'I Was Really Hoping Jake Could Jump Into This': Jake Bauers Has an Opportunity to be the Left-Handed Bat the Brewers Need

[Jack Stern]

Jake Bauers has flown under the radar as a productive left-handed hitter since switching from a leg kick to a toe tap. Now, he's getting a chance to give the Brewers a boost in the middle of the order.

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

It was a rough week for the Brewers’ offense to close out July, but one bright spot was a series of notable contributions from Jake Bauers.

Starting in left field against the Marlins on Sunday, Bauers erased an early 1-0 deficit with a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the first inning. He would reach base twice more on a fifth-inning triple and a seventh-inning walk, finishing his day 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored.

Bauers has hit .216/.321/.394 this year, which translates to a pedestrian 103 wRC+. That season line may not be the best representation of his current status as a hitter, though.

Through May 5, Bauers hit .194/.260/.358, with a ghastly 39.7% strikeout rate against a 6.9% walk rate. During the team’s road trip to Kansas City around then, though, Christian Yelich recommended he permanently trade his leg kick for a toe tap. Yelich made the switch for good last year, and it’s played a pivotal role in his resurgence after three underwhelming seasons.

“He was talking me through how he thought I would be more consistent with a toe tap, because he saw some of the stuff that I was struggling with that he felt he struggled with before he switched over,” Bauers said.

After Yelich and hitting coaches Connor Dawson and Ozzie Timmons worked with Bauers on implementing the change in the batting cage, he debuted it in the second game of the series and felt an immediate impact.

“My first at-bat with it in Kansas City, I ended up hitting the ball pretty hard, line drive into right field. After that, I was like, ‘All right, let me commit to it and see where it takes me.’”

That kicked off a 12-day stretch in which he slugged .719, with six extra-base hits, including three home runs.

“As soon as I did it, I could feel the difference. I felt my body getting more consistently into spots that you want to be in, especially when guys are throwing 97 consistently," he said. "Once I saw the tape and saw where I was getting to and how consistently on-time I was, it was pretty easy to convince me to make the full-time switch.”

Since doing so, Bauers has hit .227/.347/.411, with six home runs in 166 plate appearances for a solid 117 wRC+. His hard-hit rate has jumped from 38.5% with the leg kick to 45.7% with the toe tap.

The new load has corrected some of the side effects of previous adjustments, to tap into his raw power. Those changes helped Bauers tie his career high in home runs last year, but also inflated his strikeout rate to a career-worst 34.9%.

“I never really had a lot of movement going on in my swing before getting to the big leagues,” he said. “Over the process of trying to fix up and use my lower half a little bit more to generate a little bit more power, the moves became bigger, so I started seeing the ball worse.”

After reducing that movement, Bauers says he feels more in control of his body and is tracking pitches much better.

“Visually and mentally, when I just think about the way I was seeing the ball before and the way I’m seeing the ball now, it’s night and day.”

The quieter load and improved vision have helped him mitigate two of his greatest weaknesses from early in the season. When Bauers used the leg kick, opponents could beat him with hard stuff inside and low breaking balls, because he was trying to compensate for poor timing. He chased 29.5% of hard pitches (four-seamers, sinkers, and cutters) he saw outside the strike zone and whiffed on 50% of his swings against breaking balls.

“When you’re late, your body’s going to try to get you to the right spot without you even knowing what you’re doing,” he explained. “With that comes a little bit of head movement, and any kind of head movement at the wrong time and to the wrong spot is going to make pitches – especially spin down – look like you can handle it.

“Because you’re not recognizing it early enough, you’re not able to lay off those pitches because you have to commit early.”

Since switching to the toe tap, Bauers is chasing just 11.6% of hard pitches outside the zone and has slashed his whiff rate on breaking balls to 33.6%.

“I don’t know how his numbers compare to his past,” Pat Murphy said, “but I’ll bet you his ball-strike [discernment] is as good as it’s ever been.”

Bauers’s 17.9% chase rate since May 7 ranks in the 97th percentile of hitters with at least 100 plate appearances, and he’s walked at a 13.2% clip in that span.

“He’s quietly had this type of year for us,” Murphy said. “He hasn’t had the same number of opportunities other people have, but he’s put together some really good [plate appearances]. It’s become kind of a marquee of his to go deep in the count and draw walks.”

Those opportunities are increasing. Bauers entered the Marlins series having started in just five of Milwaukee’s 17 games in July. He’s started four times since Yelich hit the injured list with another flare-up of his chronic back injury.

Yelich's is expected to be a prolonged absence, leaving the Brewers needing a productive left-handed bat in the middle of the order. Bauers is getting a chance to help in that regard. He hit cleanup in his productive game against the Marlins, and Murphy placed him in the three-hole in the Brewers’ next two matchups against a right-handed starter.

“You obviously can’t replace Yelich and all that he brings,” Murphy said. “But I think it’s unfair to Sal [Frelick] to have to put him there, so I was really hoping Jake could jump into this.”

A left-handed hitter with a strong on-base percentage and some pop would have been a welcome trade deadline acquisition for the Brewers. That’s the kind of player Bauers has been since making his mechanical adjustment.

He won’t replicate Yelich’s production, nor is he being asked to. Bauers has curtailed his strikeout rate from its extreme heights early in the season, but it remains high enough to cap his upside. However, he’s settled nicely into a productive three-true-outcomes profile from the left side. Bauers can still help this lineup in a notable way, and he’ll get that opportunity down the stretch.

“He’s earned it,” Murphy said.

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[Brian]

He is what he is, with 1427 career at bats his average is right where it has always been, .216 

I wouldn't except much different.  A back up player for 1st base and in a pinch can play outfield also.