Cubs’ Bryant a unanimous NL Rookie of the Year

“It’s just been an incredible year for me”. “That couldn’t be any further from the truth”.

Houston Astros shortstop, Carlos Correa was named 2015 American League Rookie of the Year, followed by Lindor and Minnesota’s Miguel Sano.

“Things happen for a reason”.

He didn’t specify if that was the reason, but the Cubs didn’t mind Bryant carrying that extra fire inside him.

Bryant received first-place votes on all 30 ballots – two from each of the 15 NL cities.

Bryant won this in a landslide, finishing with 150 points to beat out two worthy finalists: San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Duffy (70) and Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang (28).

In case you somehow managed to miss the majesty and magnificence of Bryant’s inaugural campaign, we did you the solid of recreating it with these convenient and mesmerizing moving pictures commonly known as GIFs. And I think it’s good to play that way sometimes.

“Things turned out great”, he said. Jeff Bagwell won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1991. He did so well, in fact, that he was named the unanimous National League Rookie of the Year on Monday.

“Twenty years from now”, Bryant said, “you’re not going to remember your batting average or how many home runs you hit in a certain season”. His growth depends largely on his ability to cut down on strikeouts; he led the NL with 199. He’d hit 25 more before the end of the regular season. 417 on-base percentage with runners in scoring position. He led all Major League Baseball rookies in doubles (31), runs scored (87), home runs (26), RBI (99), OPS (.858) and WAR (6.0) and also finished second in hits (154) and walks (77). He became the first major leaguer to hit a home run while batting left-handed against Betances, who had logged 163 innings before the blast. Given his age, power and solid defense, he has “best player in the game” potential.

And according to the team’s press release, Bryant made a bit of history in the process by being the first in franchise history to win the award unaminously…

“There’s always ways to improve”, said Bryant, sounding for a moment like he was searching for the means, if not the plan. That doesn’t even include a few of the September call-ups who retained their rookie status into 1988: David Wells, Edgar Martinez, Jack McDowell, Ron Gant, Al Leiter and Jay Buhner. Now he prepares to help the team finally win an elusive World Series title.