While Trevor Story has been the, umm, story, Tyler White has been just as hot this season
This browser does not support the video element.
While you were (rightly) paying attention to Trevor Story and his absurd six home runs in his first four games, you may have missed out on a possibly even more absurd and ready for movie-of-the-week story happening in Major League Baseball.
Because former 33rd-round Draft pick Tyler White has been a revelation for the Astros. After beating out higher Draft picks, the expectations scouts and evaluators likely had of him given his Draft status, and Jon Singleton and the Astros' No. 2 prospect, A.J. Reed, to get the Astros' first base job, White been putting up numbers that would look absurd in a backyard Wiffle ball game.
Through 15 Major League at-bats, White is 10-for-15 with three home runs and nine RBIs. Despite being a first baseman with a frame that looks ready to pound home runs, White was known more for his bat-to-ball abilities than his power potential in the Minors. That doesn't seem to be the case in the Majors.
While he will surely not continue hitting .667 with an OPS over 2.000 -- barring Major League Baseball actually becoming a backyard Wiffle ball game -- his performance doesn't seem like a fluke either. White hit throughout his Minor League career (.311/.422/.489), he hit in Spring Training (.362/.456/.553) and is hitting now.
The home runs haven't been cheap shots, either. He proved that on Saturday night against the Brewers, when he blasted a shot at a Statcast™-measured 427 feet that left his bat at 110.4 mph.
His other two dingers this year went out to center and right field, so it's not like he's simply been pulling everything and hoping for the best.
Even if White never hits another big league home run, he'll have quite a story to tell his grandchildren about. Given the way he's looked at the plate the last six weeks, it doesn't seem like he'll have to worry about that, though -- even if he's not a .667 hitter.