Best Cubs Rookie Start Ever?
by CubsfaninCA
To say that Kris Bryant was highly hyped when he came up is an understatement. I can’t remember any Cubs prospect that fans were more excited to see get to the majors in all my years as a fan. He’s through 70 games now and after his big 4th of July padded his stats a bit, I was curious to see how his start compares to other notable Cubs in their rookie year.
So here’s Bryant compared to 14 others in their first full season. I threw out any “cups of coffee” partial seasons and focused on their first 70 games when they went full-time. Leaders in each category are highlighted and Bryant’s rank out of the 15 is at the very bottom:
Name | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
Ryne Sandberg | 292 | 273 | 41 | 69 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 43 | 9 | .253 | .285 | .319 | .603 |
Billy Williams | 255 | 231 | 32 | 68 | 12 | 1 | 10 | 40 | 20 | 30 | 3 | .294 | .354 | .485 | .839 |
Ron Santo | 283 | 259 | 31 | 65 | 20 | 0 | 8 | 40 | 21 | 34 | 0 | .251 | .306 | .421 | .727 |
Anthony Rizzo | 291 | 267 | 34 | 78 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 36 | 20 | 46 | 3 | .292 | .347 | .464 | .811 |
Corey Patterson | 298 | 276 | 36 | 79 | 13 | 4 | 6 | 25 | 15 | 54 | 14 | .286 | .327 | .428 | .754 |
Starlin Castro | 274 | 247 | 26 | 76 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 31 | 20 | 36 | 4 | .308 | .358 | .445 | .803 |
Geovany Soto | 289 | 251 | 26 | 69 | 20 | 1 | 12 | 43 | 35 | 65 | 0 | .275 | .360 | .506 | .866 |
Mark Grace | 277 | 245 | 34 | 74 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 29 | 31 | 18 | 0 | .302 | .379 | .420 | .799 |
Arismendy Alcantara | 300 | 278 | 31 | 57 | 11 | 2 | 10 | 29 | 17 | 93 | 8 | .205 | .254 | .367 | .621 |
Dwight Smith | 245 | 221 | 35 | 70 | 19 | 3 | 6 | 35 | 20 | 32 | 4 | .317 | .379 | .511 | .890 |
Jerome Walton | 309 | 283 | 35 | 84 | 19 | 2 | 4 | 28 | 16 | 46 | 15 | .297 | .339 | .420 | .759 |
Ken Hubbs | 316 | 300 | 35 | 78 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 28 | 11 | 56 | 2 | .260 | .288 | .350 | .638 |
Ernie Banks | 300 | 271 | 31 | 72 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 37 | 22 | 30 | 2 | .266 | .331 | .399 | .730 |
Kosuke Fukodome | 301 | 251 | 47 | 74 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 31 | 47 | 45 | 6 | .295 | .403 | .430 | .834 |
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Kris Bryant | 307 | 259 | 44 | 72 | 14 | 2 | 12 | 49 | 41 | 92 | 7 | .278 | .381 | .486 | .868 |
Rank |
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| 2 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
He’s first in HRs and RBIs; 2nd in walks, OBP, runs, and OPS; and 3rd in slugging. The only player that had a better OPS was Dwight Smith, who actually finished 2nd in ROY voting to Walton that year and unfortunately his career only lasted 7 years. Soto is also close in OPS and fizzled out.
But other than those two, he has had a better start to his career than four Hall of Famers, Anthony Rizzo, and Mark Grace. I think it’s safe to say that he’s done as well as anyone could reasonably have expected and he has definitely lived up to the hype so far.
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