Gaby Sanchez's Hot Start

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Gaby Sanchez is off to a hot start for the Florida Marlins.  He's tenth in the league in wOBA and batting average, and eighth in on-base percentage.  Sanchez has been equally dangerous against lefties and righties, with a .397/.396 wOBA split respectively.

Here's a look at how Sanchez's 2011 start stacks up against last season:

	AVG	OBP	SLG	K%	BB%	HR%	wOBA
Games through 5/24/2010	.279	.369	.442	17.9%	11.3%	2.7%	.357
Games through 5/24/2011	.326	.406	.509	13.9%	11.9%	4.0%	.397

	LD AVG	FB AVG	GB AVG	LD%	FB%	GB%	HR/FB
Games through 5/24/2010	.720	.250	.238	21.4%	41.0%	35.9%	6.3%
Games through 5/24/2011	.806	.213	.258	20.8%	32.9%	41.6%	12.8%

Much of the difference between the two starts can be attributed to the long ball. Even though Sanchez is hitting fewer fly balls this season, he's producing HRs at a better rate. From his heat map, you can see he's generating a ton of power on balls on the inner half of the plate.

The one issue Gaby Sanchez has had this season has been hitting changeups. He's faced 73 changeups this season with a 59.5% contact rate. He's yet to get a single hit off the pitch (0 for 25), while striking out nine times. If he doesn't work on picking up the change better, pitchers are really going to come after him with it the rest of the season.