Milwaukee Brewers: Analyzing the Potential All Star Picks

The Reigning NL MVP

Every team is guaranteed one All Star every year. It’s not hard to figure out who the Milwaukee Brewers’ primary candidate would be, especially when he’s on pace to compete for a second consecutive National League MVP award.

Yelich apparently bottled up whatever it was that helped push him through his torrid second half of 2018 that earned him MVP honors over Javier Baez and is using it to be as good, if not better to start 2019. The numbers bear witness to his greatness.

Currently, Yelich leads the National League in home runs (23), stolen bases (14), slugging percentage (.737), and he just took the lead in OPS (1.178). Because he is now feared so much as a hitter, he also leads the league in intentional walks (12). It make sense that opposing managers don’t want to pitch to him considering he hits one of those homers every 8.9 at bats, which also leads the NL.

And those are just the categories he leads! He is also right behind NL leaders in a number of other categories including batting average (.337, 3rd), runs batted in (52, 4th), on base percentage (.442, 2nd), runs scored (49, 3rd), and walks (37, 3rd). Offensive, he does damage in almost every way possible.

Consider what this puts him on pace for. If Yelich were to keep this up all year, he would finish with 58 homers, 124 runs scored, 131 RBI, and 35 steals. That would make him just the 41st member total, and third Brewer ever, to reach the 30 – 30 Club, not to mention tie for the 11th most home runs in a single season. He will most likely look slightly more human at some point, but fans can dream.

There’s really no chance Yelich doesn’t make his second straight All Star appearance unless someone hacks the voting system. Cody Bellinger, who is having an amazing season in his own right, is just as guaranteed for another outfield spot for the NL. The third spot is up for grabs at this point. It will be interesting to see where Yelich lands in voting across the entire NL when the first update is released.

Mike Moustakas & Yasmani Grandal

Milwaukee Brewers GM David Stearns made it a priority over the off season to sign players who would keep the offense dangerous in 2019. Two of the biggest signings to help in that endeavor were bringing back Mike Moustakas to play second base and signing one of the best offensive catchers in all of baseball in Yasmani Grandal. Now both have very good chances to make the All Star team.

“Moose” wasted no time fitting in for the year in his second season with Milwaukee, smacking his first home run for the year on Opening Day. He’s added 17 more since then to vault himself toward the top of the ballot at second base where he is currently listed.

Moustakas currently leads all other second basemen on the ballot in OPS (.907) and home runs (18), and runs scored (40). He ranks second in RBI (40) and doubles (14) and places fourth in batting average (.271). His most likely competition at the position should be Ketel Marte who leads in RBI and is second in several categories, but a third career All Star selection is still likely.

Grandal took a little bit to get settled in for the Brewers, going 0 for his first 12 to start the year. Since then, however, he has proven that signing him to add some more pop behind the plate was a very good idea.

Grandal leads NL catchers on the season in walks (30) and is tied for the lead in home runs (13). He sits second in OPS (.910), is fourth in batting average (.281), and places fifth in RBI (32). In one of the more odd stats out there, Grandal leads all other catchers on the ballot combined in triples, 2-1.

It is unlikely he catches Willson Contreras for a starting spot in the All Star game. Contreras leads catchers in OPS, is tied with Grandal in home runs, and is second in RBI and batting average, not to mention Cubs fans vote in droves. Chances for his second career All Star selection are still looking good, though.

Josh Hader & Zach Davies

The Milwaukee Brewers have two pitchers that have pretty good chances at All Star appearances this year. One was dominant last year and, aside from a few blips on the radar, has had similar success in 2019. The other was a bit more of a surprise.

Hader wasn’t expected to be the primary closer for the Brewers this year. But when Corey Knebel went down for the year before the season started and with Jeffress on the shelf, manager Craig Counsell decided he was going to use his best pitcher in just that role. The results were mostly what you would expect.

For the most part, Hader is even more unhittable than last year. His WHIP (.717), batting average against (.125) and BB% (8%) have gone down while his K/9 (17.6!!!) and K% (53.1%) have gone up. The one odd part is that he is giving up more homers, his HR/9 being up from 1.0 to 1.8. 6 of the 13 hits Hader has given up have been homers, so when batters connect, they connect hard. But most likely they don’t connect at all.

Among qualifying relievers in all of MLB, Hader’s K/9 and K% lead the way. Meanwhile, his batting average against and WHIP both rank in the top 10. Though he may not have a sub-2.00 ERA or anything, it would be hard to keep such an entertaining reliever out of the All Star game, though that is for the coaches to decide.

On the other hand, Zach Davies was much less expected to be so successful in 2019 based off of how he looked in 2018. All he has done, though, is step in and be the team’s ace all year.

Davies has given up more than two earned runs just once all year. That gives him a 2.20 ERA which would be the lowest of his career by far. If you remove the one six-earned run start from a couple weeks ago, it would be an even more impressive 1.49.

His 2.20 ERA places him third among NL starters in 2019. His six wins are also the most of any starter without a loss. Being a finesse pitcher, though, most of his other metrics (K%, BB%, WHIP, opponents batting average, etc.) rank around league average. The fact of the matter is, he’s gotten the job done when his team has needed him and that might be enough to translate to his first career All Star appearance.

Orlando Arcia & Brandon Woodruff

It’s not unheard of for a player to get scorching hot to end the first half of the season and parlay that into an All Star selection. Heck, that’s half the reason the Final Vote was invented! The Milwaukee Brewers have a couple of players who are sitting slightly above average in their respective position groups who could do just that.

If Davies’ emergence as staff ace this year was surprising to Brewers fans, Orlando Arcia finally showing some offensive promise has been just as delightful to see. Arcia has come up big in a number of clutch situations and making sure opposing pitchers know that the bottom of Milwaukee’s order is not to be an afterthought.

The 24-year old is on pace to set career highs in every offensive category except for batting average, which would still be his second best for a year, and stolen bases. Even that might be enough to find a way into the All Star Game though.

There are a number of NL shortstops with good-looking numbers this year. Arcia’s best ranks among them are in walks (4th), home runs (5th) and RBI (7th). A strong finish to the first half could potentially push him further up the ranks, but it would take a level of offense we’ve never seen from him before.

After a rough start to the season, Brandon Woodruff turned things around in a big way to establish himself as arguably the second best pitcher in Milwaukee’s rotation. His ERA was threatening to go sub-3.00 prior to his two most previous starts while continuing to rack up strikeouts at an impressive pace.

Woodruff’s 90 strikeouts are the 6th most in the NL currently, as is his 10.9 K/9 and 29.5% K%. Had he continued on the same trajectory, we might be considering two Brewer starters in the All Star game. However, Woodruff has given up nine earned runs over his last two starts to slow down some of his momentum and would need to turn things around immediately for the coaches who vote on pitchers to consider giving him his own All Star spot.

Much like last year, the Milwaukee Brewers will almost certainly end up with multiple All Star participants in 2019. Yelich is all but guaranteed to be one of them. Moustakas, Grandal, and Hader are the most likely candidates to join him. Depending on what happens down the stretch, those four might not be the only All Stars that Brewer fans get to watch this year.