LOS ANGELES -- There’s something going on with Chicago Cubs star Kris Bryant that is bigger than the National League MVP race. Few teammates -- and certainly not Bryant himself -- want to go there yet, but those observing him can: Bryant is a Hall of Fame player in the making.

This isn’t about a bold prediction or being able to say "I told you so" years later. This is about appreciating and understanding what we’re seeing develop in front of our eyes. And that’s knowing how extremely tough the daily struggle in baseball is and how long and how good -- and healthy -- you actually have to be to make the Hall of Fame.

Even so, raise your hand right now if you don’t think Bryant can be a 30-home run player for at least the next decade and a half. Anybody?

Even that might be selling him short. Bryant has already gone deep 33 times this year as a player who is just scratching the surface of his talent at age 24.

“He’s really developing,” teammate Ben Zobrist said. “It’s hard to pick up the growth when you’re with someone every day, but it’s palpable with him. It’s like right in front of your eyes. You can see him burgeoning into a superstar.”

Bryant’s learning curve is off the charts. In discussions with his youth coaches, his ability to make adjustments at a young age constantly comes up. He has carried that through college and the minors right into the big leagues.

The talent is there -- no question -- but there are many talented players about whom you would stop short of making such grand Hall of Fame pronouncements. It’s about much more than talent when it comes to Bryant: It’s a focus on the game -- not the opponent, not the standings, not the money or fame -- that sets him apart and sets him up for greatness.

“Kris is an animal with his process,” Bryant’s college coach, Rich Hill, said earlier this week. “The attachment of an award or numbers doesn’t enter into his brain. He has a laser-like process and focus every day that he doesn’t know he’s playing at Wrigley Field or he’s an MVP candidate or 40,000 are cheering. He’s just locked into the game.”

Bryant is like a robot, one that can learn and adjust but plays and thinks without emotion. That’s not to say he doesn’t have a passion for baseball, but no amount of adversity sets him back. It’s always about learning and improving for that next at-bat. He embraces the struggle like few athletes around him.

“I always told him when he was younger, when you’re 4-for-4, you have to take the same kind of approach when you’re 0-for-4," his dad, Mike Bryant, said. "If you have the same consistent mental approach to the game, the physical part will follow.”

The elder Bryant, a youth hitting coach, said he started to instill that in his son at “9 or 10 years old.”

“I always thought Kris was far and away ahead of everyone else, mentally,” he said.

The result has been shorter slumps and longer hot streaks -- the sign of any great player, according to Zobrist. Bryant’s in the middle of a hot one now, as he is hitting .372 in August with a .439 on-base percentage, seven home runs and 18 RBIs. It has vaulted him to the top of the MVP race, and through this point in his career, Bryant holds his own against Hall of Famers -- not just MVPs.

You didn’t need to be told Bryant is off to a fast start -- that is obvious -- but can he keep it up to join the Hall someday?

“As crazy as it sounds, I think he could,” catcher Miguel Montero said. “He just keeps getting better. He’s already surpassed last year in a lot of ways. The talent is off the charts.”

Cubs manager Joe Maddon has raved about Bryant since the first day he met him. “If he has an ego, I haven’t seen it," he often says of Bryant.

There’s a quiet hunger that comes out when Bryant takes the field -- not just in the batter’s box. He wants to dominate everywhere.

“He’s a very good defender, wherever you put him,” Maddon said. “He has a great arm. He’s one of the best base runners in the NL already. And he has extraordinary power to all fields. He’s learned over the last two years to cover a greater variety of pitches.”

Several sequences last weekend in Colorado shined a spotlight on what Maddon is describing. Bryant has often said that there is no better feeling “in the world” than squaring up a baseball. He did just that in the fifth inning Saturday, crushing a ball 471 feet to center field, but it was his at-bat the inning before that had him excited. With Dexter Fowler on third and no outs, Bryant saw nine pitches from Rockies starter Jeff Hoffman before he hit a ground ball to right field -- away from the shift. Going with a pitch like that to drive in a run is actually something -- one of the few things -- Bryant has had trouble with in the past.

“That’s what I want to work on the last 40 games,” he said after that game. “Some situational moments which have given me trouble in the past.”

Struggle, learn, adjust, succeed. That’s the formula Bryant has incorporated for a long time, despite his being only 24 years old.

“He’s so committed to that process, the even keel comes out in him,” Hill said. “He never lets a bad moment get him down.”

Baseball is a game of frustration, and though Bryant admits that he feels it at tougher times, his frustration quickly goes away -- and is replaced by the ultimate confidence that he can beat the next pitcher.

But even great players slump, have bad years, push too hard and many times never live up to their early-career hype, no matter how dominant they look at the onset. Bryant could be one of those guys -- there’s no predicting the future -- but if "Hall of Fame player" can be attached to any current second-year man, then he is it.

The veteran, Zobrist, is one to hold back though -- for Bryant’s sake, if anything.

“Longevity is one of the hardest things about this game,” he said. “The demand on your body is pretty tough. I wouldn’t do that to him. I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me. It’s too much to think about. He’s so far away from that. This game is about staying in the moment.”

Zobrist added: “It’s pretty scary the expectations. You just expect him to hit home runs or do special things, and you’re not even surprised anymore. When he takes a swing and fouls a ball off, its like 'Ooh, that was almost a home run.'"

Handling big expectations is nothing new for Bryant, though. He has made a habit of following awards with even bigger awards. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he is just one of six players -- with Jose Canseco, Johnny Bench, Bryce Harper, Buster Posey and Mike Trout -- to win three of the following four awards: College Player of the Year, Minor League Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and league MVP. What's more, Bryant has set himself apart from the rest: He’s the only one to win his three awards in three consecutive years.

An MVP in 2016 would cap off an incredible four years of baseball by Bryant -- and he’s just getting started.

“We knew he was going to be special by the way the ball came off his bat,” Montero said. “To be able to do this is incredible. Hopefully he stays healthy and we’ll see a Hall of Famer, [and] I can say I played with him.”