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Blue Jays mid-term report card: Grade Rowdy Tellez’ first half

MLB: Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Rowdy Tellez has had an up and down season,

He hit two grand slams against the Giants on April 23rd and one in Baltimore June 12th.

Month by month he’s been pretty consistent. OPS by month:

April: .745

May: .733

June: .705

So far July hasn’t been quite as good, .636 OPS, but he has time to bring it up to the level of the other months.

In all he’s hitting .228/.281/.440 with 14 home runs, 17 walks and 81 strikeouts. He also has a stolen base. Rowdy’s actually hitting better vs LHP (.268/.287/.500) than RHP (.209/.278/.412). I’d imagine it is a sample size thing, he’s only had 87 at bats against southpaws.

Rowdy is 2 homers behind Lourdes Gurriel for the team lead in home runs.

He’s going to have to hit better than this to be our first baseman when the rebuild is over. Personally, I’d like him to get as many at bats as possible this year, so we can see what we have in him. I’d likely give him first base nest year as well. He has a lot of power, I’m willing to give him lots of time to figure it out, I like guys with power.

And, it isn’t like it is all that tough to find a first baseman. So, we can grab someone, in a couple of years, if Tellez doesn’t turn out to the guy we need.

Tellez has started 34 games at first base and 36 games at DH. I’ve been fine with his defense at first. He’s made some good plays. He’s not afraid to throw to other bases. He’s made a couple of errors (his fielding average is right at league average). UZR has him at 3.4/150. I don’t paid much attention to ratings for first basemen.

He’s a very likeable guy. Maybe it is the name. Maybe it is the backstory. I can only hope the best for him.

Poll

For the first half I would grade Rowdy Tellez an

This poll is closed

  • 1%
    A
    (9 votes)
  • 4%
    B+
    (39 votes)
  • 14%
    B
    (119 votes)
  • 19%
    B-
    (167 votes)
  • 24%
    C+
    (211 votes)
  • 19%
    C
    (164 votes)
  • 10%
    C-
    (87 votes)
  • 3%
    D+
    (29 votes)
  • 1%
    D
    (15 votes)
  • 0%
    D-
    (4 votes)
  • 0%
    F
    (3 votes)
847 votes total Vote Now