Starlin Castro just needed a change of scenery. Through two games, Castro has put up some impressive numbers, set a record, and won over scores of Yankee fans with a hot bat.
Castro’s early success comes as no surprise, as he’s long been considered a special talent in the league, and he also had a relatively hot spring. But his first two games with the Yankees have been downright historic. His seven RBI are the most by any Yankee player in their first two games in pinstripes. Sure, two games is a limited sample size, but the Yankees have had plenty of RBI machines in their long and storied history. Gehrig, Ruth, Mantle, and even Maris weren’t able to conjure up seven RBI in their first two Yankees games. Castro also has a batting average of .625 and OPS of 1.875.
This contact percentage heat map gives some bizarre insight into his success through two games.
With a relatively cool center of the strike zone, Castro has been punishing pitches up in the zone, and making contact with a surprisingly high amount of bad pitches. But he’s also making contact with low pitches. And pitches that are inside. So basically, he’s making contact with just about anything that’s thrown at him.
This ISO heat map, (ISO is a measure of a player’s raw power), shows Castro is converting all of his inside pitches into extra base hits, and has also been getting more power from pitches low and outside.
These heat maps paint a picture of a hitter with a very diverse zone, a unique taste in pitches, and the ability to make contact, no matter the location.
On defense, Castro’s first two games have been pretty pedestrian with two put outs and seven assists, (still waiting for him to turn a double play), but they’ve also been error free. A red hot hitter is a good thing to have on a team, but a consistently good hitter is a great thing to have a team.
If Castro can continue to make contact with pitches in his sweet spot, and increase his contact percentage with pitches right down the middle, he could continue to impress the Bronx faithful with some great offensive numbers, and meaningful contributions to important wins.
