[jamus23]

Alex Castilleja:

When one sims a league for many seasons, and at times, speeds through those seasons fairly rapidly, only concentrating on whatever team(or teams) one happens to control, it is very easy to miss things that are going on in the league as a whole. Sometimes you miss how good a particular player on another team really is. You might not notice when another team has an impressive run of success, or failure, over several years. A period of increased offense might not get noticed, and likewise, an era of depressed offense. Only when taking a closer look at the history of the league does one begin to notice these interesting little details. In particular, these Hall of Fame bios have forced me to that. They have forced me to examine almost every team in the league and what they were doing during various periods. They have forced me to notice a number of players that I hadn't really paid much attention to- and I'm not referring just to the Hall of Famers, either. To be honest, they have taught me quite a bit about my own league. The reason I bring this up is that I was recently examining the remainder of the "Group Four" Hall of Famers, and I noticed something interesting. This particular group of players happens to have a significant number of pitchers in it, compared to the previous group and, especially, the next group, in which there are no pitchers at all. If you recall, this group began with Manuel Reno, and I recently talked about Hector Soriano. The remainder of the group contains four more pitchers, starting with Alex Castilleja.

The history of the Rochester Rhinos can best be described as "frustrating." Rochester has consistently been at least decent, and sometimes quite good, throughout the history of this league, and yet they have long been second fiddle to Pittsburgh within the NL Northeast Division. In the early '30, however, there arose a player who the Rhinos hoped would lead them in an overthrow of the ruling Pirates. In the 2032 amateur draft, Rochester selected Alex Castilleja number eight overall. The promising 20 year old was assigned to AA to begin his career, and he quickly impressed, posting a 3.76 ERA in 21 starts, while whiffing 163 batters in 153 1/3 innings pitched. He was occasionally wild, as he walked 82 batters, but clearly, his stuff was electric. In late June, Castilleja was promoted to the big leagues. He made a pair of starts in July, but got knocked around for 7 runs in 12 innings. He also walked 10 batters. In mid-July, Rochester acquired another young pitcher with electric stuff, Vo-Gan Namboku, and Castilleja was sent back to AA. When veteran starter Leo Fronteras was lost for the season with an injury at the end of August, Castilleja would get another chance in the bigs. He made one start in August, and was effective, pitching 7 1/3 innings with one, unearned, run allowed. Down the stretch, however, he made 5 appearance, including 3 starts, and got absolutely lit up. He got torched for 28 runs, 25 of them earned, in just 18 1/3 innings, and he walked 22 batters. Rochester, meanwhile, were victims of the division-winners-only playoff format. Despite winning 93 games, the Rhinos finished a distant second to Pittsburgh, and then had to watch a 79-win Sacramento team squeak out a division win in the West.

The '33 season began with the Rhinos appearing to not know what to do with Castilleja. He was jerked around from AA to AAA and the majors several times over the first month or so. He made one strong start at AA, one ineffective start at AAA, and 21 dreadful relief appearances in April and May. In June, the Rhinos moved him into the rotation, and he responded with five solid starts, posting a 3.13 ERA. Control was still an issue, however, as he walked 19 batters in 31 2/3 innings. He then struggled badly throughout July and August before managing a somewhat respectable September. Rochester again had a winning season, going 88-74, but, once again, were well back of Pittsburgh in the division.

2034 was a strange year in the National League. Three teams(Hartford, Sacramento, and Portland) lost over 100 games, and four teams(Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Los Angeles, and Rochester) spent the year beating up on them, winning 90+ games each. For Castilleja, the season represented a major improvement. He continued to struggle with control, walking 126 batters, but his stuff was so good that it really didn't matter that much. He topped the league with 227 strikeouts and was practically unhittable at times. He posted a 4.00 ERA and was named to his first All Star team.

He had a major breakthrough in 2035, going 24-7 with a 2.26 ERA and 294 strikeouts. The wins and strikeouts both led the league, and the ERA was second. He was honored with his first Cy Young Award for his accomplishments. For the second time in four seasons, however, Rochester posted a winning record but had to watch a losing team make the playoffs. The Rhinos managed 88 wins, finishing in second place again, while Los Angeles captured the West Division with only 80 wins.

2036 was another good season for Castilleja, as he won 17 games and made his third All Star team, but Rochester slumped to just 70 wins because its offense was one of the worst in baseball. In 2037, that "one of the worst" became "the worst," as the Rhinos finished dead last in runs scored. But for one of the best pitching staffs in baseball(fifth in runs allowed), they likely would have had the worst record in baseball. As it was, Rochester finished with 94 losses. Castilleja was his usual self, winning 16 games with a 3.42 ERA and 281 strikeouts, but it wasn't enough.

Surprisingly, Castilleja had one of the worst ERAs in his career in the expansion year of 2038. Though, when 3.87 is one of your worst, you're pretty good. Castilleja also enjoyed his first 300 strikeout season. Rochester returned to being above .500, finishing with a record of 82-80. In '39, Castilleja posted the second 20 win season of his career and reached 300 strikeouts for the second year in a row, while helping Rochester to an 88 win season. Alas, 88 wins was only good enough for a very distant second place because Pittsburgh put forth one of the greatest records of all time, winning a stunning 125 games.

In 2040, Castilleja was simply brilliant. He went 27-4 with a 1.89 ERA and whiffed 363 batters. That strikeout mark set a Major League single season record that still stands today. The previous record had been 360 by the great Robert Jordan for Harrisburg in 2018. The 27 wins tied the National League record set by Jeremy Poss in 2029 for Sacramento. Naturally, Castilleja took home the Cy Young Award. Rochester, meanwhile, came its closest to finishing in first place since 2016(when the Rhinos finished five games out of first), coming up 11 games short of Pittsburgh.

Castilleja was essentially all the Rhinos had in 2041. Despite a strong season from him, Rochester allowed the fourth most runs in all of baseball and slumped to a 75-87 record. In '42, Castilleja reached 300 strikeouts for the fifth consecutive season, and Rochester bounced back somewhat to win 82 games. In 2043, however, the Rhinos completely imploded. Despite an outstanding season from Castilleja, one that included 17 wins, a 2.82 ERA, 288 strikeouts, and a no-hitter, Rochester plunged to a 64-98 record- its worst record since losing 100 games in 2005. The Rhinos tied for last place with Harrisburg.

The team wasn't much better in 2044, losing 91 games. Castilleja was excellent, but missed almost two months with an injury. 2045 was another tough season. Despite the efforts of Castilleja, Rochester finished in last place, losing 96 games. It was more of the same in 2046, as Rochester and Harrisburg tied for the bottom of the division, each losing 93 games.

In 2047, the team experienced a bit of a resurgance. Despite having little offensive help from a lineup that generated the sixth fewest runs scored, Castilleja went 23-7 with a 2.87 ERA, numbers good enough for his third Cy Young Award. Riding Castilleja's arm, the Rhinos managed an 83-79 record. The team remained solid in 2048, winning 84 games, and it was mostly due to Castilleja's arm once more. Castilleja went 21-9 with a 3.13 ERA, winning his fourth Cy Young Award.

Castilleja's last effective season came in 2049 at the age of 38. He was no longer the great strikeout pitcher he once was, managing only 154 in 229 2/3 innings, but he still posted a 3.45 ERA for the Rhinos. Rochester managed 85 wins that year. In 2050, he got off to a rough start, posting an ERA of 6.59 in the month of April. May wasn't any better, as he posted an ERA of 7.49. In early June, the Rhinos cut ties with Castilleja, ending a relationship that had begun in 2032. Towards the end of July, Castilleja was signed by Pittsburgh and made a handful of starts in AAA. He was added to the major league roster in September, and made a few appearances, mostly out of the bullpen, for the Pirates. Would Castilleja finally get a chance to play in the postseason? After all, Pittsburgh had not failed to win the division since 2016, and the Pirates might be willing to fit such a legendary player onto the postseason roster as a reliever. It was not to be. The Pirates were sluggish down the stretch, going just 5-5 in their final 10 games. Meanwhile, Hartford, a team often in the same position as Rochester(good, but not quite good enough), won 9 of its final 10 games. In doing so, the Whalers knocked the Pirates from their throne, winning the division by a single game.

Castilleja retired following that season. He finished his career ranking 12th all time in ERA, tied for fourth all time in wins with George Vives, second all time in strikeouts(behind only Robert Jordan), and tied for 10th all time in shutouts. Today, Castilleja ranks tied for 8th all time in wins, and second all time in strikeouts. And as I said, he is the holder of the single season strikeout record, with 363 in 2040.


Castilleja's stats:

Year    G  GS   W   L SV  ERA     IP   HA    R   ER   BB    K CG SHO Teams 
2032    8   6   1   1  0 7.65   37.2   41   36   32   35   25  0   0 ROC 
2033   43  22  13   7  1 5.65  165.2  168  109  104  100   96  1   0 ROC 
2034   36  35  13  13  0 4.00  225.0  186  109  100  126  227  1   1 ROC,NL 
2035   36  36  24   7  0 2.26  258.1  162   71   65  125  294  5   4 ROC,NL 
2036   31  31  17   8  0 3.29  202.1  157   84   74  111  227  1   0 ROC,NL 
2037   36  36  16  13  0 3.42  247.1  192  102   94  133  281  0   0 ROC 
2038   35  35  15  12  0 3.87  230.1  194  107   99  119  315  2   1 ROC 
2039   37  37  20  12  0 3.70  243.0  184  107  100  155  333  3   1 ROC,NL 
2040   37  37  27   4  0 1.89  271.2  169   64   57  118  363  7   4 ROC,NL 
2041   35  34  12   8  1 3.62  238.2  168  105   96  128  312  2   2 ROC 
2042   34  34  16   9  0 3.02  220.2  161   79   74  111  305  2   1 ROC,NL 
2043   34  34  17   8  0 2.82  233.1  173   88   73  120  288  1   1 ROC,NL 
2044   26  26   8   8  0 3.62  171.2  119   83   69   91  214  2   1 ROC 
2045   34  34  14   7  0 3.10  229.0  163   87   79  117  286  3   2 ROC 
2046   34  34  15   7  0 3.30  245.1  175   93   90   94  254  6   2 ROC 
2047   36  36  23   7  0 2.87  267.0  184  105   85   98  227  6   2 ROC,NL 
2048   36  36  21   9  0 3.13  259.0  209   99   90   75  157  6   2 ROC,NL 
2049   35  35  10  16  0 3.45  229.2  195  103   88   92  154  3   2 ROC 
2050   17  12   3   7  0 6.72   76.1   95   58   57   48   49  0   0 ROC PIT 
Total 620 590 285 163  2 3.39 4052.0 3095 1689 1526 1996 4407 51  26   
 
Career Minor League Pitching Stats
 
 
Year       G GS  W L SV  ERA    IP  HA  R ER BB   K CG SHO 
2032,  AA 21 21 11 7  0 3.76 153.1 133 70 64 82 163  3   1 
2033,  AA  1  1  0 1  0 1.59   5.2   5  1  1  6   8  0   0 
2033, AAA  1  1  0 1  0 5.40   8.1   8  5  5  3   4  0   0 
2050, AAA  6  6  3 1  0 3.12  40.1  43 14 14 13  55  0   0 
 
 
Career Batting Stats 
 
 
Year    G   AB   H 2B 3B HR RBI  R BB   K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS Teams 
2032    8   15   0  0  0  0   0  1  3   5  0  0 .000 .167 .000 .167 ROC 
2033   43   58   7  3  0  0   0  3  2  24  0  0 .121 .150 .172 .322 ROC 
2034   36   82   9  2  0  1   5  4  1  22  0  0 .110 .120 .171 .291 ROC,NL 
2035   36   86   8  4  0  1   4  7  2  39  1  0 .093 .114 .174 .288 ROC,NL 
2036   31   66   1  0  0  0   2  2  1  28  0  0 .015 .030 .015 .045 ROC,NL 
2037   36   83   5  1  0  0   2  6  5  33  0  0 .060 .114 .072 .186 ROC 
2038   35   77   7  2  1  1   2  5  2  35  0  0 .091 .114 .182 .296 ROC 
2039   37   88   3  1  0  0   3  5  2  39  0  0 .034 .056 .045 .101 ROC,NL 
2040   37   97  10  3  0  0   6  7  4  35  0  0 .103 .139 .134 .273 ROC,NL 
2041   35   74  11  4  0  0   4  6  2  30  0  0 .149 .171 .203 .374 ROC 
2042   34   68   5  1  0  0   4  3  3  27  0  0 .074 .113 .088 .201 ROC,NL 
2043   34   73   6  3  0  0   4  6  6  29  0  0 .082 .152 .123 .275 ROC,NL 
2044   26   53   7  2  2  0   1  3  1  19  0  0 .132 .148 .245 .393 ROC 
2045   34   74   6  2  1  0   0  1  5  30  1  0 .081 .139 .135 .274 ROC 
2046   34   83   6  2  0  0   3  1  2  29  0  0 .072 .094 .096 .191 ROC 
2047   36   90  13  6  1  0   2  7  3  34  0  0 .144 .172 .233 .405 ROC,NL 
2048   36   92   6  1  0  1   2  6  3  38  0  0 .065 .095 .109 .203 ROC,NL 
2049   35   72   5  0  0  0   2  4  4  28  0  0 .069 .118 .069 .188 ROC 
2050   17   26   2  1  0  0   3  1  2  13  0  0 .077 .143 .115 .258 ROC PIT 
Total 620 1357 117 38  5  4  49 78 53 537  2  0 .086 .121 .130 .251   
 
 
Player History
 
 
Drafted in 1st round, 8th overall pick, by Rochester in 2032...
Earned first career win on 8/31/2032...
Had first career hit (double) on 4/29/2033, off Pedro Cruz (HFD)...
Hit first career homerun on 4/26/2034, off Randy Pohlman (PIT)...
Was selected to the 2034 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2035, going 4-1, 1.80...
Was selected to the 2035 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 9/1/2035, going 5-1, 1.22...
Injured on 10/2/2035 with a Torn Tricep Muscle, out for full season...
Won Cy Young Award in 2035, going 24-7, 2.26 ERA...
Was selected to the 2036 Allstar game...
Struck out 15 batters against San Jose on 4/1/2039...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 5/1/2039, going 5-0, 3.24...
Was selected to the 2039 Allstar game...
Struck out 17 batters against Harrisburg on 8/13/2039...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 5/1/2040, going 4-0, 1.85...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 7/1/2040, going 6-0, 0.95...
Was selected to the 2040 Allstar game...
Struck out 15 batters against Hartford on 8/5/2040...
Struck out 16 batters against Hartford on 9/3/2040...
Set a new season NL-Record for Strikeouts with 360 on 10/2/2040 ...
Won Cy Young Award in 2040, going 27-4, 1.89 ERA...
Injured on 4/15/2042 with a Strained Back Muscle, out for one week...
Was selected to the 2042 Allstar game...
Pitched NO-HITTER against San Jose on 6/1/2043, striking out 14...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/2/2043, winning 2 games with a 1.06 ERA...
Was selected to the 2043 Allstar game...
Injured on 8/7/2043 with a Hyper Extended Elbow, out for one week...
Injured on 7/29/2044 with a Bone Chips Shoulder, out for 7 weeks...
Struck out 15 batters against Hartford on 5/19/2046...
Injured on 6/5/2046 with a Tight Elbow, out for one week...
Was selected to the 2047 Allstar game...
Won Cy Young Award in 2047, going 23-7, 2.87 ERA...
Was selected to the 2048 Allstar game...
Won Cy Young Award in 2048, going 21-9, 3.13 ERA...
Released by Rochester on 6/2/2050, refused assignment to minors...
Signed as a free agent by Pittsburgh on 7/28/2050 to a 1-year deal worth $340,000 per year...
Retired and inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2051.
 
 
Pitching Leader Boards Appearances 
 
ERA
2034 - 4.00 - 8th
2035 - 2.26 - 2nd
2036 - 3.29 - 5th
2037 - 3.42 - 8th
2040 - 1.89 - 1st
2041 - 3.62 - 10th
2042 - 3.02 - 3rd
2043 - 2.82 - 2nd
2044 - 3.62 - 10th
2045 - 3.10 - 4th
2046 - 3.30 - 5th
2047 - 2.87 - 3rd
2048 - 3.13 - 2nd
2049 - 3.45 - 6th
 
WHIP
2035 - 1.11 - 5th
2040 - 1.06 - 6th
2046 - 1.10 - 6th
2047 - 1.06 - 3rd
2048 - 1.10 - 5th
 
Wins
2035 - 24 - 1st
2036 - 17 - 9th
2037 - 16 - 8th
2039 - 20 - 6th
2040 - 27 - 1st
2042 - 16 - 10th
2043 - 17 - 5th
2047 - 23 - 1st
2048 - 21 - 1st
 
Losses
2049 - 16 - 4th
 
IP
2034 - 225.0 - 10th
2035 - 258.1 - 2nd
2037 - 247.1 - 5th
2039 - 243.0 - 6th
2040 - 271.2 - 2nd
2043 - 233.1 - 9th
2046 - 245.1 - 8th
2047 - 267.0 - 3rd
2048 - 259.0 - 2nd
 
K's
2034 - 227 - 1st
2035 - 294 - 1st
2036 - 227 - 3rd
2037 - 281 - 1st
2038 - 315 - 3rd
2039 - 333 - 2nd
2040 - 363 - 1st
2041 - 312 - 1st
2042 - 305 - 1st
2043 - 288 - 3rd
2044 - 214 - 7th
2045 - 286 - 1st
2046 - 254 - 4th
2047 - 227 - 2nd
 
BB
2034 - 126 - 1st
2035 - 125 - 2nd
2036 - 111 - 7th
2037 - 133 - 4th
2038 - 119 - 6th
2039 - 155 - 2nd
2040 - 118 - 6th
2041 - 128 - 5th
2042 - 111 - 7th
2043 - 120 - 6th
2045 - 117 - 7th
2049 -  92 - 8th
 
CG
2035 - 5 - 8th
2040 - 7 - 7th
2047 - 6 - 9th
 
SHO
2035 - 4 - 1st
2040 - 4 - 3rd
2041 - 2 - 7th
2045 - 2 - 4th
2046 - 2 - 10th
2047 - 2 - 5th
2048 - 2 - 5th
2049 - 2 - 6th