LOS ANGELES – Pat Murphy issued a homework assignment to the dozen or so assembled reporters huddled around his desk at Dodger Stadium the afternoon of Aug. 14. “I’d like you guys to figure out how many balls William [Contreras] has hit on a line to right-center, to center, to right field at 100+ this year for an out,” he said. Murphy’s query was in response to a question about the slumping catcher’s inclusion in the lineup after yet another bad night at the plate. Contreras was 0 for his last 17 entering the day and was coming off a game with a pair of unsightly at-bats that ended by striking out. Contreras did also hit a ball hard and in the air, lining out at 104 mph to center field at one point, and that swing stuck with his manager.
“That changes your perspective a little bit,” Murphy said. Shortly thereafter, the answer to Murphy’s question was presented: Seventeen, the most on the Brewers and 24th-most in baseball. That sentiment is one of the reasons Murphy has continued to play Contreras just about every day in spite of a prolonged funk that has seen his OPS dip more than 100 points from .810 in late June to .702 now. Contreras entered the game Aug. 14 slashing .163/.248/.264 since the calendar turned to July. In the second half, he was batting .159. His hitless streak ran to 20 at-bats with an 0-for-3 showing – though he did have an 18th 100+ mph air out to center or right and walked in a ninth inning rally that fell short – and he’s also 4 for his last 43.
“William’s an all-star man,” Murphy said. “He’ll be just fine.” The skipper’s inquiry prompted a follow-up: Just how unlucky, exactly, has Contreras been? By percentage of those same batted balls that resulted in an out, though, Contreras is right in the middle of the pack (41st out of 99 qualified hitters). Furthermore, Contreras’ expected wOBA, which takes into account the exit velocity and launch angle of every batted ball rather than outcome, only trails his actual wOBA by 11 points. Translation: Contreras may be a bit unlucky this year, but that’s not the primary reason he’s struggling. The biggest reason why Murphy keeps trotting Contreras out there while Gary Sánchez is one of the hottest hitters on the team? He doesn’t think that, with the way Contreras is wired, a day off is going to be of service. “I don’t think William is going to get out of it by simply sitting on the bench,” Murphy said. “It might be something I try if it doesn’t work. But when he gets three ground ball hits between the 5-6 hole, that doesn’t mean he’s back, either.” Contreras, renowned around the team for his desire to play every day, himself expressed that the way out of the hole was to keep on swinging. "Keep going,” he said earlier in the week. “Keep doing what I do. Keep working harder.” So far on the road trip, the slumps of the Brewers two highest-paid hitters, Contreras and Christian Yelich, haven’t broken. Contreras 0 for 15 while Yelich is 2 for 14 with a homer. "We have a lot of guys going through it," Yelich said. "No one feels sorry for you. You just got to keep going and keep working. That’s the only way it gets better. If you stop doing that then it’s definitely not going to get better. You got to keep working and try to find something that sticks." Yelich can at least point to some rough sledding in the luck department, with a 96 mph lineout Aug. 14 following three hard-hit outs the preceding day. One of those outs was a 101 mph flyout to left field that seemed ticketed for the seats before dying at the warning track. "It’s hard," Yelich said. "It’s a results based game, right? You can only trust the process for so long. Eventually you have to start having things go right and producing. Hopefully that’s around the corner. I don’t know what else to do beside keep working. For better or worse, Yelich and Contreras are the Brewers' guys. If they soar, it will likely be on their backs. If they sink, it will be at least in part be on their batted balls straight down into the ground. Yelich hopes better results are around the corner. Murphy believes that's true. He and the Brewers have no other choice. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mired in nasty slump, Brewers don't believe time off needed for William Contreras