Kris Bryant looked lost at the outset of the season, lunging into his swing and whiffing on pitches that split the heart of the plate with average velocity. He just wasn’t himself and it was obvious to anyone who’d seen him play before, even in his injury-plagued 2018 season. The pronounced difference had a few people pronouncing Bryant dead, or at least ready to pull the plug on his life support.
But you see, that’s the problem: The issues had nothing to do with physical inability to perform. There were some mechanical flaws — like the lunging and an errant hand path that created a big hole in his swing — and perhaps some mental hurdles to clear, but nothing that should have caused legitimate concern.