In the first of what could be several postseason awards given to Cubs, Kris Bryant was named National League Rookie of the Year Monday during a live broadcast on MLB Network, via voting done by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Bryant was a unanimous selection of all 30 voters. He's the 20th unanimous winner overall, the 11th N.L. unanimous inner and the first Cub to ever be so selected.
Bryant's season was arguably the best for any Cubs rookie position player in franchise history (Kerry Wood's 1998 RoY season tops the pitcher list). In 151 games, Bryant hit .275/.369/.488 with 26 home runs and 99 RBI. The homer and RBI marks are franchise records for a rookie, breaking the marks set by Billy Williams in 1961 (25 and 86, respectively). He walked 77 times, one short of Anthony Rizzo's team-leading 78, ranking 10th in the National League. (He also led the league in strikeouts with 199; hopefully that number will drop in the years to come.)
The American League award went to Astros shortstop Carlos Correa.
Both of these men also won the balloting from the Internet Baseball Association of America's voting, announced earlier Monday. I am a member of this association and am one of the 180 members who submitted ballots. In the IBWAA N.L. voting, Bryant received 167 first-place votes (92.78%) and 864 points while being named on 178 of 180 ballots (98.89%). Others receiving first-place votes include Matt Duffy (8), Jung-ho Kang (3), Joc Pederson (1) and Noah Syndergaard (1). In the IBWAA A.L. voting, Correa received 105 first-place votes (58.66%) and 711 points while being named on 171 of 180 ballots (95%). Others receiving first-place votes include Francisco Lindor (57), Miguel Sano (7) and Billy Burns (4).
Here's my IBWAA ballot:
N.L.: Bryant, Duffy, Syndergaard
A.L.: Correa, Lindor, Roberto Osuna
Congratulations to Bryant on this award. He's the sixth Cub to be named Rookie of the Year, following Williams in 1961, Ken Hubbs in 1962, Jerome Walton in 1989, Kerry Wood in 1998 and Geovany Soto in 2008.