A Schelling For Your Thoughts

In the month of August, he’s been crushing the ball, hitting nine home runs, achieving something no Brewers player had since September 2011. Prince Fielder hit nine that month, and 10 in June 2011, while Ryan Braun had 10 in April 2011. Since, the club hadn’t seen a hitter with more than eight homers in a single month.

Braun hit eight in three different months (May, June and August) of 2012, while Aramis Ramirez and Rickie Weeks had eight apiece in August and September in 2012, respectively. While Fielder’s 13-homer May 2007 likely is out of reach, Davis still has a few days to put up the Brewers’ first 11-home run month since 2009.

Davis’ big month has been powered by three multi-homer games. The last Brewers player with three in a month was Braun in May 2008.

Starting every game since July 30, Davis has been one of the Brewers’ hottest hitters over the last three weeks after struggling to open the second half. Davis batted just .160/.246/.240 from July 10 through Aug. 4, hitting one home run with seven RBIs and nearly three times as many strikeouts (22) as hits (8). Over the next 17 games, he hit .274/.333/.742 with 15 runs scored, 17 hits and 19 RBIs.

Though the pace is clearly unsustainable, Davis’ performance over that stretch translates to 86 home runs and 182 RBIs over 162 games.

Davis continues to strike out a lot — 27 times in the first 22 games this month — but you’re going to have that with any power hitter. The key is for Davis to offset it with doubles and home runs. While the latter have been coming in bunches, the former remain few and fair between.

Among players with 16 or more home runs this season, only five — Luis Valbuena, Giancarlo Stanton, Hanley Ramirez, Welington Castillo and Steven Souza — have fewer doubles than Davis’ 13. The leader among that group is Todd Frazier, with 38 doubles.

Still, given the chance to play every day, Davis is showing the value he can bring to the Brewers as a starter. It’s hard to keep that kind of power out of the lineup.