Life as a hero

Watching the movie Chronicle today and it got my creative juices flowing. If you haven't seen the movie, I don't anticipate that this will ruin any of it that a preview already hasn't. In the movie, three young men gain supernatural powers and document their transformation. The friends include Andrew (an odd teen who is socially awkward), his cousin Matt (basically his only friend), and Steve (the popular kid in school aka Michael B. Jordan).

The thought that ran through my head was along the lines of picking out a crew of athletes that I could be a superhero with. For the sake of keeping this standardized for everyone, I'll set a couple of  rules:

1) You must pick an athlete from each the MLB, NBA, and NFL.

2) You cannot have two athletes who play for teams in the same city (i.e. no picking one city's teams and going all in)

My crew would be Kris Bryant (MLB), Willie Cauley-Stein (NBA), and Aaron Rodgers (NFL). You may ask yourself "why in the world would you get these three for your crew?" The main logic that I'm bringing is that I think they would be the best combination to have around for an extended period of time. Only Bryant was extremely highly rated out of high school, and even at that was an 18th round selection. Cauley-Stein was a top-50 prospect, but was at best a project. He developed well and found himself going #6 in the past draft. Rodgers is the biggest outlier, He did not even have a Division 1 offer out of high school and found himself at a junior college until getting the opportunity at California. He then found himself projected to go number 1 overall but falling to 24.

All of this played a role in my selecting of the three athletes. Nobody wants to be hanging out with people who have always been given everything they want. Hanging with the boys who fought their way to the top and likely do not have the diva complex of the normal stars sounds better to me. I feel like these three are cool enough to hang with that I wouldn't go insane. And if we're being honest, that's what we'd all want from our superhero crew. Just hanging with the boys, tormenting strangers, and living the dream.

 So who is in your crew? Comments are always welcomed!

All my love,
@corbeech

Kris Bryant: Utility Man?

Last year, Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs took home the National League Rookie of the Year trophy and was projected to have another huge season in his sophomore campaign.

Of course, Bryant has started off this year where he left off last year. Through 29 games, Bryant is hitting .299/.383/.504 on the year. It's the the start of another dominating season for the Cubs’ 3rd baseman.

Or is Bryant the 3rd baseman? In 2015, Bryant played a total of 165 games. 144 of those games were played at 3rd base, 19 of those were in the OF, 1 was at 1B, and 1 at DH. Bryant has started 29 games so far in 2016, 17 at 3rd, 12 games in RF or LF. This doesn't take into account the games that he has started either at 3rd or the OF and switched mid game to the other. Bryant has played 20 games at 3rd and 17 in the OF total.

Looking at his fielding, Bryant committed 17 errors in 1209.1 innings during his 2015 season. That's 1 error every 71 innings and a fielding percentage of .951. This season, Bryant has committed 3 errors in 145 innings of work. That averages out to 1 error every 45 innings and a fielding percentage of .938.

Are these stats showing Bryant has become a terrible fielding 3rd baseman? Not even close. But, he is only a 2nd year player. I'm wondering if all of that movement is necessary. Bryant is playing in the OF out of necessity. We all know of the season-ending knee injury to Kyle Schwarber, which has left a hole in LF for the Cubs, but there are several utility players on the roster than could help put a band aid over LF.

Ben Zobrist plays 2b, and has 25 RBI in the year. He played CF during his years in Tampa when Joe Maddon managed the team. Tommy La Stella plays 2nd base when Zobrist gets a day off and fills in for Bryant at 3rd when Bryant has LF duties. They have tried moving Javier Baez in the OF some, but he mostly plays at 2B. Jorge Soler is another guy the Cubs have who they have tried to put in RF and LF. His bat did not improve as much as the Cubs had hoped for to fully fill in for Schwarber.

The offense coming out of this team has been phenomenal. That's why Bryant has played in the OF. La Stella’s bat has been something of crazy coming out of the 6 hole, and that makes this whole Bryant position question easier to swallow. The Cubs have the young talent to really contend in the National League for years to come. With Bryant at 3rd, Anthony Rizzo at 1st, Addison Russel at SS, and Zobrist at 2nd, the Cubs have arguably the best infield in all of baseball.

My reason for writing this, is I hope this move is just out of necessity for offense and not something that tried to shift Bryant in the OF. I have more than total faith in Joe Maddon, and I know he’ll do the right thing with Bryant.

Alty
@ericaltenhof