Article: Brewers Hitter of the Month for April 2023: Rowdy Tellez

[Matthew Trueblood]

As the Brewers prepare to play their first game of the second full month of the season, we have a final chance to pause and celebrate the best hitter of the first. He's an underrated all-around hitter, and the most dangerous slugger in the team's lineup. He's Big Randy.

Image courtesy of Brewer Fanatic

 

Milwaukee Brewers hitters got off to a fast start, with some big early performances lending hope of more consistency from their offense. However, familiar problems against left-handed starters have resurfaced, and several injuries have hit home along the way, with Luis Urias and Tyrone Taylor missing the whole month, and Garrett Mitchell’s absence forcing Blake Perkins into the lineup at times. That being said, there are some standout performances that have helped carry the Brewers to an 18-9 record in the month of April.

Hitter of the Month

There was only one player really in the running for this, and that’s the red-hot Rowdy Tellez. After a slow start to the season saw him hitting just .147 through April 12, he’s caught fire, hitting eight home runs since. His slash line now sits at .247/.333/.553, which adds up to a .910 OPS in the month of April. He has hit successfully against both left- and right-handed pitchers so far, and has really dialed in with runners in scoring position, to the tune of a 1.052 OPS.

Coming into the year, his underlying stats from last season, particularly a .219 BABIP, showed there was likely more performance to come from Tellez, especially with the removal of the shift. He’s being very patient so far in waiting for his pitch, taking a lot of pitches and then barreling the ball with regularity when he gets a mistake, with an average exit velocity of 101 miles per hour on middle-middle pitches so far this year. He’s also swinging less often at pitches out of the zone, compared to last season. He’s forcing pitchers into the strike zone, and then making hay.

He’s also been hitting more line drives compared to fly balls so far this year, which is one reason why his BABIP has increased, but as you can see below, his expected slugging numbers have been fantastic, showing the damage he can do and making up for his lack of range at first base. There’s no area where he isn’t able to hit the ball hard, and it’s why he’s been such a carrying force for the offense over the period in which Brian Anderson, Christian Yelich, Jesse Winker, and Willy Adames have all struggled to make hard contact consistently, as well as the dip from the Freshmen.

Honorable Mentions

Willy Adames

Adames has come into 2023 with a different approach. Although he’s failed to get particularly hot with the bat as of yet, he has significantly raised his floor due to his increased patience at the plate. He’s stated a goal of 70 walks over the season (his previous career high is 57), and with his current on base percentage of .345 he’s putting this to work. He’s still refining the approach, as shown by a significantly below-average whiff and chase rates, but he’s been a streaky hitter in his career and we’ll see the power come through soon enough

Brian Anderson

A healthy Anderson has shown just what he’s capable of, with a cannon arm both at third base and in the outfield coming in handy, but his bat has really shone. After some injury-plagued seasons, he’s been demonstrating an ability to drive the ball, with a 15.4% barrel rate and an expected slugging percentage of .458. He started the season very hot, mashing home runs and racking up RBIs to bring the Brewers some early-season momentum, and even though his strikeout rate has risen in the second half of April, he’s been an invaluable addition to the team.

William Contreras

Contreras had a 12-game hitting streak snapped to start the season, but his propensity to hit has been a vast upgrade on the recent production of Brewer catchers (although Victor Caratini has looked much more proficient, now that he’s not being worked to the bone). His framing improvements have garnered a lot of attention, but his bat has developed a lot too, with a strikeout rate in the 76th percentile, averaging almost 91 mph in exit velocity, and (as Bill Schroeder loves to tell us) utilizing that opposite-field approach very proficiently. He has a .382 OBP, almost a 12% walk rate, and with a lot of red numbers on his Baseball Savant page, it looks sustainable over the course of the season.

What do you think, Brewer Fanatics? Should anyone else be up for this award? Who can you see getting hot in May?

 

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[Jason Wang]

Caratini low-key been pounding at the plate too. Small sample size (just 27 PAs over the past month) but .958 OPS over that span is very respectable for a catcher.