Christian Yelich

StaTuesday: Brewers' Yelich among hardest-hitting players in MLB

Published Jul. 2, 2019 3:01 p.m. ET

Dave Heller

Outfielder Mark Whiten, who played in the majors from 1990-2000, had one of the better nicknames of recent memory – “Hard Hittin’” Mark Whiten.

While it worked so well due to the rhyming nature and Whiten had some power (he’s one of a handful of players to hit four home runs in a game), over his career the former outfielder hit just 105 home runs (with a high of 25 in 1993) and had a .415 slugging percentage.

It might be time to start applying that nickname instead to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich.

OK, so it might not have the same poetry, but with Yelich it is based more on facts.

On Monday, Yelich hit his 30th home run of the season – the first Brewers player to reach that mark before the All-Star break. You need to hit a ball hard to get it to leave the yard, but Yelich isn’t just barreling up the ball when he goes deep.

Yelich has had 116 balls come off his bat at 95 mph or greater – considered a “hard hit” – which is just over half (51.1%) of his batted ball events (BBE). Only 10 players in the majors have more hard hits than Yelich.

Only three players have more barrels (if you’re curious what categories something as a barrel, here’s the explainer from MLB.com)

MOST BARRELS, MLB

PLAYER	TEAM	NO.	BRLS/BBE%	BRLS/PA%
Mike Trout	Angels	42	19.4%	11.6%
Jose Abreu	White Sox	41	16.7%	11.8%
Pete Alonso	Mets	40	18.3%	11.3%
Christian Yelich	Brewers	39	17.0%	11.3%
Freddie Freeman	Braves	39	14.8%	10.2%
Gary Sanchez	Yankees	39	23.1%	14.8%
Ronald Acuna Jr.	Braves	38	15.1%	9.8%
Josh Bell	Pirates	38	15.2%	10.5%
Anthony Rendon	Nationals	36	16.8%	12.0%
Javier Baez	Cubs	34	14.6%	9.6%
Marcell Ozuna	Cardinals	34	15.0%	10.4%

But Yelich doesn’t have many soft hits, as evidenced by his average exit velocity of 94.1 mph, which is among the best in the majors.

TOP AVERAGE EXIT VELOCITY, MLB (min. 50 BBE)

PLAYER	TEAM	AVG MPH
Aaron Judge	Yankees	97.0
Joey Gallo	Rangers	94.9
Christian Yelich	Brewers	94.1
Nelson Cruz	Twins	94.1
Shohei Ohtani	Angels	93.7
Kyle Schwarber	Cubs	93.4
Josh Bell	Pirates	93.4
Yoan Moncada	White Sox	93.3
Franmil Reyes	Padres	93.0
Matt Chapman	A's	92.9

Of the top-five players listed above, only Yelich had more than 145 BBE. Judge, who has been hurt much of the season, has only 65 (note: stats through Monday, July 1). Similarly, Gallo (108, but also strikes out a lot), Cruz (145) and Ohtani (128) all have spent time on the injured list.

Yelich averages 98.3 mph on his fly balls and line drives, which is fourth-highest in MLB behind just Gallo (102.3), Cruz (99.2) and Judge (98.8).

Just further proof (as if you needed it) on why Yelich is such a special hitter and potentially back-to-back MVP winner. Now if we could think of a good rhyming nickname …

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Christian Yelich

Milwaukee Brewers

Major League Baseball