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Continuing on the series that began with April Powers Part 1, I showed you the top hitters over the last 3 years in the month of April with the caveat that they had to be “hot” at least twice. This week we’ll take an initial look at the top hitters from April 2019 and see if how they performed in the following months, and maybe catch a glimpse of what to look out for in Part 3.

In honor of Star Wars week, let’s take a page from Master Yoda. Always in motion is the future, difficult to tell. But to find our way there, we can start by looking at the present. After all, it’s impossible to know where you are going, if you don’t know where you’ve been without feeling under pressure. Right, David Bowie? They said it couldn’t be done! Yoda and Bowie in the same reference? Check. Now lets look at the board:

Name Season Apr wRC+ May wRC+ Jun wRC+
Cody Bellinger 2019 248 155 141
Daniel Vogelbach 2019 208 91 121
Christian Yelich 2019 207 124 189
Mitch Garver 2019 198 198 90
Anthony Rendon 2019 193 141 142
Hunter Dozier 2019 190 122 84
Austin Meadows 2019 186 193 53
Mike Trout 2019 174 170 182
Tim Anderson 2019 168 89 103
Willson Contreras 2019 166 130 120
Joey Gallo 2019 165 152 289
Trey Mancini 2019 164 90 139
Peter Alonso 2019 164 122 184
Brian Goodwin 2019 164 73 52
Paul DeJong 2019 163 95 67
Elvis Andrus 2019 159 37 88
Jeff McNeil 2019 159 107 163
Rhys Hoskins 2019 158 122 126
Yandy Diaz 2019 158 57 136
Jorge Polanco 2019 156 165 85
Alex Verdugo 2019 154 108 122
Shin-Soo Choo 2019 152 115 90
Christian Walker 2019 152 68 92
James McCann 2019 151 136 128
Nelson Cruz 2019 150 79 171
Yoan Moncada 2019 150 88 189
Howie Kendrick 2019 149 128 144
Matt Chapman 2019 149 127 143
Tyler Flowers 2019 148 41 103
Joc Pederson 2019 148 188 53
Gary Sanchez 2019 148 150 111
Clint Frazier 2019 148 83 126
J.D. Davis 2019 145 63 132
Luke Voit 2019 144 117 159
Aaron Judge 2019 144 169 120
George Springer 2019 144 207 107
Marcell Ozuna 2019 143 94 120
Giovanny Urshela 2019 143 125 75
Michael Conforto 2019 143 139 91
Carlos Correa 2019 143 134 78
Alex Gordon 2019 142 108 58
Alex Bregman 2019 142 157 138
Freddie Freeman 2019 141 149 166
Jason Heyward 2019 141 62 147
Tommy Pham 2019 141 146 101
Josh Bell 2019 140 213 91
Brandon Lowe 2019 140 115 117
Josh Reddick 2019 140 86 94
Michael Brantley 2019 139 156 97
Javier Baez 2019 138 124 92
Eduardo Escobar 2019 137 127 113
Max Kepler 2019 137 106 150
Omar Narvaez 2019 137 106 120
Fernando Tatis Jr. 2019 136 195
Tommy La Stella 2019 136 139 114
Ji-Man Choi 2019 135 75 126
Jarrod Dyson 2019 134 57 87
Mookie Betts 2019 134 115 102
Tim Beckham 2019 134 81 19
Edwin Encarnacion 2019 134 106 138
Josh Donaldson 2019 133 100 115
Marcus Semien 2019 133 81 122
Mike Moustakas 2019 132 118 151
Eric Thames 2019 131 90 189
Carlos Santana 2019 131 142 159
Ronald Acuna Jr. 2019 130 96 157
J.D. Martinez 2019 129 122 153

So the interesting thing here is you see the top performers in April of 2019 had many different patterns in the following months. The difficulty trying to find patterns is you have to be mindful of externalities (word of the day). A big one being playing through injuries or missing time altogether. Take Fernando Tatis Jr. for example; he missed all of May so it’s hard to say if he’s a rhythm player (ramps up each month with more exposure and working out timing like Carlos Santana) or if he’s a fast-starter with a May dropoff and a summer heat boon like Nelson Cruz and Yoan Moncada. Both of which have a clear pattern starting hot in April with a wRC+ over 140 for their career, and a noticeable drop in May.

Then you have rookies like Jeff McNeil, they hit the ground running often because no one has a book on them yet. Then there’s an adjustment period for the league, followed by adaption. Because of this, it’s hard to gauge what type of hitter a rookie will be until they get a few seasons under their belt like Moncada.

Which brings us to the breakout players; you may have noticed that Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich did not appear in Part 1. Bellinger did not break camp in 2017 and had a comparably rough 2018, whereas Yelich didn’t break out until the second half in 2018. They also serve as examples of nearly opposite profiles. Yin and Yang, Belli and Yeli. Bellinger after 3 seasons has shown himself to be a first-half hitter. His career wRC+ split is 149/129 with 2019 being a very loud example. Whereas Yelich has shown to be a second-half hitter with a career split of 130/144, but is still a little murky post-breakout since getting injured and shut down in September last year. Hmmmm, in redrafts one could draft Belli and trade for Yeli at the All-Star break and reap the best of both worlds.

And then there’s Javier Baez. Since his second-half breakout in 2017, he’s shown himself to be a first-half hitter which was compounded by a heel injury in June last year and never fully recovered from it. He had a .924 OPS before the injury, and a .797 OPS after it. I am looking forward to a healthy Baez in this shortened season after he was hitting .429 with 3 HRs in spring training before it was put on pause. His stroke and timing were once again ready for Opening Day in short order.

The final hitter I’d like to highlight is Michael Conforto. His career splits are 116/144, yeat April is always his hottest month followed be continuous decline until July. Which, he then gets a second wind for the home stretch. You could say he’s a 2-peak hitter, which there are many of. Many things could be responsible for that: the cycle of adjustments between hitters and pitchers, physical conditioning, and summer weather to a degree.

This is a quick outline for you to see that players can follow different patterns, and especially in Roto leagues understanding these patterns can help you maximize the production of your lineup and make savvy trades at ideal times. Next issue, Part 3, I will attempt to clear the bats from the belfry and dive in deeper. Digging for trends in batting profiles and player adjustments, we’ll try to predict who can be a fast-starter in “April” that might not have an established pattern yet, and maybe even why that is. Stay tuned!