Brewers: Four Milwaukee Players’ Christmas Wish Lists

Christian Yelich

This year wasn’t the best year for Yelich, let’s be realistic. But this doesn’t mean that he wasn’t on the nice list. The number one thing that Christian Yelich wants for Christmas this year is a 20-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals to start the season. Realistic? No. Interesting? Absolutely. Here’s why: Yelich DOMINATES Cardinals pitching and he notoriously starts off the season slower than he finishes it.

First, his success against the St. Louis. I’m sure it won’t take too much to convince you because you’ve seen him crushing Cardinals pitching in his last three years for Milwaukee, but the stats are there to back it up. Out of all 30 MLB teams, Yelich has his most runs batted in (50) and home runs (19) against the Redbirds.

You might say, “Oh well that’s because he probably has played against them the most or is right up there for the most.”. Interestingly enough, he’s played in 63 games against St. Louis, which ranks at 8th most in his career, with the most against the Braves with 94 against Atlanta.

Some more career numbers against the Cardinals are a batting average of .302, an on-base percentage of .417, a slugging percentage of .618 and 68 hits. All of these stats rank in his top 10 against teams that he’s gone against in his eight years in the MLB.

Okay so he’s really good against St. Louis, but does he really struggle at the beginning of the season? By Christian Yelich’s standards? I suppose. In the first half of his eight year career, his average is about .20 points lower and he has less hits, runs batted in, lower on-base percentage and more strikeouts than the latter half of the season.

Specifically, May is the anomaly. For some reason, Yelich’s average is .259 which isn’t all that bad, but the crazy part is that all the other months, the next lowest average is .294 in August.

Stocking stuffers: Hitting 2nd in the lineup, a first pitch meatball from a fly ball pitcher, Hershey’s Kisses