How can the Milwaukee Brewers fix their strikeout problem?

The Brewers currently hold the fourth most strikeouts in all of baseball. What can be done to ensure the Brewers strike out less? Would it help them score more often if they did? Let’s look at a few ways the Brewers could attempt to remedy this problem.

The Milwaukee Brewers currently sit fourth in strikeouts in all of baseball and according to fangraphs.com the Brewers are 10th in strikeout percentage.

How the Milwaukee Brewers can fix their strikeout problem: #1 Swing more

It may stand as a point of strategy that the Milwaukee Brewers want to see as many pitches as possible, whether it be to drive a pitcher’s pitch count up or to try and wait for the pitcher to make a mistake. That conclusion comes based on the fact that the Milwaukee Brewers have seen the second most pitches of any time in baseball, only the Yankees have seen more pitches this season.

The Brewers rank 26th in zone swing percentage, the percent of pitches they swing at as a team inside the strike zone. They rank 14th in zone contact percentage, so of the 65.4 percent of inside the zone pitches they swing at, they make contact with 82.2 percent of them. So one potential solution to help strike out less is simply swing at more pitches inside the zone.

One number that is good to see the Brewers near the bottom of the league is chase percentage. They’re 28th in chase percentage, only the Diamondbacks and Dodgers chase fewer pitches as a team. However, when it comes to making contact on pitches chased, (the Brewers chase 25.5 percent of pitches outside the zone), the Brewers are still at the bottom of the league. The Crew is 24th in chase contact percentage, so one of two things needs to occur in this area to help the team’s strikeout numbers decrease, either swing even less outside the zone, or, look to just make contact and foul some pitches off until you get one you like.

The Milwaukee Brewers are capable of doing damage with their bats, as evidenced by being fourth in all of baseball in home runs, but they’re also respectable on barrel percentage (9th) and hard hit percentage (11th) and middle of the pack on exit velocity (14th). So it’s not as if the Brewers are choosing not to swing because they aren’t capable of hitting well, because they are.