Luis Castillo, Dean Kremer… Fixed?

Luis Castillo posted his best start of the season in his second outing with the White Sox (7 IP, H, 2 BB, 10 K). The largest tweak is that he’s backed off his slider against lefties. His usage is down from 30% to 5% in these two outings. Last night, he leaned heavily on his changeup, and it crushed the Reds lefties. He threw his changeup just 4% to lefties in June and July. It’s been 29% through these two outings. The more subtle tweak is that he’s using his sinker as a front-door pitch against lefties. In the heatmaps below, you can see the shift in location. Compare his catcher targets from his last few Mariners starts to these two White Sox outings, and there’s a concerted effort to set up inside when the sinker is thrown (this is a good example).