Christian Yelich is off to a scorching start to the 2019 season, and at least one of his teammates does not seem the least bit surprised.
After Yelich homered yet again in Sunday’s win over the St. Louis Cardinals to give him four home runs through the first four games of the season, Milwaukee Brewers teammate Ryan Braun compared the star outfielder to Barry Bonds.
Ryan Braun on Christian Yelich: "I’ve never seen anyone this good at baseball for this long. I mean, maybe Bonds in his prime. As great as Trout is. I’ve seen Pujols. Like, I’ve never seen anyone this good for this long."
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) March 31, 2019
Ryan Braun on Christian Yelich: "I think everybody should take the time to appreciate it, because what we’re witnessing is greatness."
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) March 31, 2019
Yelich is obviously one of the best players in baseball, but comparing him to Bonds may be a bit of a stretch at this point. He’s a career .298 hitter (which happens to be the same mark Bonds ended his career with) and has averaged 25 homers and around 96 RBI over the past three seasons. Yelich has one All-Star appearance and one Gold Glove Award, whereas Bonds had 14 of the former and eight of the latter. Yelich also captured the NL MVP award last year, which is a feat Bonds accomplished seven times.
Braun mentioned Mike Trout, and he’s probably a better comparison for Bonds. He’s the same age as Yelich and has put up huge numbers for even longer. Still, Yelich is accomplishing feats we have rarely seen before. When all is said and done, he could be pretty close to Bonds.
