Photo via Sal Frelick - Instagram
Sal Frelick
Sal Frelick (right) with Brice Turang
On Friday night the Marlins gave up 16 runs, including 12 in the second inning. On Sunday, however, their pitching staff managed to do something no team had done in almost a month: They kept Sal Frelick off the bases.
The Brewers’ rookie outfielder had gotten to first base at least once in 19 consecutive games, batting .320 with a .386 on-base percentage. The streak coincided with a run where the Brewers went 12-7 to pull away in the NL Central and helped the Crew cover for the absence of Christian Yelich, who missed a large portion of that span while recovering from a back injury.
Frelick’s streak was only tied for the 117th longest in Brewers franchise history and it was the second longest of 2023 (Owen Miller had a 22-game streak in April and May), but it is relatively rare for a player to do what he’s doing so early in their career. Here are the longest on-base streaks by a Brewers rookie:
Scott Podsednik, 47 games, 2003
The longest on-base streak in Brewers franchise history doesn’t belong to Paul Molitor or any of their other all-time great hitters. It belongs to a guy the Brewers had selected off waivers the previous October. Podsednik had struggled to crack the majors across three organizations but found a home in Milwaukee, where he batted .314 with a .379 on-base and .443 slugging in 2003 and finished second in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year. That season he reached base in every game for nearly two months from late May through mid-July.
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Podsednik never replicated that level of offensive success in the majors: His .822 on-base plus slugging that season was his only year above .770. The Brewers eventually traded him to Chicago in the deal that brought Carlos Lee to Milwaukee, however, and while he was there Podsednik was both an All Star and a World Series Champion in 2005. Podsednik played eleven seasons in the majors across seven franchises, collected 1000 hits and is one of just 18 players this century to steal 300 bases.
Ronnie Belliard, 36 games, 1999
On May 21, 1999, Ronnie Belliard was playing in just his 18th game in the majors. Even he couldn’t possibly have imagined he was about to start a streak matched by only a handful of players in franchise history. The first hit of his streak was a dramatic one: a two-run double in the eleventh inning to drive home the go-ahead run in a 5-3 win over the Expos in Montreal. Belliard would also reach base in each of the 35 games that followed, including four where he entered the game as a pinch hitter or defensive replacement and only batted one time.
Like Podsednik, Belliard’s rookie season was his best in Milwaukee. The Brewers let him leave as a free agent after a 2002 season where he batted just .211 with a .257 on-base and .287 slugging, but he caught on with the Rockies and went on to play eight more seasons across five franchises. Belliard was an All Star with Cleveland in 2004, won a World Series with the 2006 Cardinals and his 1376 hits from 1999-2010 were the 66th most in the majors over that span.
Nori Aoki, 24 games, 2012
While he was technically an MLB rookie during this streak, it’s worth noting that Aoki’s baseball journey was different from the others on this list: Aoki was 30 years old and had logged eight seasons at Japan’s highest level before coming to the US to play for the Brewers in 2012. He had little trouble adapting his game to the American style, as he hit .288 with a .355 on-base and .433 slugging in his debut season. In August and September of that year he went on a massive hot streak, hitting .358 with a .427 on base and .600 slugging during his 24-game on-base streak.
Despite not coming to the majors until after his 30th birthday Aoki logged six MLB seasons and appeared in a World Series with the 2014 Royals. He was still hitting at a pretty high level when he elected to return to Japan for the 2018 season. Now 41 years old, Aoki is still active for Yakult and has accumulated over 2700 hits across NPB and MLB.
Pedro Garcia, 24 games, 1973
After getting significantly limited production from their second basemen across the franchise’s first three seasons in Milwaukee the Brewers handed the position over to a rookie, penciling Pedro Garcia into the lineup 160 times despite the fact that he had previously never appeared in an MLB game. Garcia finished second in that season’s Rookie of the Year voting, led the American League with 32 doubles and reached base safely in every game for nearly a month in July and August, although the streak was more of a fluke of timing than an actual hot streak as he batted just .264 with a .343 on-base over that span.
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Garcia’s rookie season was easily his best as a major leaguer. He played four more years at the big-league level with an on-base plus slugging of just .579 across nearly 400 games and played his last MLB game less than two months after his 27th birthday.
