Why Cubs fans don’t need to panic about Kris Bryant

Kris Bryant made his MLB debut on Friday for the Chicago Cubs and struck out three times, but there’s no reason to panic about the top prospect in baseball.

Friday was Kris Bryant Day in Chicago where Cubs fans celebrated “Krismas” with the arrival of top prospect Kris Bryant who made his MLB debut in front of 32,000 fans at a sun-soaked Wrigley Field.

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Hs debut was delayed by 12 days so the Cubs could gain an extra year of control of him before he is a free agent, despite hitting a league-high nine home runs in spring training that signaled his time in triple-A wouldn’t be a long one.

Cubs fans had April 17 circled on their calendars and the excitement levels reached new highs when the Cubs made it official on Thursday night that he would be promoted to the club for Friday’s game against the San Diego Padres. He even his a home run in his last AAA game as he announced his presence with authority.

The pregame coverage was something you’d expect for Opening Day or a playoff game, but this was the ninth game of the year for the 5-3 Cubs who entered the game in a tie for first place with the St. Louis Cardinals, so delaying his MLB debut did nothing to hurt the team’s chances of a playoff push.

SportsCenter dedicated about 10 minutes of their live coverage to show Bryant taking batting practice and later a pregame interview where he said he wasn’t feeling any pressure. He received a standing ovation before he even stepped in the batter’s box. The hyperbole and delusions of grandeur are natural for a franchise who has gone 107 years without a World Series and 70 years without a pennant, so forgive Cubs fans if they were overly optimistic about Bryant’s debut.

Anything short of three, 500-foot home runs that landed on Waveland Avenue would have been a disappointment, so when Bryant swung and missed on three pitches from James Shields in his first at bat there was a noticeable groan from the fans in attendance who thought they were witness to the next big thing.

Two at bats later and Bryant was 0-3 with three strikeouts to begin his career and the gloom and doom that is so closely attached to Cubs fans crept in and even led to one knucklehead saying Bryant sucks.

So that’s it? He’s a bust. He was overhyped by the media and he’s the latest Corey Patterson, Earl Cunningham, Derrick May, Brooks Kieschnick, Felix Pie, Ryan Harvey or Gary Scott who went from can’t-miss prospect to an outright bum?

If you believe that, I have some land I have a bridge to sell you.

Had Bryant had this same stat line in the fourth game of his career no one bats an eye. Heck, how many times is Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen or Giancarlo Stanton going to have a game like that? The answer: a lot.

Compared to the other pro sports, baseball is the one sports where you can look like a Hall of Famer on Friday and look like a bum on Sunday.

The Cubs best player in franchise history, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks went 0-3 with a walk and a run scored in a 16-4 loss in his Cubs debut. Banks’ longtime teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, Billy Williams went 0-4 with a strikeout in his debut and hit .152 in his first 18 games.

They turned out okay as did Ryne Sandberg who is the greatest Cub in the modern era and needed seven games in a Cubs uniform to collect his first hit. He’s in the Hall of Fame alongside Banks and Williams.

I’m not saying Bryant is going to be in the Hall of Fame but you can’t make any conclusions on Bryant’s fate and write him off after one bad game. Baseball is the sport where you are recognized as one of the best if you fail 70 percent of the time. It’s a sport that is built around failure and if you can’t adjust to that, it’ll eat you up and spit you out.

Bryant has succeeded every step along the way toward fulfilling his dream of playing in the Major Leagues. He dominated as a youth, he won the Golden Spikes Award at San Diego and tore up the pitching in the minor leagues.

He’ll do the same for the Cubs. Just give him a chance to catch his breath.

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