- What's up, GQ?
I'm Christian Yelich,
and I'm going undercover on the internet.
[typing sounds]
It's actually me.
[typing sounds]
Twitter.
[typing sounds]
Geoff Garin asks, "I'd love to know.
When you're at bat,
do you have time to recognize
where the pitch is going and swing,
or do you just have to take your best guess
when the ball leaves the pitcher's hand?
You know, you can, you can tell what's gonna happen.
Uh, things just happen really quickly.
You know, you can see spin on the ball,
or how the seams move,
and that gives you info into what kind of pitch it is,
and, and how it's gonna break,
and if you should swing or not.
I think they say a 90 or 95 mile per hour fastball
gets to the plate in four tenths of a second,
so, uh, it's a lot of decisions that need to be made
in a really quick time period,
and so when you see guys take fast swings,
or swing and miss at a ball, that's kinda what happens.
Replied. Covid Clive Owen asks...
[laughs]
Where does Christian Yelich's power come from?
Looks like he weighs 170 pounds.
Well, Clive Owen, I think power comes from
just being able to use your body in an efficient manner,
and learning how to get everything
out of your strength, body, mechanics,
and hopefully translate to being able to drive the ball,
and hit for power.
Next, Matthew Minsky asks, "@ChristianYelich.
Who was your favorite baseball player
back when you were a kid?"
My favorite baseball player was actually,
uh, Derek Jeter growing up.
He was always the guy that seemed to get the big hit
in the big moment, so he's the guy that I looked up to,
and got to play against him in a spring training game
when I was a rookie,
and it was one of the cooler moments of my career.
Quora. [typing sounds]
Seriously, it's actually me.
What is the most consistent, hardest to hit baseball pitch?
Why is it so hard?
That's dependent on the pitcher, and who's throwing it.
There's only so many baseball pitches,
but somebody's curveball can be different
than somebody else's,
and one guy's is easier to hit than another's,
and same goes for fastballs, changeups,
any kind of pitch really.
Next. How did Christian Yelich turn himself into an MVP?
Uh, I don't there is any one way.
It's one of those things where you kind of learn
yourself as a player over time,
and you're constantly trying to better yourself as a player,
and make adjustments, and just keep improving.
Posted.
If Christian Yelich never got traded,
would he have ever broken out
to become the player he is now?
I truly believe yes.
Uh, I really do, 'cause I think the changes were organic.
I don't see why that wouldn't have happened in Miami.
It was just one of those times and evolutions as a player,
so I truly believe that if I was still in Miami,
still on the Marlins, then, uh, yeah.
I would still be, uh, the same player.
Let's look at Instagram.
So we had a question here from no1ssprospect.
"How often did you practice when you were 12?
I wanna practice just as much as you did."
I think I practiced a lot.
I mean, I think as a kid,
you need to have some good balance.
You need to practice, and if you love your sport,
that's awesome and that's great,
and it takes that level of passion
to reach the Major Leagues,
and you have to be dedicated to it.
But I think you gotta also enjoy being a kid.
You gotta live a normal life. You got friends.
You got school. Just broaden your horizons.
Make sure that's something that you really love,
and if it is something that you love,
then dedicate as much time as you want to it.
You know, there's no, there's no right answer to this.
I think do it as much as you want,
and I wish you the best of luck in your career.
Let's see what's on Wikipedia.
Yelich grew up both a Los Angeles Dodgers fan
and a New York Yankees fan.
Pretty true.
I mean, most of my first baseball experiences
were at Dodger Stadium.
That's where I saw my first major league games.
I remember sitting up in the blue seats in the third deck,
I think, was my first time.
I wanna say they were either playing
the Reds or the Phillies at the time.
For me now, as a player,
it's always special to go back to the stadium,
where you grew up learning baseball,
and the Yankees one kinda ties back
into the earlier question of,
of who my favorite player was.
So it was Derek Jeter,
so I kinda always followed the Yankees growing up too.
Submit.
Yelich appeared in a episode of Magnum P.I.
that aired on March 4, 2019.
That is true. I got to play myself.
It was kinda cool.
I got to go out to Hawaii to film it,
and see how filming TV show works,
and everything that goes into that.
I wasn't awful at it I don't think,
because I got to play myself, so it was a lot easier,
and I was interacting with Little League kids
from the island that ended up making it to the World Series
and I really enjoyed it.
Posted. More Twitter.
Shane Dickinson wants to know if I would ever have
any interest in being a manager/coach
after my career is over.
At this point, I'm far enough away from my career being over
to where I really haven't put much thought into it.
It's a lot harder job than people think it is
to be the manager.
As players, we have long days,
but the coaching staff, they, they really have long days,
and I'd say at this time, I don't think so.
It's a long way off, and things can change.
Replied. Mike Unleashed.
He wants to know, "Why do we have managers? [laughs]
Why not just have computers?
We can have the automated manager."
Well, Mike. It's not as simple as that.
Being a manager is a lot harder than it looks.
I think people think they just write the lineup card,
and then they're sitting back and chilling,
but there's a lot that goes on.
You're managing people. You're managing a ball club,
and computers are great.
They give you info. They give you data.
But there's still a human element to it.
You know, managers know how guys are feeling.
If a guy is, uh, battling an injury, if he's hurt.
You know, there's a people aspect to it.
Replied. Robert Murray, I know Robert.
He said that Andy Haines, which he is the current, uh,
Major League hitting coach for the Brewers,
once told me that Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto
went to Chipotle 142 days in a row
when they were in the minor leagues together.
I don't know if we actually went 142 days in a row.
That would literally be every day of the minor league season
we went to Chipotle.
I mean, we might've been approaching triple digits.
Maybe a little less,
so we definitely put some of our time in
our minor league stops.
YouTube. You may not believe it, but it's actually me.
Delirious Dinosaur. What a name.
Wants to know,
"Do all baseball players have homes in Scottsdale?"
I wouldn't say all baseball players have homes in Scottsdale
but spring training's in Arizona.
A lot of people enjoy being out here, so I myself,
live out here part of the time.
Moving on.
DonkeyJKong1213. "@ChristianYelich,
how good are you at catching a football?"
Depends on the day and who's throwing it. [laughs]
Some, some people can spin it pretty good,
and it's a little bit harder to catch,
or if you're wearing gloves or not.
It's a thing that's kinda hit or miss for me.
I try to pride myself on thinking I'm pretty good,
but we'll see.
Next, Jake Lund.
He wants to know does Bernie Brewer still go down the slide?
Yeah. Bernie Brewer still goes down the slide.
He goes down on home runs,
and I believe when we take the field every home game,
as the team.
Replied. First Out At Third asks...
"Who wins a race between Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich?"
It looks like they kinda gave us some sort of info,
or maybe statistical breakdown.
It has myself ahead of Lo by just a fraction.
I would say that's pretty accurate.
As he would say in his good years back in Kansas City,
when he was a, a burner, and could run a little bit, uh,
he might've gotten me, but I,
I truly think that now, that I would take him in a race.
Replied. More Quora.
Which Major League Baseball records
are unlikely to be broken?
I think Cal Ripkin's played games streak.
I don't think anyone's ever gonna come
close to that ever again.
No one will touch it.
Just how teams rest guys and look out for your health.
They're not gonna let you roll out 20+ season in a row
of playing every game.
So I think that one's gonna be really hard to touch.
Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak's gonna be really hard,
just because of the specialty matchups,
and all the analytics, and finding where guys hit the ball,
and you don't face the same pitcher many times anymore.
So I see those two being very, very hard to hit.
The home run record is gonna be another tough one.
It's a pretty daunting task,
and the thing about that though is you never know.
I think the phrase is, "Records are meant to be broken,"
so who knows?
Somewhere down the line, maybe someone could, uh,
could get close to one.
Posted.
The last one we got.
"Is Christian Yelich a future Baseball Hall of Famer?"
I think we're a long way off from that.
I think time will tell.
Uh, there's a long way to go in my career still,
and you know, it'd be pretty special
if something like that happened,
but check back in, uh, about 10 years.
Okay guys, that's enough internet for me for one day.
Uh, I'm out of here. Officially signing off.
[mischievous music plays]