u/been_dying

Somewhat of a meme here, but at this point I've seen enough Sal Frelick half-ironic-slander around here lately to make this post.

For reference I've watched every game this season - The team being where they are now with the start we've had is pretty incredible. The frustrations are understandable in the sense of where we want to be when postseason comes around, but the calls for multiple of our guys to be potentially traded/sent down is crazy.

For starters: Sal is 10th on our roster when it comes to BA. Obviously we've had a lot of movement with injuries, meaning he could easily be up a spot or two. I've put together a list of each teams 10th spot sorted by AVG, and then| OPS | OBP (Highest average, with the latter OPS/OBP not sorted)

1 | Yankees | Jose Caballero | .259 | .720 | .302 |
| 2 | Braves | Ronald Acuña Jr. | .252 | .740 | .362 |
| 3 | Pirates | Jared Triolo | .250 | .608 | .313 |
| 4 | Dodgers | Kyle Tucker | .248 | .747 | .349 |
| 5 | Rays | Richie Palacios | .246 | .690 | .367 |
| 6 | Astros | Jose Altuve | .245 | .693 | .306 |
| 7 | Cardinals | Jose Fermín | .244 | .663 | .316 |
| 8 | Cubs | Pete Crow-Armstrong | .236 | .671 | .308 |
| 9 | Mets | Brett Baty | .234 | .644 | .278 |
| 10 | White Sox | Colson Montgomery | .233 | .854 | .335 |
| 11 | Blue Jays | Kazuma Okamoto | .233 | .679 | .319 |
| 12 | Brewers | Sal Frelick | .226 | .617 | .309 |
| 13 | Red Sox | Carlos Narváez | .218 | .629 | .284 |
| 14 | Giants | Matt Chapman | .217 | .589 | .293 |
| 15 | Tigers | Matt Vierling | .213 | .661 | .281 |
| 16 | Orioles | Pete Alonso | .213 | .718 | .304 |
| 17 | Nationals | Jacob Young | .213 | .569 | .263 |
| 18 | Rockies | Brett Sullivan | .212 | .571 | .268 |
| 19 | Mariners | J.P. Crawford | .211 | .713 | .360 |
| 20 | Royals | Michael Massey | .210 | .640 | .233 |
| 21 | Twins | Josh Bell | .209 | .592 | .276 |
| 22 | Guardians | Kyle Manzardo | .208 | .602 | .294 |
| 23 | Marlins | Kyle Stowers | .205 | .694 | .305 |
| 24 | Phillies | Alec Bohm | .201 | .551 | .259 |
| 25 | Angels | Travis d’Arnaud | .200 | .614 | .300 |
| 26 | Diamondbacks | Adrián Del Castillo | .198 | .596 | .247 |
| 27 | Athletics | Tyler Soderstrom | .196 | .663 | .308 |
| 28 | Rangers | Danny Jansen | .195 | .619 | .286 |
| 29 | Padres | Manny Machado | .185 | .611 | .267 |
| 30 | Reds | TJ Friedl | .184 | .537 | .268 |

Sal is comfortably 12th for AVG. For OPS he's 19th (He's not a slugger anyways, but still offers us some HR support), and OBP he's 9th. Do we really want to talk about trading and cutting him? Let's not forget we also have Blake Perkins, Joey Ortiz, Luis Rengifo - We aren't about to move Frelick on top of a SS and 3B issue, AND on top of meaning it would mean two outfielders are moved.

Garrett Mitchell also started off extremely hot, and now has a lower BA than Frelick, who started off seriously cold and brought it back up.

Our biggest weakness is obviously, a power hitter who only hits homeruns. We'll wait for Vauhg and Chourio to get back into the swing of things, but both have been hitting since coming back. The Brewers play off of their opponents mistakes a LOT, and we get on base in odd ways regularly, so if we had a pure slugger who was hitting 40+ home runs a year it would be pretty nice. We are currently 24th in Average with runners in scoring position which is pretty abysmal, but again with Chourio and Vaughn back, it should even out.

Do we really think every player on the team is going to hit .300 the entire season?

All in all, a lot of guys are still finding their swing. I know people calling for Frelick's head are casuals and the same ones who were complaining about Chourio swinging too much a day ago (he hit a homerun while I was making this and a double).

Deep breath - We can't trade the entire team!