The Orioles beat the Brewers 8-4 Wednesday afternoon. Milwaukee batted Jackson Chourio second and Christian Yelich third in the game, and post-contest, both of them own miserable slash lines. Chourio stands at .241/.260/.415, Yelich at .184/.276/.324. They are both out machines with some power.

Musings Marcels put Chourio’s slash line at .279/.338/.470, Yelich at .268/.360/.427. Most teams would be happy with those two slash lines at the top of the order. Think of those as their intrinsic averages, the averages that might be produce from baseball simulation card. When you play a game like Strat-o-Matic, the probabilities for the batter or pitcher don’t change. If a hitter goes through a slump in that game, it’s just the luck of the roll of the dice. There is no reason to change your batting order. The player is not hurt nor tired, nor to they need a mechanical adjustment. The randomness of the game did not go your way.

In real life, a manager needs to take all those things into account. He has to decide if a slump is just bad luck, and not change the lineup because the players will come around (see Rafael Devers), or if there is something that needs to be fixed. Right now, with the two still batting high in the order, one assumes that the manager sees this as bad luck. Giving them a chance to come back to their intrinsic level may be the right move, but right now, all those outs at the top of the order is hurting the team offensively.