Player comparisons are fun. They’re also tricky. It’s hard to not start getting hyperbolic when saying this college kid reminds us of established big league All-Stars. Take, for example, University of San Diego slugger Jakob Christian, who keeps getting lumped in with someone you may have heard of.
“Yeah. I mean I've gotten some player comps to Kris Bryant, which is cool,” says Christian.
Yes, the same Kris Bryant who won the Golden Spikes Award at USD then won the NL Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in his first two years with the Cubs while playing a huge role in helping Chicago break the Billy Goat Curse. That’s a lofty comp.
But in this case, it might be warranted.
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“I mean we’ve got the same frame and whatnot. We both have a considerable amount of power if we can use it,” says Christian. “I like being compared to him. I feel like it's a compliment for sure.”
The same frame is an understatement. In college Bryant was listed at 6’5” and 215 pounds. Christian is 6’5” and 220 pounds. Each guy plays both corner infield AND corner outfield spots. As for the power? Yeah, that’s real, too.
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The reigning West Coast Conference player of the year has hit 23 home runs, the first Torero to top 20 taters since … Kris Bryant. Really the only difference in these two right now is the level of national attention. Bryant was the 2nd overall pick in the MLB Draft. Christian is not even listed on MLB.com’s ranking of the Top-150 draftable prospects.
That might be due to the fact Jakob started his college career at Point Loma Nazarene University, where he was named the Division-II National Player of the Year before transferring to USD to see if he could live up to the Bryant comps.
“That was a goal of mine coming to USD was to model my game off him like I was trying to do at Point Loma when I was getting compared to him. Now being from the same school it's even more so and that was kind of what I was aiming for.”
Christian started the season hitting 7th in the Toreros order and got off to a bit of a slow start. As he heated up, so did the Toreros. Jakob hit 22 homers in a span of 36 games. USD went 30-6 in those games, winning the WCC regular season and conference tournament titles, and Christian is now entrenched in the #3 spot in the lineup (where Bryant hit, as well).
All he had to do was figure out how to get to his prodigious pop in a game, which is not an easy thing to do.
“When you try to do too much on the field, no matter what that is, it's not going to go your way,” says Christian. “I think just playing freely and just playing my game (my power) kind of unlocks naturally. The times where I've been able to really show off my power have been where I'm just going out there to try and hit the ball hard.”
Coaches are usually levelheaded when it comes to analyzing their players. I asked Toreros skipper Brock Ungricht what he thinks of the Bryant comparisons. He didn’t exactly refute anything.
“I didn't get to see Kris play in college but some of these home runs that Jakob has hit this year have been majestic,” says Ungricht. “Over my college coaching career, I've coached a handful of Major Leaguers. I haven't seen very many home runs hit like he’s hit them.”
Christian is a draft-eligible sophomore so he has two years of eligibility left. If he chooses to come back to school for another season, he just might join Bryant and get that Top-10 draft status.
