Milwaukee Brewers first half MVP was Jesus Aguilar. No one would dispute that. He made the All-Star team, participated in the Home Run Derby and had an amazing first half of the season. But July hasn’t been his friend at the plate. Aguilar is hitting only .212 for the month of July with six home runs but only 10 extra base hits total. Aguilar has 18 total hits in this month meaning 33 percent have left the yard, so, it’s been very boom or bust for him. Aguilar also grounded into the most double plays this month compared to the rest of the season. Can he find his stroke again or did we see the best of Zeus earlier this year?

He could be the Eric Thames of this year. Remember how good Thames was to start the year, and he trailed off into regression land to finish the year. More teams have more of a book on him and are exploiting his weaknesses at the plate. Sometimes, my issue with Darnell Coles, the Brewers hitting coach, is the players seem to take forever to make adjustments at the plate. I don’t know if that’s a stubborn attitude of the players or a coaching thing, but it’s apparent among the Brewers. Aguilar is already at his career-high in plate appearances in the big leagues. It could be that he’s a little runragged and needs more days off in-between starts. If that’s the case, the Brewers are ready.

One of the great things about the Brewers week or so has been the play of Christian Yelich. He basically took the keys from Aguilar and started to drive the wagon. And other Brewers have gotten hot around him. Eric Thames is on pure fire right now and continued his hot hitting with a three-run homer. Ryan Braun and Orlando Arcia showed signs of life in the past couple of days. Lorenzo Cain had a couple four hit days recently. Travis Shaw looks reenergized with the move to second base. Aguilar carried the load for an average June with his teammates struggling or hurt, yet, it seems like the Brewers are picking him up now with their recent play.

It’s hard to put a take to expectations for Aguilar for the rest of the season. He’s already exceeded anything you could want from him. If he only hits six home runs per month, he’ll finish with 37 on the year which is near the top of the Brewers franchise season-best numbers. We talk about house money all the time, but Aguilar might be playing with the most to finish off the year.

Charlie.