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Yelich starting to get hot after his horrendous start. His OBP and slugging percentages are actually decent (not superstar level, but decent). His batting average looks like a pitcher's. 

He's 7 for 47 with 9 walks in 12 games. His 7 hits include 1 single, 1 double, 1 triple, and 4 home runs. 

If you extrapolate his current stats out to a whole year they are the following:

 87 hits, .149 average, 50 HRs, 112 RBIs, 250 strikeouts, 112 walks

Last year he had 75 singles in 130 games. This year 1 in 12 games. Basically, his whole statistical problem right now comes down to he's not getting any singles or enough doubles. He either hits the ball hard or strikes out right now (20 Ks in 47 ABs). 

 

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So what happened this year with Yelich? What started out as a terrible start has turned into an awful 55 games. This is not a small sample size at this point. 

His power numbers are OK. Over a full season he'd hit about 30 home runs. But everything else is off and he's striking out at an alarming rate. Over a full season at this pace he'd strike out about 220 times. He has drawn a lot more walks, so maybe teams are just pitching around him more without Moustakas and Grandal for protection and he's chasing pitches? 

In the last 4 games which will determine whether the Brewers make the post-season, he is now 1 for 13 with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks. No RBIs. 

For a guy who had historic seasons the last two years, ending even a 60 game season hitting around .200 is concerning. 

@El-Ka-Bong posted:

Who had Burnes down as a Cy Young candidate?  

After the 2018 playoffs, I thought he had as much potential as a starter than any Brewer since Ben Sheets. He gave up a total of 4 HR in 38 regular season innings and had a WHIP of 1.00. He was even better in the playoffs. I remember many of us thinking he was untouchable as a trading chip. 

After last year, I had no idea what to think. He looked like he was pitching batting practice. 

The difference this year is that he went from giving up 3.1 home runs/9 innings to leading the league in allowing the least HRs/9 innings (0.3). It wasn't just HRs, he gave up 12.9 hits/9 innings last year was at 6.4 in 2018 and 5.6 this year. His strikeouts/9 innings and his walks/9 innings stayed the same. 

I wonder if he was somehow tipping his pitches. He didn't seem to have any difference in velocity or control. 

https://www.baseball-reference...rs/b/burneco01.shtml

I don't know how much you can really interpret from this season, but they may have had the best pitching they've had in years.

Starting pitching: Burnes and Woodruff have been outstanding (Woodruff has had lousy run support so his record doesn't reflect how good he's been).  Anderson and Lindblom have been adequate. Houser's been awful. 4 decent starting pitchers. 

Relief Pitching: Hader had two bad outings. Otherwise, he's been Hader. The rest of the bullpen has been very good. Devin Williams has been as good as anyone in the league. Even their worst bullpen guy (Claudio) has been decent. 

The problem this year has obviously been the offense. Only maybe Ryan Braun and Gyorko have given them at least what they expected. Almost every free agent position player they signed has been awful. Their three veteran signees (Narvaez, Smoak, and Brock Holt) are currently 41 for 244 (.168) with 7 HRs and 25 RBIs. They were supposed to replace Grandal, Moustakas, and Thames. The front office just completely whiffed on those decisions this offseason. 

Yelich and Hiura have been strikeout machines. Arcia, Garcia, Sogard, and Urias have been what's expected on offense (fairly anemic). 

The one thing that they couldn't control was Lorenzo Cain opting out. If he plays, they are probably safely in the playoffs right now, even with all the other offensive problems. 

Your season is hanging by a thread needing to win every game, you are already down 5-0 with 9 outs left and you have to pitch a guy (Lauer) who has an ERA of 12.10. 

And Lauer pitches 2/3rds of an inning and gives up 2 hits, 2 walks, 3 runs and 2 inherited runners scored. ERA is now over 14. 

Brewers now down 9-0. 

Of course, since they are being no-hit right now, 1-0 might have been enough. 

Last edited by MichiganPacker2

Their three veteran signees (Narvaez, Smoak, and Brock Holt) are currently 41 for 244 (.168) with 7 HRs and 25 RBIs. They were supposed to replace Grandal, Moustakas, and Thames. The front office just completely whiffed on those decisions this offseason. 

if they dump +$30M on Moustakas and Grandal this and the next 3 years and Gyorko hits more HRs than both for $4M... they would be completely fโ€™d until they got rid of those contracts. Smoak was a shot in the dark. Navaez a whiff. Holt... bleh. In 2023 when the prospects all come up and Hiura is hitting his stride... potentially potent lineup. 

I was completely at peace with Moose moving on.  Hated to see Grandal go, but I hoped we could have signed him to a multi-year right away when no one wanted him.  I still hold out hope for Navaez.  Holt/Smoak... don't care because now we have Vogelbach who is the most anti-sogard player that ever existed and I love him like I loved other legends like Rob Deer and Russel Branyan

Yelich has had at least 1 hit in his last 16 starts (he was 0 for 1 in a pinch-hitting appearance in one game).

During that stretch, he's 23 for 64 with 6 walks. His OBP has only gone up from 372 to 378 as he appears to be getting more aggressive.

He's hitting the ball harder, and he's starting to drive the ball better. That will be the difference. I read somewhere that in 2019, something like 30% of his fly balls left the park whereas this year it was around 13%.

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