Their teams may end up meeting in the National League Championship Series for the right to play in the World Series. They’ve actually become good buddies, and their nicknames, Yeli and Belli, sound like a pair of wayward Teletubbies on a weekend bender.

But, Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger are in a virtual dead heat for not only league MVP, but they’re both in the running for being the first NL Triple Crown winner since the St. Louis Cardinals’ Joe “Ducky” Medwick in 1937.

In fact, upon closer inspection, both slender sluggers could represent a new breed of MLB power hitter that may end up being the welcome new book-end that follows the controversial PED-era swollen sluggers that marked the turn of the century.

One could argue, I suppose, that the currently rumored and much-discussed tightly-wound, “juiced” baseball might be making up for, and even supplanting, the seemingly rampant HGH use that distorted the home run totals of two decades ago. But, that will be a discussion for another time in another space.

From Redwoods to Splendid Splinters

Generally, where there were once huge homer hitters like Frank Howard, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa, and from the left side Boog Powell, Ted Kluszewski, and Willie Stargell, now stand a host of tater bangers with a decided lack of girth.

In fact, for many –like the similarly built 6’3″, 195-pound Yelich and the 6’4″, 203-pound Bellinger, both hitting from the left side– the word “spindly” comes to mind. But, somehow, with their boundless athleticism, without being grotesquely muscle-bound, they’re able to challenge the big boys with exit velocity, launch angle, distance, and now, home run totals.

While wearing mics and earpieces in their respective corner outfield positions during the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, Yelich and Bellinger both seemed to almost stifle a yawn of indifference when the broadcasters brought up the notion of launch angle.

Both hitters implied that they just do what they do without consciously thinking about the latest hot hitter’s toy, a new brag-able version of a pitcher’s spin rate.

In fact, “There has been no conscious change on my part, no buying into launch angle,” Yelich said late last season when asked about the relatively new stat. “I stuck with what I’ve been doing my entire career, with a few adjustments — but focusing on launch angle was not one of them. There were some, but that wasn’t one of them.”

Swatting away the very notion of launch angle like a Chavez Ravine mosquito, Bellinger made it sound so simple in May: “The biggest key is just trying to hit the ball hard. It doesn’t matter where it goes or how you hit it, just try to make good contact.”

Revealing more of his hitting strategy, Bellinger explained, “You want to hit a curveball on the bottom part of the ball — it was practicing that every day,” Bellinger said last season. “We started in May and June and did it through the whole year. Baseball is a crazy sport where it can take just one thing for it to click,” he concluded.

Neck and Neck

Coming into games of July 15, both hitters had remarkably similar numbers:

Bellinger: .335/.433/.695 with 31 HRs and 73 RBIs

Yelich: .330/.430/.708 with 32 HRs and 68 RBIs

FanGraphs has Yeli and Belli close in WAR, with the 23-year-old Bellinger squeaking past his 27-year-old buddy with a 5.8 to Yelich’s 5.1.

Yelich (37.3%) as it happens, trails Bellinger’s 40.4% fly ball rate. But, Yelich tops with an average exit velocity better than his Dodger counterpart (97.8-96 mph). For the record, Bellinger betters Yelich in both low strikeout rate and ground ball rate.

Both players were raised in the west: Yelich in far west Los Angeles near Ventura County and Bellinger in the Phoenix suburbs. Both have family members with pro baseball experience.

Fame in the Yelich Family

Christian’s brother, Collin, a catcher, was drafted in 2015 by the Atlanta Braves. Two years in the Braves’ lower minors led to a Spring Training invitation by the Miami Marlins in 2017 before he was released. Christian, of course, was a first-round selection by the Marlins in 2010.

Yelich’s great grandfather, Fred Gehrke, a former NFL running back, is credited with designing the Los Angeles Rams’ horn logo on the team’s helmet. If that weren’t enough, the busy Gehrke is also credited with developing the first full facemask used on a football helmet.

Like the Houston Astros’ Max Stassi, Christian helped raise money in November 2018 for victims of the California wildfires.

Bellinger, Son of a Yankee

Cody (and his brother, pitcher Cole, a recent San Diego Padres’ minor leaguer) are the sons of former MLB third baseman Clay Bellinger, who was a two-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees in 1999 and 2000.

While Yelich seems less likely to cop to subscribing to the launch angle ethos, Bellinger, with a significant upper-cut swing, may indeed bow a bit more in his reverence to the notion, despite what he might hint at in a mic’d-up All-Star moment. Witness this assessment from the May 7, 2019, Forbes:

“This is a power guy. In his first two seasons, including his Rookie of the Year 2017 campaign, he showed a strong but fairly typical overall profile. Lots of power, especially to pull, a good bit of swing and miss, decent plate discipline. He also caught the launch angle fever that has been sweeping the game, accruing both the benefits and detriments that come along with it.”

Players, though, who can reap more of the good effects of increased launch angles without falling prey to their pesky, negative side effects become long-term stars. Feel free to pencil in Cody into that column; Christian, too, for that matter.

Real-Time Paradigm Shift

Most of the baseball world would be hard to miss the not-so-subtle shift from bruising belters dominating the landscape to athletic sweet-swingers, at least from the left side. Evidence is mounting that the recent emergence of the new order of sleek power hitters like Bellinger and Yelich, and the many more who are hanging over the dugout railing, is a new and sizable trend in Major League Baseball.

Now, whether that new shake-up ends up being a barely noticeable tremor or more of an earth-shattering seismic shift remains to be seen.

And, of course, measured.