Milwaukee Brewers: Should Christian Yelich Bat Third?

When the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Christian Yelich from the Miami Marlins in January, they picked up one of the most underrated players in the game. Could we see Christian Yelich inherit the most important slot in the batting order?

Is he productive enough to bat third?

That answer is a big yes.  It’s July 26th and the young phenom and possibly the upcoming face of the Milwaukee Brewers is having his best season to date. Yelich is slashing a very impressive .310/.377/.500, giving him an OPS of .877.  He is showing some pop as well with 13 home runs and he has driven in 52 RBIs.

Most of this production is from Yelich batting second behind Lorenzo Cain. With the Brewers offense currently struggling, should manager Craig Counsell try to switch things up a bit and bat Yelich third?

What about Braun?

For the past several years the three hole has been occupied by Ryan Braun. Rightfully so, because when Braun is himself, he can carry an offense. Unfortunately, this season he just is not cutting it and has since been moved around in the lineup.

You can blame the injury bug, but Braun’s not-so-appealing line of .232/.278/.423 and an OPS of .701 is not to be overlooked.  Braun has shown a decrease in his power as well as he only has 10 home runs on the year. Although his .257 BAbip likely has played a major role in his struggles.

Yelich in July

The past month, Yelich has been one of the game’s best hitters. He’s slashing .375/.415/.614 and has an OPS of 1.029 in that time. He’s hit three home runs and driven in 20 RBIs in that span as well.

Yelich also is proving that he is not just a typical righty killer either. He’s also dominant against left-handed pitching as he owns an impressive .330 batting average against southpaws. Yelich has shown some pop as well with three home runs against lefties this year.

Now we are getting close to the possibility that the Brewers decide to make a move to improve the offense. If they decide to make an addition, that could have a major impact on this idea of Yelich in the three hole, however.

However, if the Brewers want to start scoring runs on a consistent basis, they should consider putting more than one batter in front of the team’s best hitter.