Camp Sights: Kris Bryant's saga familiar to Maddon

NOTE: Paste BN Sports' Paul White, via car, causeway, plane and rail, will reach every major league camp this spring.

Follow his exploits on Twitter – @PBJWhite – as he makes his way through the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues before he imparts all you didn't know about every team right here.

TODAY

Chicago Cubs

MESA, Ariz. – Is he Evan Longoria or Ken Griffey Jr.?

He's Kris Bryant, of course, and he's dominating spring training in words and deeds.

The deeds are his nine homers and 38 total bases that are the most anywhere this month.

The words are everyone else's, from agitated agent Scott Boras to virtually everyone with a cogent thought on baseball to, of course, Cubs manager Joe Maddon.

It's Maddon who leads the spring in words – that's just the way his media sessions are – but hardly tops the list in creating clarity in the national infatuation over whether Bryant will start the season in Chicago or Des Moines.

A few Maddon excerpts on the subject:

–"A lot of the answers lie below the surface. You look at what's happening. This is how it looks like it should be. If you look under the surface, maybe that's not the correct answer."

–"This is a really solid young man who is going to be a really good major league player for a lot of years. We just have to try to do the right things by him and for him."

–"I'm seeing some things differently, and that's what the conversation is. Beyond some of the more obvious stuff, what about his defense, how does he run the bases, what does it take to win a ballgame?"

–"He gets a lot of credit because he comes in here with a lot of expectations wanting to win a job, and he hasn't blinked at all."

–"When you have somebody like him, you pretty much know what he is going to look like in the future. You really want to make sure all the bells and whistles are attached and in place and everything is lined up perfectly. He's going to come here with a lot of pressure built into the situation, so sometimes it's better just to wait a little bit. We're going to see how he handles things, his general demeanor. We're going to watch his defense and how he handles situations in general."

Oh, wait.

That last one is from 2008. It was Maddon alright, but he was talking about Longoria and his chances of opening that season with the Tampa Bay Rays.

He didn't but ended up as American League rookie of the year on a team that went to the World Series. To this day, Maddon still believes his team was better than the Philadelphia Phillies group that won that series. So, there's some context to him telling Bryant this spring, "My goal for this year is to shake your hand after winning the World Series."

Griffey? He put on a similar show as a 19-year-old in 1989, batting .360 and setting Seattle Mariners spring records with 32 hits, 20 RBI and 49 total bases. The Mariners gave in and gave Griffey a roster spot on a team that would finish 26 games out of first place.

The Cubs finished 17 out last year – not such a big deal when you consider Tampa Bay was 30 out the year before Longoria's debut and the franchise's turnaround.

Remember, Longoria lasted all of a week before Willy Aybar, the guy who got the third base job instead, went on the disabled list. And a week after that, Longoria signed a six-year contract.

Don't count on that last part for Bryant – remember, Boras is his agent – but the Maddon connection is fascinating. He and the Rays front office danced around the service-time cynicism that tends to hang over these discussions, just as he and the Cubs hierarchy are dismissing the current and plentiful outside advice.

You can take all those quotes that serve nicely as warnings/justifications for why Bryant deserves to start the season in the minor leagues – even the Longoria stuff, since it's pretty much interchangeable.

Or you can play along at home and try to decipher the obtuse, such as these Maddon excerpts:

–"There are no unilateral decisions being made here. I have to plead my case, talk to (club President Theo Epstein and general manger Jed Hoyer), talk to the coaching staff. I came up with a couple of thoughts, a little epiphany There's some stuff here that I really like that I don't think is being talked about a lot. Nothing has been finalized."

What's clear is that Bryant has bounced back from some shoulder difficulties that limited his work on defense, the area he and the management team agree needs the most work, and that all parties are in favor of him increasing his versatility by working this week in the outfield, a position he has played in the past.

Got all that?

Bryant does – sort of, just like the rest of us.

"Everyone has been great to me, treating me with nothing but first class," he says. "I have nothing but good things to say. But at the same time, I'm hearing from my teammates they want me up and I'm doing well and everyone is telling me I'm progressing well, and it's sending mixed messages to me."

On that score, anyway, welcome to the big leagues.

***

The old and the beautiful

Dexter Fowler could brand himself as the prospect whisperer – if only whispering was in the Cubs center fielder's makeup.

"I feel like I'm old," he joked this week on his 29th birthday. I'm looking around and saying, 'Man, it's my seventh year in the big leagues, everybody's young.' I see 1990s (birthdates), I'm like, 'Whaaaat?' I'm old."

It's his first year with the Cubs after an offseason trade from the Houston Astros, but there will be days this season he's the oldest player in the lineup.

Effervescent Fowler isn't ready to be the old hand quite yet.

"That's never going to be me," he says. "Even when I'm older, I'm probably going to think I'm young."

Still, he finds himself with a locker next to the confident, polished – but still a rookie – Bryant.

"Aw, he's easy to take care of," Fowler laughs. "But, you know, I did have (George) Springer next to me last spring with Houston. That turned out pretty good, right?"

To the tune of Springer's 20 home runs and .804 on-base plus slugging.

And what about the Colorado Rockies, where he spent his first five-plus major league seasons?

"DJ (LeMahieu, Gold Glove second baseman) for awhile," Fowler says. "But I can't take credit for Nolan (Arenado, Gold Glove third baseman)."

Fowler glances at the 76 jersey hanging in Bryant's locker and predicts that rookie-like number won't last long.

"But I'm still working on (Jorge) Soler and that 68," Fowler says of the outfielder who debuted last year. "He just keeps saying, 'It's what they gave me.' We gotta do something about that."

The Bryant number situation could get interesting.

His Twitter account is @KrisBryant_23, but that number from earlier days is a non-starter since 23 with the Cubs is Ryne Sandberg's retired number.

Bryant wore 19 at Class AAA (Des Moines) Iowa last summer, but non-roster player Jonathan Herrera has it in Cubs camp this year. And he was given 17 when he played in Arizona Fall League in 2013, the same number his father wore for two seasons in the Boston Red Sox minor league system. That's available, last worn by Dave Sappelt in 2013.

***

The human element

There really is more to Cubs spring training that the Bryant spectacle and speculation.

It has even overshadowed colorful Maddon bringing his brand of managing to a high-profile franchise.

He's not promising the myriad lineups – 120-130 different batting orders a year was common at Tampa Bay – because he thinks, "Our lineup should be relatively thick, should be pretty offensive."

But he is experimenting with batting the pitcher eighth in some variation, though he has asked the Cubs analytics folks for help.

"Our brainiac department is trying to get me information." Maddon says. "If they play this out in computer enhancements, how does this play, percentages and things like that."

There's a very human side of the program, too.

This week, Maddon was front and center with players, coaches and other employees having their heads shaved to raise money for pediatric cancer. That's one of his annual charitable endeavors that also leads to one goal – still secondary to winning a World Series – he hasn't been able to accomplish.

"My goal always is to not get any more haircuts for the season," he says. "I start sprouting in April. By mid-May I get back to the military look. June, I should be back to full. But then I get ratty and I succumb."

Another Maddon tradition is his themed days and road trips. He had his staff outfitted as football coaches – bike shorts, faux stirrup socks up to the knees and whistles.

But he also got into the madness behind his methods.

"It's a little bit about risk taking. Lots of guys don't feel comfortable out here right now," said Maddon, who took it a step further with aviator glasses but lamented that his schedule was in his back pocket rather than a plastic sleeve attached to the front of his belt like a football coach.

"It's uncomfortable for a lot of guys to do that kind of stuff," he says of trips that have centered on sleepwear, western gear, the grunge look and more. "That group that's afraid to change, put your toe in that uncharted water, it's hard to really become a champion with any consistency."

It's more than the obvious team building, Maddon said.

"Eventually, I've had players come back and tell me they get it, the camaraderie component, the team aspect and, beyond that, stepping outside your comfort zone," he said. "That's really, really important. We have a tendency to roll up, get in there and not want to do anything else. That's fine. If you want to live your life that way, that's cool. But don't be afraid to try that thing you're afraid to do. I think change is a really interesting part of life."

Change certainly will be an interesting part of the Cubs this year.

GALLERY: Scenes from spring training