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Despite his lousy start last night, Luis Castillo is still having a terrific season. Here is one measure of it.
The statistic Contact% indicates the percentage of pitches on which contact was made when the batter swings. Contact in this context means hitting a ball into fair territory. It’s safe to assume one goal of pitching is to prevent the hitter from putting the ball into play when he swings. The lower the Contact%, the better. Let’s take a look at MLB starting pitchers and their contact rates. Here are the top 21 (FanGraphs), updated to include yesterday’s games:
21. Noah Syndergaard (NYM) – 74.4%
20. German Marquez (COL) – 73.8%
19. Sonny Gray (CIN) – 73.4%
18. Yu Darvish (CHC) – 73.3%
17. Trevor Bauer (CIN) – 73.2%
16. Charlie Morton (TBR) – 72.6%
15. Jack Flaherty (STL) – 72.4%
14. Matthew Boyd (DET) – 71.7%
13. Jacob deGrom (NYM) – 71.5%
12. Stephen Strasburg (WAS) – 71.3%
11. Kyle Gibson (MIN) – 70.8%
10. Kenta Maeda (LAD) – 70.4%
9. Robbie Ray (ARZ) – 70.2%
8. Lucas Giolito (CHW) – 70.0%
7. Chris Sale (BOS) – 69.9%
6. Patrick Corbin (WAS) – 69.8%
5. Shane Bieber (CLE) – 69.9%
4. Justin Verlander (HOU) – 69.4%
3. Gerrit Cole (HOU) – 69.2%
2. Max Scherzer (WAS) – 67.5%
1. Luis Castillo (CIN) – 64.7%
This is a good group of pitchers including several Cy Young winners. Last year’s leader in Contact% was Blake Snell (TBR) who won the A.L. Cy Young. The year before that Corey Kluber won the A.L Cy Young and finished second in Contact%. (Snell and Kluber aren’t on the list this year because of injuries.) In 2016, the Contact% was Max Scherzer, who won the N.L Cy Young. And so on.
It’s nice to see three Reds starters in the top 20.
Note: the gap between #1 and #2 on this list — Castillo and Scherzer — is the largest gap on the list.
Note: The gap between #1 and #3 is larger than the gap between #3 and #19.
If Luis Castillo finishes the season with a rate of 64.7% it would be the lowest rate ever recorded for a qualified pitcher.
