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How Christian Yelich became a future Hall of Famer in 400 plate appearances

When Christian Yelich showed up for the 2018 All-Star Game as a reserve, we all thought we knew who he was: Above-average power, above-average speed, above-average defense, pretty good but unexceptional at everything. Yelich wasn't a superstar, but certainly good enough to be, say, the fourth-best player on a championship team.

Then in the eighth inning of that game Yelich homered, and in the 400 plate appearances since then he's been the National League's best player. It's easy to overstate 400 plate appearances, even 400 plate appearances as good as Christian Yelich's past 400 have been.