Brewers trade for 1B Rowdy Tellez from Blue Jays

[MVP2110]

Went back and read the reactions to this thread, fun read

[LouisEly]

5 hours ago, MVP2110 said:

Went back and read the reactions to this thread, fun read

Hell, just the last page was priceless

[SomewhereInTime]

7 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Hell, just the last page was priceless

It's taken me about 15 years of first lurking and posting for the last 7 or so.  I finally realize Woah Solvdd was supposed to be "woes solved".

[liveforoctober]

Expanded: Drew Rasmussen and JP Feyereisen for Willy Adames and Rowdy Tellez.

Graded.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

28 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

Expanded: Drew Rasmussen and JP Feyereisen for Willy Adames and Rowdy Tellez.

Graded.

Don't forget that Bowden Francis went with Richards in that deal for Tellez as well. He's getting slapped around pretty good in AAA this year, but was added to the Blue Jays' 40-man roster, and has one MLB appearance this year. 

[LouisEly]

Odd thing about Tellez this season, he's been best when facing a pitcher for the first time and in clutch situations.

Of his 28 HRs, seven have come in the 8th or 9th innings.  Ten have come in the first two innings.

When facing a starting pitcher for the first plate appearance, he has a .978 OPS.  He also has a .968 OPS in the first inning, 1.225 OPS in the 2nd inning, and most interesting, a .939 OPS in the 9th inning with a sOPS+ of 170.  Even more odd about that 9th inning OPS is that it comes off of a .136 BABIP. 

[adambr2]

Not trying to dog on Rowdy but I'm confused that anyone would be doing victory laps over him any point, much less understanding the seemingly cult following that he has. 

Rowdy Tellez is the very definition of "just a guy." He's Daniel Vogelbach with a little more pop and a little less ability to get on base. 

He's simply another body in the long line of "nothing special" 1st basemen that we've been penciling into lineup cards for the last 11 years who do some things well and other things not so much. 

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

Not trying to dog on Rowdy but I'm confused that anyone would be doing victory laps over him any point, much less understanding the seemingly cult following that he has. 

Rowdy Tellez is the very definition of "just a guy." He's Daniel Vogelbach with a little more pop and a little less ability to get on base. 

He's simply another body in the long line of "nothing special" 1st basemen that we've been penciling into lineup cards for the last 11 years who do some things well and other things not so much. 

His value is providing ~1 WAR at a salary of <$2M, allowing the Brewers to spend their limited budget on filling other holes.

He's no All-Star, but the Brewers don't have any internal options that are superior and going outside of the org to "upgrade" will cost a lot more than $2M.  By simple virtue of budget constraints, the Brewers need guys like him who are an average MLB starter at low cost.  You don't need All-Stars at every position; you just need a handful of All-Stars and the rest of the team to be average to above average and not below average.

[adambr2]

6 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

His value is providing ~1 WAR at a salary of <$2M, allowing the Brewers to spend their limited budget on filling other holes.

He's no All-Star, but the Brewers don't have any internal options that are superior and going outside of the org to "upgrade" will cost a lot more than $2M.  By simple virtue of budget constraints, the Brewers need guys like him who are an average MLB starter at low cost.  You don't need All-Stars at every position; you just need a handful of All-Stars and the rest of the team to be average to above average and not below average.

He's fine for that role. The problem is we have an entire lineup of those average MLB starters at various costs and none of those All-Stars.

[Austin Tatious]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

He's fine for that role. The problem is we have an entire lineup of those average MLB starters at various costs and none of those All-Stars.

Our lineup is basically 6-9 hitters.  If you squint hard maybe you can accept Yelich leading off and Renfroe hitting fifth.  But there are no 2, 3, and 4 hitters on the team. It’s a dysfunctional lineup.  

[Austin Tatious]

Tellez is probably a stopgap just like every 1B we have had since Princie.  

[Frisbee Slider]

In 391 AB at 1B this year, Tellez has .811 OPS. This is #12 in MLB for qualified 1B. 
 

A few 1B ahead of Tellez are:

Matt Olson: .812 OPS, $15 million

Josh Bell: .823 OPS, $10 million

Anthony Rizzo: .830 OPS, $16 million

Jose Abreu: .830 OPS, $19.6 million 

Rowdy Tellez for $1.9 million is a more effective player than anyone on this list, dollar for dollar.

 

 

 

[adambr2]

4 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

In 391 AB at 1B this year, Tellez has .811 OPS. This is #12 in MLB for qualified 1B. 
 

A few 1B ahead of Tellez are:

Matt Olson: .812 OPS, $15 million

Josh Bell: .823 OPS, $10 million

Anthony Rizzo: .830 OPS, $16 million

Jose Abreu: .830 OPS, $19.6 million 

Rowdy Tellez for $1.9 million is a more effective player than anyone on this list, dollar for dollar.

 

 

 

I mean, ok, but OPS is just a shapshot of the total value of a player. Tellez may be comparable in OPS to Bell and Olson but not in overall production. 

[NBBrewFan]

Tellez is ranked 20th in MLB for 1B based on fWAR (includes baserunning and defense, both of which he is bad).  A typical Brewers hitter that is good/great in one aspect and bad in the others.  

[Frisbee Slider]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

I mean, ok, but OPS is just a shapshot of the total value of a player. Tellez may be comparable in OPS to Bell and Olson but not in overall production. 

Would you prefer Matt Olson at $15 million? My point is dollar for dollar, Tellez is a good player. Not a championship-caliber, MVP player.

[adambr2]

48 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Would you prefer Matt Olson at $15 million? My point is dollar for dollar, Tellez is a good player. Not a championship-caliber, MVP player.

Given that Olson is worth about 20 more wins over Rowdy over the course of their respective careers and it's not my money, yes, I absolutely would. 

I understand the Brewers need to have Rowdy Tellez types on their roster. But there is a reason Olson makes $15M and Rowdy makes $2M.

[SeaBass]

3 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Given that Olson is worth about 20 more wins over Rowdy over the course of their respective careers and it's not my money, yes, I absolutely would. 

I understand the Brewers need to have Rowdy Tellez types on their roster. But there is a reason Olson makes $15M and Rowdy makes $2M.

Logically you would have to evaluate literally every other position on the roster before coming to the conclusion Rowdy is the immediate player to replace with a high priced player. I'd probably try to upgrade 3B, CF, 2B, C & SS first. I just don't think 1B is a position where you should be spending big money unless you have a surefire Hall of Famer already on your team.

[Austin Tatious]

If you wrote in Tellez as your number six hitter with good hitters around him, we’d be fine. The problem is when he’s batting 3rd.  He’s not that type of hitter.  
 

[rickh150]

3 hours ago, Austin Tatious said:

If you wrote in Tellez as your number six hitter with good hitters around him, we’d be fine. The problem is when he’s batting 3rd.  He’s not that type of hitter.  
 

Absolutely.

Hiura 6, Tellez 7 Adames 8 …. Sounds good if we have better hitters at top.

[Jopal78]

It’s funny, Chris Carter had a better OPS with Milwaukee (.222/.321/.499) than Rowdy Tellez does this year (.229/.319/.471) and the Brewers dropped Carter after that one year. 
 

Let’s not kid ourselves, Tellez isn’t anything other than inexpensive. 

[Brewcrew82]

34 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

It’s funny, Chris Carter had a better OPS with Milwaukee (.222/.321/.499) than Rowdy Tellez does this year (.229/.319/.471) and the Brewers dropped Carter after that one year. 
 

Let’s not kid ourselves, Tellez isn’t anything other than inexpensive. 

And Rowdy has a better OPS+ due to the more pitching-friendly environment compared 2016. Rowdy is a pretty good hitter who is quite useful to the Brewers at his salary.

[reillymcshane]

Rowdy's bat offers some value, but a lot is negated by his mediocre defense and bad base running. And let's face it - unless he loses weight, he's not going to get better in those categories.

[Jopal78]

31 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

And Rowdy has a better OPS+ due to the more pitching-friendly environment compared 2016. Rowdy is a pretty good hitter who is quite useful to the Brewers at his salary.

A sub .800 OPS first basemen is not a rare find. Last year when the ball was still juiced he failed to get over .800 too. 

He was a guy with some potential that was blocked in Toronto. The Brewers smartly acquired him for next to nothing, but he’s shown he’s not really any different than Carter: a stop gap player that you look to eventually replace rather than build around. 

[Robocaller]

On 9/4/2022 at 8:59 AM, LouisEly said:

Odd thing about Tellez this season, he's been best when facing a pitcher for the first time and in clutch situations.

Of his 28 HRs, seven have come in the 8th or 9th innings.  Ten have come in the first two innings.

When facing a starting pitcher for the first plate appearance, he has a .978 OPS.  He also has a .968 OPS in the first inning, 1.225 OPS in the 2nd inning, and most interesting, a .939 OPS in the 9th inning with a sOPS+ of 170.  Even more odd about that 9th inning OPS is that it comes off of a .136 BABIP. 

He takes a breather in the middle of the game. Or it's just random.

Looking at his career splits, seems this year's results are just random.

[Robocaller]

2 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

A sub .800 OPS first basemen is not a rare find. Last year when the ball was still juiced he failed to get over .800 too. 

He was a guy with some potential that was blocked in Toronto. The Brewers smartly acquired him for next to nothing, but he’s shown he’s not really any different than Carter: a stop gap player that you look to eventually replace rather than build around. 

I wonder if this is a corporate policy. Assume there will always be halfway decent 1B available for next to nothing, so expend resources (draft picks, trade capital, $) in other ways.