If You Wagered that Addison Russell Would Homer Before Kris Bryant, You Just Won a Lot of Money (Video)

Kris Bryant is awesome. Even veteran MLB pitchers are afraid of him and he’s looked like every bit the polished slugger we were promised by his incredible stats from both college and the minors. Well, except for one thing: he has yet to homer in 45 major league at-bats.

Addison Russell, on the other hand, had been looking overmatched following his call-up only a few days after Bryant debuted. He started out 0-10 before collecting his first hit (a double), and appeared to be guessing a bit during some at-bats, as evidenced by 12 strikeouts in his first 5 games.

But Russell had been settling in lately, collecting hits in each of his last 3 games entering Saturday’s contest with the Brewers. And his 3 doubles were evidence that his bat possessed more than a little bit of pop. But surely he wouldn’t be the first of the two new Cubs to go yard.

I mean, sure, it’s funny to joke about, but no one really believed it, right?

Addison Russell is gonna have an MLB HR before Kris Bryant. Calling it.

— Kyle (@kdykstra20) April 21, 2015

Man, I hope you laid down a prop bet in Vegas on that one. I have written in the past about the sound the ball makes off of Bryant’s bat, but it’s not much different coming off of Russell’s. Even if you didn’t see it live, you could hear that the ball was going a long way even before Pat Hughes called it.

It’s a shame there was no one out in the bleachers to celebrate it, but I guess the dearth of fans makes it a lot easier for the kid to get the ball back. Can’t wait to see many more of these in the future.

Now, who wants to bet Bryant goes off for 2 in a game in the very near future?