Christian Yelich has been swinging a hot bat for the Brewers as of late. The former MVP is showing flashes of his old self. Most recently, he clubbed three home runs in the Brewers’ series against the Royals. This recent performance has once again brought up the question, “Is MVP Christian Yelich back?”
Is Christian Yelich Back? A Look at His Recent Performance
When analyzing Yelich’s recent seasons and comparing them to his current hot streak, there is a clear differentiator. What many don’t realize is Yelich never actually lost his power. Over the past few seasons, Yelich’s exit velocity was in the 80th percentile. So what caused the lack of production? According to Fangraphs, 59% of Yelich’s in-play hits were ground balls last season. The league average in this category was 43%. In other words, Christian Yelich was hitting the ball hard; it was just on the ground.
Understanding the root of Yelich’s problem will help us know if this performance is legit or just another flicker of light. So far, it looks as if this performance was legit, Yelich’s average launch angle on breaking balls has taken a noticeable jump from April to May. His four home runs this month were all at least 31 degrees on the launch angle.
For those who need a refresher, MLB.com defines launch angle as “the vertical angle at which the ball leaves a player’s bat after being struck.” So Yelich’s launch angle going up directly correlates to his ground ball rate lowering and the increase in extra-base hits.
It’s unclear if Yelich made any changes to improve his launch angle, so there is no way to know if he is “back”. If Yelich didn’t do anything to improve his launch angle, and this just happened by chance, the Brewers hitting coaches need to get in the video room and figure out what’s causing this improved launch angle immediately. That will decide if Christian Yelich can keep this “hot streak” up or not.
Assuming this did not happen by chance and Yelich actually made an adjustment in his swing to improve the launch angle, it’s fair to expect Yelich to be better. It is still unlikely Yelich will ever match his 2018-2019 numbers, as those were borderline video game statistics that aren’t very repeatable. However, if Christian Yelich can keep his launch angle up, we can expect some more home runs/extra-base hits from him compared to past seasons.
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2 Comments
Whoever owns this website needs to give this kid a raise! He’s just 16 and the smartest Brewers writer on this site.
Haha, thanks Ryan