StaTuesday: Brewers' Nelson on the right side of history
Jimmy Nelson is quietly having a nice year in his first full season as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers' starting rotation.
With a month to go in the regular season, Nelson has a 3.81 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in 26 starts. That's a vast improvement from 2014 when in 14 games (12 starts) he had a 4.93 ERA and 1.46 WHIP.
If you want to pinpoint one thing which has led to this turnaround, look no further than Nelson's success against right-handed batters.
Last season, Nelson faced a righty 152 times and they clipped him for a .309 batting average, .364 on-base percentage and .417 slugging percentage. In 2015, Nelson has 363 right-handed batters faced and is holding them to a .193 batting average, .269 on-base percentage and .273 slugging percentage.
That isn't just an incredible turnaround. Nelson could finish with the best opponent batting average against right-handed hitters in Brewers history (or, well, at least since 1974, which is how far back the STATS database goes).
Only two other Brewers pitchers have held righties to under a .200 batting average over the course of a season -- Rollie Fingers in his Cy Young and MVP season of 1981 at .193 and, yup, you guessed it, Shawn Marcum in 2011 at .196. Now, against lefties is a different story, as the slash line for southpaws against Nelson is 299/380/496 (Marcum was 270/326/422; Fingers was still special at 203/264/281).
Here's the top 10 leaderboard for Brewers pitchers vs. right-handed batters in the regular season (since 1974).
Brewers pitchers vs. Right-handed batters
| PITCHER | YEAR | PLATE APPERANCES | AVERAGE |
| Jimmy Nelson | 2015 | 360 | .193 |
| Rollie Fingers | 1981 | 153 | .193 |
| Shaun Marcum | 2011 | 411 | .196 |
| Reggie Cleveland | 1981 | 173 | .204 |
| Ed Rodriguez | 1974 | 300 | .205 |
| Ed Rodriguez | 1977 | 347 | .206 |
| Teddy Higuera | 1988 | 725 | .206 |
| Jose Mercedes | 1997 | 302 | .215 |
| Taylor Jungmann | 2015 | 186 | .215 |
| Ben McDonald | 1997 | 263 | .215 |
Statistics courtesy STATS Inc.
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