Christian Yelich - 13 games, one single

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. 

This year just got in his head.

Christian Bonilla.

Hiura been almost as bad. Again, good power numbers (about 40 home runs over a full year), but he's leading the league in strikeouts and would strike out about 240 times over a full year. His OBP and OPS  percentages are even worse than Yelich. 

Who had Burnes down as a Cy Young candidate?  

@"We"-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

@"We"-Ka-Bong posted:

Who had Burnes down as a Cy Young candidate?  

The same people who had Sogard down as MVP.  

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. 

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

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. 

At least no no-no.

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

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 f’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

Brewers up 3-0 after 6 and a half in their penultimate game. 

Yelich is now 40-197 for the year. He likely gets between 1 and 5 ABs the rest of the season. If you'd have told me in July that he would need 1 hit in his last game of the season to hit over 200 for the year, I'd have bet millions of dollars against that. 

Woody was a rock star

@"We"-Ka-Bong posted:

Woody was a rock star

Would have liked to see what he and Burnes could have done in a 3 game playoff series. 

So if I understand right, with the Phillies losing today, if the Padres hang on and win tonight the Brewers just have to win tomorrow to get into the playoffs? 

Might be a really interesting Sunday!

I need confirmation...but that’s just crazy!

@PackerHawk posted:

So if I understand right, with the Phillies losing today, if the Padres hang on and win tonight the Brewers just have to win tomorrow to get into the playoffs? 

Might be a really interesting Sunday!

One win to make the playoffs without being over 500 once all year. 

Just looked it up. We own the tie breaker with the Giants and the Phillies have lost 31 games. 

Could still back in with a loss and another Padres win. 

After that, anything’s possible. get a couple hot pitchers and you can beat anyone. Of course, Not sure what’s up with Burnes’ injury... 

Last 30 days he has been a good hitter. 

Last two weeks he's been a damn good hitter

Last week he has been hot

I like where this trend is heading.

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%.