What do you do when your skillset is undervalued by your era? If this question interests you, meet Julían “Big” Castillo, a member of the Cuban Hall of Fame and a valuable player who ran contrary to his time.
Castillo had a good eye and impressive power. Big could mash. Honestly, that’s the whole story here. Big could mash.
He explodes on the scene in his late teens in 1899 and essentially doesn’t have a poor showing offensively until age 30 in 1910. 1903, 1904, 1908, and 1909 stand out as especially strong seasons, where Castillo would be on the fringes of MVP consideration. He hit for a decent average–topping .300 in 4 full seasons–but his value really came from the rest of the offensive package: a well above average eye for the strike zone and high double, triple, and homerun rates. He wasn’t fast (an understatement), which limited his ability to leg out three-baggers; and while we don’t see him as leading the league in homeruns, he would be among the top-10 HR hitters in the 1900s with 47.
Castillo moved well on the basepaths for his size, stealing a surprising number of bases. His defense was never great, but it was merely average for most of his career before becoming truly horrific in his 30s. He played a few games in the OF in his youth, but was as close to a pure 1B as you’ll find in the NeL.
I would love to be convinced that Castillo belonged in the next tier of early power hitters. But I just don’t see it: don’t get me wrong, he was an elite hitter and probably a multiple time all-star, but also at best a borderline HoF candidate.
Future projections are likely to look similar. The challenge is what to do with 1910/1911, when Castillo’s performance totally tanked for a couple years. We have embraced that pattern, with a sense that he never really regained his spot as a full time player, despite bouncing back offensively from 1912 on. He hits well enough as a 31 and 32 year old that I could see an argument to extend his career past 1914, but we have conservatively retired him the same year he did historically.
| Name | Julían Castillo (Big) |
| ID / Status | castil049jul / Draft |
| Pos | 1B |
| DOB / i9s Career | 01/23/1880 / 1899 - 1915 |
| Birthplace | Havana, Cuba (Cuba) |
| Height / Weight | 6'2" / 200 |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1899 | 143 | 52 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0.364 | 0.435 | 0.427 | 0.861 |
| 1900 | 265 | 69 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 22 | 26 | 10 | 4 | 0.260 | 0.317 | 0.347 | 0.664 |
| 1901 | 405 | 116 | 20 | 7 | 8 | 28 | 35 | 14 | 6 | 0.286 | 0.333 | 0.430 | 0.762 |
| 1902 | 504 | 147 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 37 | 45 | 24 | 7 | 0.292 | 0.340 | 0.379 | 0.719 |
| 1903 | 516 | 174 | 26 | 9 | 7 | 38 | 55 | 29 | 8 | 0.337 | 0.383 | 0.463 | 0.846 |
| 1904 | 544 | 186 | 28 | 11 | 6 | 42 | 66 | 23 | 10 | 0.342 | 0.389 | 0.467 | 0.856 |
| 1905 | 579 | 158 | 27 | 9 | 6 | 52 | 66 | 22 | 9 | 0.273 | 0.333 | 0.382 | 0.714 |
| 1906 | 589 | 161 | 25 | 10 | 4 | 62 | 63 | 13 | 10 | 0.273 | 0.343 | 0.370 | 0.713 |
| 1907 | 506 | 130 | 23 | 5 | 1 | 63 | 52 | 20 | 8 | 0.257 | 0.339 | 0.328 | 0.667 |
| 1908 | 556 | 179 | 22 | 8 | 8 | 49 | 60 | 13 | 10 | 0.322 | 0.377 | 0.433 | 0.810 |
| 1909 | 535 | 184 | 30 | 10 | 3 | 72 | 60 | 16 | 13 | 0.344 | 0.422 | 0.454 | 0.876 |
| 1910 | 493 | 91 | 23 | 5 | 3 | 70 | 54 | 7 | 7 | 0.185 | 0.286 | 0.270 | 0.556 |
| 1911 | 427 | 122 | 22 | 6 | 8 | 75 | 52 | 9 | 9 | 0.286 | 0.392 | 0.422 | 0.814 |
| 1912 | 397 | 100 | 24 | 6 | 3 | 48 | 40 | 8 | 7 | 0.252 | 0.333 | 0.365 | 0.698 |
| 1913 | 360 | 76 | 21 | 5 | 3 | 44 | 36 | 5 | 5 | 0.211 | 0.297 | 0.322 | 0.619 |
| 1914 | 392 | 98 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 45 | 47 | 6 | 6 | 0.250 | 0.327 | 0.337 | 0.664 |
| 1915 | 273 | 62 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 46 | 33 | 4 | 5 | 0.227 | 0.339 | 0.293 | 0.632 |