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It was not intentional."- Bernie Pleskoff February 21, 2018
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He will continue to develop as a power hitter. Bernie: "Was it because of the park factor in Miami-tough to hit homers?" Stearns: "No-he is evolving. I asked #Brewers fantastic (IMO) GM David Stearns about Christian Yelich's ground ball rate in Miami.
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With Yelich now in camp with the Brewers, scouting veteran Bernie Pleskoff asked David Stearns about that ground ball rate, and whether it was because he knew it didn’t pay off to try to hit home runs in Miami if you aren’t Giancarlo Stanton. That’s largely because of a launch angle was just 4.7 degrees - the relatively flat angle doesn’t result in a ton of fly balls, and that saps into the home run potential. Last year, Yelich hit a line drive 19.4% of the time, but also had a groundball rate of 55.4%. So why has he had so much trouble getting the ball to leave the yard, even on the road? Because most of the time, he’s hitting the ball on a line or on the ground. According to Statcast, Yelich had an average exit velocity of 90.4 mph last year, and hit 213 balls harder than 95 mph - ranking 4th in all of baseball. That’s not because of a lack of hard contact. He’s only hit double-digit home runs twice in the four seasons in which he got more than 500 plate appearances, and he’s only hit more than 20 home runs once. But for Yelich, it’s always been a bit of an issue, at least as far as his power numbers are concerned. ”Launch angle” has become a bit of a buzzword lately, to the point where it’s started to get mocked. That’s because in order to take advantage of the switch from Marlins Park to Miller Park, Yelich will have to start hitting the ball in the air. It’s generally assumed that Yelich will see a boost in his numbers with the switch to Miller Park, and while that will likely be the case, the difference may not be as drastic as you may think. 300/.373/.462 everywhere else, and OPS difference of nearly 70 points. That alone isn’t groundbreaking analysis - the general consensus seems to be that Marlins Park is one of the worst places for hitters in the majors, and that’s evident in Yelich’s home/road splits. Christian Yelich is a really good hitter, but he could be better.