Brewers: Christian Yelich’s challenge for the Throne
By Ryan Sanders
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich is challenging Mike Trout for the Iron Throne of the best player in MLB. After his legendary second half in 2018, Yelich hasn’t missed a beat
The Game of Thrones series finale is this Sunday and from my understanding, fans will finally know who will be the last man standing on the iron throne. Now, MLB has its own version of the Iron Throne, the title of the best player in baseball. Well, folks, there is a new entrant trying to end Mike Trout‘s rule as the best player in baseball. His name is Christian Yelich and after his legendary second half last year that propelled the Milwaukee Brewers within one game of the World Series, he hasn’t missed a beat this season.
To start, we need to put into perspective just how dominant Yelich has been. Check out this leaderboard over the past 365 days. In just under 700 plate appearances, Yelich has hit an otherworldly .335/.424/.665, which is good for an insane 185 wRC+. That line is a whole two points “worse” than Mike Trout’s 187.
Christian Yelich also leads the world in home runs over the past year bashing 50, 2 more than Khris Davis and 8 more than Alex Bregman. All told, Yelich has been the best player in baseball totaling 9.9 WAR, besting Mike Trout’s 9.7 and besting other stars like Mookie Betts and Alex Bregman by a full win.
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So it is pretty clear that Yelich has been the best player of the last 365 days, but how has he done it? Well, Yelich getting out of Miami’s pitcher park and ownership couldn’t hurt. More seriously, Yelich has always hit the ball hard with an average exit velocity in the top 10% in the league. The thing holding Yelich back was that he hit too many ground balls. IN 2016 and 2017 he hit ground balls over 50% of the time. He was still a very productive player, however, producing above average batting lines (respectively 134 and 118 wRC+) but there always felt like there could more in there.
Something clicked for Yelich last year though. He started to drive the ball in the air like he never had before. In 2016/2017, Yelich had an average launch angle of 4.7°. Over the past 365 days, Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich has gone the elevate and celebrate route, posting a launch angle of 10.8°. Look at this graphic of his swing in 2016/17 and compare it to his 2018/19, you can clearly see he is a different hitter as the massive line of ground balls in 16/17 is gone.
More impressive is that even as Yelich has done his best Barry Bonds impression, he has increased his walk rate and dropped his strikeout rate. This season, Yelch is walking nearly 16% of the time and striking out 18%. He is striking out less as a power hitter than he did.
This season, Yelich has been an offensive juggernaut and better than he was last year. His 200 wRC+ is bested only by Cody Bellinger‘s equally ludicrous offensive performance. Yelich also has the league high 18 home runs and has amassed a 3 Wins on the season. Most players would be thrilled with that number over a full season and Yelich has done it in 42 games. Yelich is at top of the league in exit velocity, sprint speed, and the entire array of expected statistics from batting average, slugging percentage, to weighted on-base average.
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Christian Yelich has been every bit Mike Trout’s equal over the past 365 days. It is too soon to anoint him the title of the best player in baseball. If Yelich keeps doing what he’s doing though, the conversation for best player in baseball this offseason is going to be a lot different. So sit back, tune in to as many Milwaukee Brewers games as you can and watch Christian Yelich do the insane things that he does.