How can the Milwaukee Brewers fix their strikeout problem?

How the Milwaukee Brewers can fix their strikeout problem: #2 Swing at the first pitch more often

Another area of potential credence to the “Brewers should swing more” solution is their first pitch swing percentage, the team is 30th in this metric. While it isn’t a guarantee that the first pitch of every at bat will be a good pitch to hit or even a strike, what the Brewers only swinging at 25.4 percent of first pitches does is signal essentially that three out of four times you could throw a first pitch strike and they won’t swing.

Short of going game by game, at bat by at bat, there is no way to know how many times the Milwaukee Brewers were down in a count 0-1 on taken strikes. I’m not suggesting they start hacking away on the first pitch every at bat, but disarming their opponents from the knowledge that nobody watches the first pitch go by more than the Brewers could be potentially helpful to not be behind in the count after the first pitch.

The Brewers are 17th in whiff percentage, so it’s not like swinging more will automatically suggest that they’ll increase the likelihood of an at bat ending in a strikeout because they’re right in the middle of the league in swing and misses.

How the Milwaukee Brewers can fix their strikeout problem: #3 Use the opposite field

While this potential solution does involve putting the bat on the ball more often which should go without saying, this solution would also potentially give the Crew a reason to swing the bat more. Something that could help the Brewers is when batting with two strikes is to look at using the entire field.

Shortening up a swing, which does sacrifice some power, and using the opposite field is something that could help the Brewers strike out less by finding ways to put the ball in play more.

The Milwaukee Brewers are 28th in using the opposite field percentage. Only the Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks use the opposite field less than the Brewers. Looking at the middle of the field, they’re 7th in Major League Baseball in straight percentage. Finally, examining how often the Brewers pull the ball, they rank 14th in pull percentage.

So near the top going up the middle, in the middle of the pack pulling the ball and near the bottom of the league in using the opposite field, it stands to reason that the Brewers could look to put the ball in play more on the opposite side of the field.