Bryant returns to Wrigley
CHICAGO >> Kris Bryant is getting a kick out of all of this.
Every time the Giants win another ballgame, which is quite often these days, those projections published back in spring training look even worse.
“I just find it funny that the team was projected to win whatever 75 games and it’s like, we have a chance to win 100,” Bryant said. “That just goes to show you that projections and things don’t matter.”
Bryant was a rookie when a Cubs team that had finished under .500 in five consecutive seasons stunned the rest of the National League by finishing 97-65. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projection model pegged the Cubs to win 82 games, but they overachieved in large part thanks to Bryant, who was named an All-Star and took home the Rookie of the Year Award with 26 home runs and a 135 OPS+.
By the time the Cubs were swept out of the NLDS by the Mets, Bryant was already familiar with the harsh realities that come with life in the major leagues. The same franchise that selected Bryant No. 2 overall in the 2013 amateur draft manipulated his service time, keeping him in the minor leagues for the first eight games of his 2015 rookie season so that he would remain under team control through 2021 instead of 2020.
The decision hurt a Cubs team that finished three games behind the 100win Cardinals and a game back of the second-place Pirates, but it would give the franchise the chance to keep a core of Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javier Báez together for an extra season.