Jun 14 in General discussion
PLAYER ANALYSIS
Christian Yelich is a former MVP but he has struggled over the past several years to recreate that success. This due in large part to battling injuries. Well he back to dominating and player at an elite level. I will break down what has changed and share what he is doing differently to create this success.
First, he has raised his launch angle, almost doubling it from 3.5 to 6.1. While he has never been a high LA guy, he is giving himself a better chance to succeed by getting the ball a little more in the air more often to find more space to land hits.
Second, he is punishing breaking pitches this year. He has always been a good fastball hitter but this year he has begun to close up that hole in his game and is hitting .324 and slugging an absurd .649 against breaking pitches. This is due to a couple factors, he his above average in chase rate and BB%. He also is above average in bat speed this is allowing him to cover more pitches.
Third, he is hits the ball hard, a lot. He ranks in the 80th percentile in average exit velocity and in the 92nd percentile in hard hit rate at 51%. This coupled with his above average plate discipline and improved LA allow him to drive the ball to all fields.
Fourth, he is pulling the ball at a career rate. In no other season of his career he was above 35.8% pull rate, this season he is sitting at 43.7%.
Finally, As you can see from the R visualization, he punishes the ball in the lower 2/3 of the zone and the only piece of the zone he really struggles with is high and tight, which is probably why he has struggled with cutters in and high from RHP.
I expect Christian to continue to dominate the NL Central this year.
Data procured from Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball savant
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PLAYER ANALYSIS
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