Christian Yelich is on pace to dwarf the offensive numbers that were good enough to make him the NL MVP last season, and the Milwaukee Brewers star says he is still being fueled by people who thought he was going to take a step back in 2019.
Yelich belted his 36th home run of the season in Saturday’s win over the Chicago Cubs. He had 36 homers all of last year, and the Brewers still have 56 games remaining in the season. When speaking with reporters after the game, Yelich referenced the regression talk.
Yelich, after matching his 2018 home run total with No. 36 on July 27: "I guess the regression didn't happen."
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 28, 2019
After he got off to a blazing start with 14 homers and 34 RBI in the first month of the season, Yelich admitted the doubters have served as motivation.
“A lot of the regression talk is the fuel,” he told Robert Murray of The Athletic back in April. “If it happens, it happens. But don’t tell me I can’t do something. That pisses me off.”
In addition to already matching his home run total from 2018, Yelich’s .338 average is 12 points higher than where he finished last year. His slugging percentage of .709 and OPS of 1.145 are significantly higher than last season’s marks of .598 and 1.000. In other words, he has been better across the board in 2019 than he was in his MVP season.
Some of the insane stats we have seen from Yelich this year prove just how far from a fluke his MVP season was. He’s simply an All-Star player who is directly in his prime, and anyone who thinks he’s going to slow down may need to adjust their expectations.
