus number one overall prospect by the Spring? President of the universe? Star of ‘True Detective’?