Lots of line drives, and more Hard Pct than anyone else in baseball this year.

The top five in the Bill James Handbook (100+ PA):

Castellanos 31.1

JD Martinez 30.9

Yoenis Cespedes 30.5

Jose Abreu 30.4

Victor Martinez 30.3

This is strictly hard contact (as determined by BIS in what seems to be a proprietary formula "using exit velocity but also several other parameters") divided by plate appearances.

If hard contact is divided by balls in play, the top five become --

JD Martinez

Alex Avila

Colby Rasmus

Joey Gallo

Rhys Hoskins

Percentages not given in the Handbook but obviously much higher.

However, this second list is misleading; surely counting all the times the batter doesn't make contact at all, even though he tries to, is preferable.

Having said that, I have a question: should walks be counted?

For that matter, should sac bunts?

Wouldn't hard contact divided by plate-appearances-minus-walks-and-sac-bunts give a better idea of how often a batter makes hard contact?

He's been on of the most consistent line drive% hitters(6th in LD% over the last 4 seasons min. 1500 PA).

He was serviceable in April and just flat out awful in May.

Since June came rolling around, he's been fantastic.

According to Fangraphs, he is 2nd in all of baseball in Hard%, behind only Alex Avila!  Ahead of C. Seager, Goldschmidt, Judge, Miggy...

I just don't understand the GB% vs. FB% change.  Seems as if he didn't get the recent memo.

He will make it up Alex.  He needs to, for my sake!

Even after his huge night last night in KC (four hits, two homers, a triple, five driven in), his season is a little disappointing.

Plenty of time to make that up.

Some serious butchery committed in the field. His -2.8 dWAR in 2014 could be threatened.

A big disconnect after 13 games between his BABIP (.237) and G/L/F (38/33/30).

The Statcast averages suggest even worse luck.

Average exit velocity: 95.75 (MLB avg 87.77)

Average distance: 235.15 (186.09)

Average generated velocity: 8.88 (-0.40)

I tried to buy him in the ADL, but the Bags nominated him in the second round and kept bidding until I dropped out at 21. My consolation prize is I picked him in Doubt Mixed for the crazy mixed up price of 8.

Me too.

Recently from Anthony Fenech, Detroit Free Press: "Nick Castellanos is running better, thanks to a combination of his shape – stronger and lighter – and his mind-set, which shows a maturing player. Manager Brad Ausmus offered a strong compliment recently, saying Castellanos is paying attention to the small things that matter the most... Castellanos is the overwhelming favorite to hit second. He wants the spot and Ausmus called his improved baserunning “encouraging” in regards to hitting second. For a player of his ability, burying him seventh in the lineup seems out of the question."

If Castellanos is slotted No.2, then almost all of his projections are off, including Peter's. The guy is age 25. I'm buying.

Notes from Justin Mason's podcast today, where we talked about third basemen:

Matured as a power-hitter last year.

The injury obscures that, cutting his at bats, but it may
also provoke too much optimism. He strikes out a lot and doesn’t walk enough,
and neither of those things improved last year. His big improvement came in BA,
fueled by BABIP bump.

The power is for real but his BA is more likely to be .260
than .280.

Came to unspecified terms with the Tigers yesterday, avoiding arbitration.

Fangraphs thinks his defense was bad but it's getting better.

Baseball-Reference thinks his defense was bad and is getting worse.

Baseball Prospectus thinks his defense was okay and has gotten bad.

All agree he turned into a force on offense. Playing just two-thirds of a season, playing worse defense, Nick gets better total WAR scores at all three web sites.

As you saw if you were coming by here in December, he gets five picks and no pans in the soon-to-be-available Guide.